If you’re a foodie who loves to travel, then you should add Seattle to your travel bucket list. Seattle has a ton of great places to eat, and the city is known for its seafood, fresh produce, and cheeses. Besides Seattle’s signature seafood dishes, the city is home to restaurants serving a variety of food from all over the world. So, if you’re excited to start eating when you get to Seattle but you’re unsure of where to start, this guide has got you covered with some of the best places to get breakfast, lunch, dinner, and of course, dessert in Seattle. This guide will also give recommendations for some cool places to check out in Seattle when you’re not eating. Warning: reading this is probably going to make you hungry.
Breakfast
The Fat Hen
The Fat Hen is a small neighborhood cafe that serves breakfast and lunch. A popular menu item is the Salmon toast, and this breakfast spot is also known for its skillets made with local cage-free eggs. These skillets are a great breakfast choice to warm yourself up on one of Seattle’s many cold and rainy mornings. After you eat some breakfast, you can visit the Woodland Park Zoo, which is around a 30 minute walk from The Fat Hen. The Woodland Park Zoo features over 300 animal species, and the conservation organization is famous for creating naturalistic exhibits that inspired zoos around the country. Tickets are $24.60 for adults and $15 for children. The zoo also recommends purchasing your tickets in advance for a specific entrance time, because there are limited spots available due to the pandemic.
El Moose
El Moose is an authentic Mexican restaurant in Seattle that prides itself on representing a variety of regions in Mexico. This popular spot offers a brunch/lunch menu from 9:00 am-3:00 pm with delicious breakfast type items such as the Sopes con Huevos and the Machaca con Papas.
Seattle Biscuit Company
The Seattle Biscuit Company has a restaurant and food truck location in the city, which are both locally famous for their delicious homemade biscuits. The menu features a lot of options for biscuit toppings, including sweet and savory choices. The extra fluffy biscuits served at Seattle Biscuit Company make for the perfect breakfast sandwich. The Seattle Biscuit Company is a 15 minute walk from the Fremont neighborhood in Seattle, a bohemian neighborhood with lots of places to shop, cool views of the Seattle skyline, and public art. Fremont’s most famous piece of public art is the Fremont Troll, an 18 foot tall statue of a troll located under the Aurora bridge, which is a popular place for both locals and tourists to take a quick picture.
Lunch and Dinner
Bakery Nouveau
Bakery Nouveau’s website boasts that its fresh baked goods can be smelled from blocks away. This bakery has two locations in the city, and it’s open Wednesday-Sunday from 7:00 am-5:00 pm. Along with its freshly baked pastries and other desserts, Bakery Nouveau also has an impressive menu with savory food, making it a great lunch spot in Seattle. Its savory menu includes pizza and sandwiches, all served on freshly baked dough or bread.
Pizzeria Credo
Pizzeria Credo is a popular dinner spot in Seattle that serves wood-fired Neapolitan style pizza and pasta. The menu has a large selection of different kinds of pizza all topped with homemade mozzarella. If you want to try the pizza here, keep in mind that the restaurant is only open Wednesday-Sunday from 4:30-8:30 pm.
The Monkey Bridge
The Monkey Bridge is a great place to get traditional Vietnamese food in Seattle for lunch or dinner. The restaurant makes sure to use fresh ingredients, because the founders believe that the use of fresh ingredients is an essential aspect of traditional Vietnamese cooking. The Monkey Bridge has a large menu including Vietnamese baguettes and noodle and rice dishes.
Dacha Diner
Dacha Diner is a great place to enjoy some Eastern European food for lunch or dinner in Seattle. You should be prepared to spend some time in Dacha Diner, you won’t be in and out, because everything is made fresh as it is ordered, but the food is definitely worth the wait. Dacha Diner is best known for its latkes and its different types of khachapuri, a traditional Georgian dish of cheese-filled bread with other toppings.
Dessert
General Porpoise Doughnuts
Another delicious place for dessert in Seattle is General Porpoise Doughnuts. These rich, homemade doughnuts are known for their fillings. There are a variety of doughnut fillings here based on the season, including different jellies, creams, and custards. After you’re done enjoying some doughnuts, you should head over to the Museum of Pop Culture, which is a 15 minute walk from General Porpoise Doughnuts. The Museum of Pop Culture is an interesting and unique attraction that Seattle has to offer. It houses exhibits covering a wide range of pop culture related topics, such as famous movies, video games, musicians, and more. If you’re interested in visiting the Museum of Pop Culture, keep in mind that you will need to purchase your tickets in advance because of the pandemic.
Molly Moon’s Ice Cream
Molly Moon’s Ice Cream is one of the best places to get ice cream in Seattle. The menu has 14 different homemade ice cream flavors, 4 of which are seasonal. A popular and unique ice cream flavor that is available year-round is the honey lavender which is made of locally sourced wild honey and organic lavender.
Hello Robin Cookies
Hello Robin Cookies is another great place to get some dessert in Seattle. Their freshly baked cookies include some classic flavors that are typically available as well as some seasonal ones. One of the most popular cookies here is the Mackles’more, which is a dark chocolate chip cookie with graham crackers and mini marshmallows. If you want to get a little exercise after eating all those cookies, you should head over to the Seattle Japanese Garden, which is around a 20 minute walk from Hello Robin Cookies. The Seattle Japanese Garden is a little over 3 acre garden located in the Washington Park Arboretum. You can take a walk along the garden’s paths to view all the garden’s beautiful details. The garden is open Tuesday-Sunday from 10 am with the closing time depending on the season. Tickets to get into the garden are $8 for adults.
Hot Cakes Molten Chocolate Cakery
If you love chocolate, you have to get some dessert from Hot Cakes while you are in Seattle. Hot Cakes started out by selling its famous molten chocolate cake at local farmer’s markets, but it has since opened up two permanent locations in Seattle with a variety of dessert options. The original molten chocolate cake is still their most popular menu item.
Lastly, a place in Seattle where you can get breakfast, lunch, dinner, and dessert
Pike Place Market
If you’re a foodie, your trip to Seattle won’t be complete without a trip to Pike Place Market. The market is the oldest continuously operating farmer’s market in the country. There are a lot of options for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and dessert here, which is why I couldn’t decide what the best category would be for Pike Place Market from the list above. There are a ton of great places to eat, but it also is a cool place to just walk around during your trip to Seattle. Pike Place Market is conveniently located within downtown Seattle, so there are a lot of things that you can do in that area of the city after checking out all the food that the market has to offer. If you’re not feeling too full to walk around after eating in Pike Place Market, you should check out Pioneer Square, which is a 15 minute walk from the market. Pioneer Square is known as Seattle’s first neighborhood, and it’s famous for its Renaissance Revival architecture, making it a cool area to walk around. While you are in Pioneer Square, you can do a tour of underground Seattle where you will see ruins of the original city blocks that were around a story below the modern street level before the Great Seattle Fire in 1889. A popular underground tour is Bill Spediel’s Underground Tour, but there are a few different tour companies offering underground tours in this neighborhood.
