After a lost lease forced the Lee family to close their legacy teriyaki restaurant in Bothell, they reopened in a larger strip mall across the street with a new name and expanded menu. Now they’re also serving the kinds of Korean and Brazilian-influenced dishes the matriarch Lee would make at home — and can you ever go wrong with what mom’s cooking? True to form, it’s a menu full of understated but absolute stars: The kalbi here is exemplary, deeply savory from its soy and patiently caramelized onion marinade, and the basic-sounding “shredded pork” is so tender and juicy-rich with rendered fat and a just-right hint of citrus that it seems like it should have an honorific or something to indicate its excellence. (Shredded pork, Esq?) 

There are literally dozens of slightly funky neighborhood bakery-cafes in Seattle that are chill places to work remotely or decompress, but Loyal Height’s La Copa stands out for its savory pastries, which have a rotating selection of fillings. The mushroom-filled one knocked us back in our seat the last time we had it and forced us to take a five-minute break from work to appreciate it. The breakfast sandwiches are warm and filling and affordable too.

This Phinney Ridge bar and restaurant serves over 300 gins (the biggest gin list in the country, it claims), a long list of house cocktails, and a shockingly good menu of New American bites. The steak frites here with a couple of appetizers and cocktails always hits the spot for a date-night meal. For something on the more affordable side, stop in at happy hour for the fried chicken sandwich (on a Sea Wolf bun) or the burger, which comes with white cheddar and pork belly.

Kabul’s location on 45th Street makes it easy to notice on the way to I-5 and then forget about in the ensuing mind-numbing traffic. But this intrepid spot has been serving as Seattle’s only Afghan restaurant for over 30 years, with a concise menu of Afghanistan’s quintessential dishes. Ashak is a standout; scallion and cilantro-filled pasta dumplings are topped with rich turmeric-coriander minced beef and generously crisscrossed with bright tomato and mint-yogurt sauces. There are also a variety of enticingly aromatic stews, each served with kabuli aalaw, a saffron rice pilaf dish studded with carrots and raisins. All entrees are available in vegetarian form. 

The unifying theme of this map-jumping soul food/Creole/Chamorro joint is “chef Rodel Borromeo’s favorite foods.” It’s an irreverent approach in an era where ultra narrow menu focus is the prevailing expectation, and it absolutely works. There are too many standouts to name ‘em all: a roasted adobo pork sandwich, jalapeno-cheddar hush puppies that easily rank as Seattle’s best, decadent gumbo boosted with brisket and house-made bacon, fried chicken that can throw elbows through this city’s crowded poultryscape, we could go on. And heads up: It’s not even on the menu, but there is often lumpia available. 

This pint-sized restaurant (with just a few tables inside) next to a laundromat in the University District serves some of the best Chinese food in the city. The focus here is on Northeastern Chinese dishes, like the braised pork ribs potatoes and green beans, but the menu also includes dishes from other parts of China, and the fried rice dishes here are consistently satisfying. It also serves particularly refreshing jellyfish salad with cucumber matchsticks.

Bellevue’s Dosa House is packed late into the night with people speaking Hindi and eating affordable, satisfying dosas and other vegetarian Indian snacks, but the restaurant is largely unknown outside of the Eastside. Most of the dosas, which all come with some sides, are only around $11. The potato-filled masala dosa is a good choice, as is the schezwan dosa, an Indo-Chinese fusion dish filled with what tastes like spicy chow mein.

This Uptown Mexican restaurant receives shockingly little recognition considering the breadth and consistent quality of its menu. The red pozole here is deeply satisfying with big, juicy, tender pieces of pork, and the green ceviche is balanced and generously portioned. Go on a weekday lunch, and you’ll have the restaurant almost all to yourself.

This Chinatown-International District restaurant, open until 2 a.m. most days, is a favorite among Seattle restaurant industry folks for its comforting rice claypots filled with sausage, chicken, bok choy, and other ingredients, and for its fried chicken — served with rice and gravy. The XO-sauce-covered green beans are also not to be missed. The intimate bar at the restaurant is the perfect spot for a shot, a beer, and conversations with strangers after a long shift. Despite being one of Shota Nakajima’s favorite restaurants in Seattle, Gan Bei is not well known outside of the industry.

There’s a lot to love about Ciudad. We love that it’s open daily for both lunch and dinner, and we love the tremendous flavors that the charcoal grill imparts on both meat and vegetables. We love that you can order items like hanger steak, pork collar, shawarma-spiced shrimp, and mixed vegetables by the quarter-pound. Supplement your grilled items with small plates, flatbread, and a variety of sauces (think chimichurri, harissa, mojo rojo and the like) that reflect the influence that Spain, Portugal, Morocco, Greece, and the entire Mediterranean region have on the restaurant. Add in creative cocktails and colorful flourishes in the dining room, and you’ll be making excuses to go to Georgetown (one of Seattle’s most underrated neighborhoods).