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One of Seattle’s most popular Vietnamese chains appears to be scaling back. Green Leaf Vietnamese Restaurant — which has been a mainstay in the Seattle food scene for nearly 15 years — recently closed two of its four locations: one in North Seattle (inside the Asian Food Center on Aurora Avenue) and one in Bellevue. The original Chinatown International District and the Belltown locations remain open. Green Leaf confirmed the closures to Seattle Eater, but did not reveal the reasons behind them. One observer on Facebook took a photo that showed a notice of sale on the Aurora property’s front door.
Green Leaf has earned a spot on Eater Seattle’s 38 Essential Restaurants in the past, and is currently on the list of 18 noteworthy Vietnamese spots in the city. The original first opened in the Chinatown International District in 2005 and quickly found a following in a city that prides itself on its excellent Vietnamese food offerings. Known for friendly service, an extensive menu (featuring a fantastic banh xeo), and comfortable atmosphere, Green Leaf opened up a second location in the basement of Belltown’s Labor Temple in 2012, drawing praise from the Seattle Times’s top restaurant critic, Providence Cicero.
But more recent efforts to expand have evidently been less successful. Both the Aurora Avenue and Bellevue outposts opened just two years ago. And with the future of the Labor Temple up in the air, fans can only hope that Green Leaf’s imprint doesn’t continue to fade from the landscape.
