Monsoon, which has locations in Capitol Hill and Bellevue, is arguably the best Vietnamese restaurant in Seattle for a special occasion. It sources meat from local ranches and serves Chinese-influenced Vietnamese dishes not commonly found in the area. Excellent appetizers include super-crispy imperial rolls, salad rolls made with raw ahi tuna and avocado, or a perfectly balanced green papaya salad. The wokked lamb — made with beans co-owner and chef Sophie Banh ferments in the kitchen — is fragrant with cumin and packed with umami, and the grilled pork belly is a perennial favorite. Check out sister restaurant Ba Bar closer to the center of Capitol Hill for a more casual experience and a satisfying oxtail pho.

A shining star in Seattle’s constellation of impressive bagel spots, Rubinstein distinguishes itself with creative flavors that avoid veering into novelty territory. A chocolate and cherry number offers a refined counter to the classic cinnamon raisin, and cacio e pepe is the upgrade from basic asiago you didn’t know you needed. In addition to a spread of spreads, the bagel shop also offers an array of breakfast and lunch sandwiches, and the bacon, egg, and cheese is stellar. The Hill location is compact, with a few tables out on the sidewalk that are hot commodities come summer. But just a short walk from Cal Anderson and Volunteer Park, it lends itself beautifully to a grab-and-go-picnic situation. 

Uttam Mukherjee and Aakanksha Sinha’s Indian street food business, which started as a farmer’s market stall and now has two locations, in Capitol Hill and Ballard, serves kathi rolls made with roti wrapped around piles of paneer, potato, spicy chicken, and juicy lamb kebabs, whose rich flavors pair perfectly with a tangy mango lassi. Though it might seem like the obvious choice, the chicken kathi roll stands out for its complex, balanced flavors. The business also serves a variety of chaat, out of which the aloo tikki chaat with tangy-sweet sauces made with yogurt, cilantro, and tamarind, is a must-try. Spice Waala also has soft-serve ice cream with Indian-inspired flavors like rose-cardamom and pistachio-cardamom.

This intimate sushi counter tucked away inside Capitol Hill’s Broadway Alley has an array of offerings besides seafood for its artful multicourse tasting menu, but master chef Hideaki Taneda’s Edomae-style sushi preparations are the main event. Each seasonal dish is lovingly crafted and presented like mini gifts, a one-of-a-kind experience in a city with plenty of competition.

Hiding inside Capitol Hill’s Hillcrest Market, this Mexico City-style taqueria is a true gem, with a full-fledged restaurant on First Hill now. Among the highlights are the campechano, featuring chorizo, steak, and potato, as well as a satisfying vegan taco with mushrooms, refried beans, and guajillo chili.

Kedai Makan offers some of the only Malaysian food in the Seattle area, and its new digs in Capitol Hill are packed late into the evening with diners scooping curry with roti and sharing piles of spicy fried chicken wings. New owners Joe and Lucy Ye, of Taiwanese street food joint Hangry Panda and the late Money Frog, scooped up the Seattle institution from its previous proprietors following the closure of its original location in October 2022. The menu, including the creative cocktail list infused with Southeast Asian ingredients like lime leaf and pandan, remains much the same, though the Yes have added a lunch service. And unlike the Kedai Makan of the past, the new iteration takes a limited number of reservations. 

More than 10 years in and this romantic trattoria on Capitol Hill continues to entrance diners with food from Italy’s Piedmont region. The nest of delicate tajarin pasta with butter and sage sauce is a Seattle comfort food mainstay, but every pasta dish from chef Stuart Lane is memorable. Those who want to extend their meals should head over to sibling apertivo bar Artusi for a nightcap.

This airy, boisterous Greek restaurant offers a variety of wonderful seafood dishes, including whole grilled Mediterranean sea bass and octopus, plus killer tzatziki (and a wonderfully flaky baklava for dessert). Many of the plates can be shared family-style, with generous portions, and drinkers who don’t mind a little kick should order up some ouzo to round out the experience.

This Indo-Pakistani-Texan food pop-up landed a brick-and-mortar location in Capitol Hill in 2021. Chef Nasir Zubair and his wife Nicole Greenwald have filled out the dinner menu with offerings like aloo sliders, tadka dahl, and kheema — halal ground beef simmered with spices and sweet green peas. The menu is inspired by Zubair’s Pakistani and African American ancestry and his upbringing in Texas.

Colorful, vibrant dishes fill the menu at chef Tamara Murphy’s farm-to-table restaurant, from the pan roasted morel mushrooms with grilled asparagus and duck egg to the roast pig with manila clams. There’s paella on Mondays, and a partnership with the Food Is Love Project to feed those in need. Those who are able to nab a seat on the lush rooftop are in for some great scenery, too.

Melrose Avenue’s Middle Eastern restaurant (with a fast-casual offshoot called Mamnoon Street) features dishes influenced by owner Wassef Haroun’s Lebanese upbringing. The pitas are among the city’s best, the baba ganoush is sublime, and the cocktails hit the spot.

The low-key ramen counter above the QFC on Harvard Avenue serves some seriously terrific bowls of soup, with silky broths and noodles that soak up the flavor nicely. The shoyu variety is a favorite, but for those that don’t mind a little more heat, the spicy kotteri ramen certainly delivers.

La Dive is the only place in Seattle (or probably in any city) where you can down a champagne bong (chambong) full of French brut or sip on a glass of local pet-nat while snacking on potato and onion dumplings with red chili walnut butter, then moving on to glass after glass of espresso martini slushy. Just like the neighborhood around it, it’s eclectic, hedonistic, and refined all at the same time.

This cozy Italian restaurant located inside a former auto body serves rustic Emilia-Romagna-influenced dishes from chef Sabrina Tinsley. The gnocco fritto (fried bread puffs) are the perfect start to a meal, best followed with the tagliatelle in a white truffle butter sauce. The tiramisu, a family recipe, is one of the best in the city, with a simultaneously rich and light velvety texture.

Chef Renee Erickson’s Frenchified steakhouse is a prime destination for meat lovers, with a dedication to whole animal butchery and local sourcing. The airy, Parisian bistro vibe is also a welcome departure from the stodgy steakhouses of the past, and neighboring Boat Bar (formerly called Bar Mesuline) is not a bad spot to grab a pre- or post-dinner drink. The restaurant got a shoutout in The New York Times for its sustainable sourcing from Carman Ranch in Oregon and for dry-aging unusual cuts of meat to make them palatable, reducing waste in the process.

This Galician tapas bar in Capitol Hill offers gorgeous, gussied-up takes on classic Spanish dishes. The owner, Grayson Corrales, was the pastry chef at JuneBaby before spending a couple of years training at a two-Michelin-starred restaurant in Spain. The menu includes Spanish cured meats and cheeses, Spanish pork steak cooked with Galician cider sauce, braised oxtail with broken spaghetti, and of course, patatas bravas and croquettes. The wine comes from Spain and Washington, the cocktails are intricate, and Estrella Galicia beer flows from the tap.