After almost 20 years of working in Seattle-area restaurants, Chef Rhabbie Coquia is finally cooking the dishes he grew up eating in Manila at his new Ballard restaurant. Inside Bunsoy, diners sip cocktails with Southeast Asian flavors like calamansi, pandan, ube, tamarind, and various tropical fruits at a long bar surrounded by palms in pots or snack on appetizers like pork lumpia, musubi made with house-made spam, and isaw (Filipino grilled meat on sticks). Entrees include brisket bulalo (stew), lechon porchetta with pork liver sauce, and a duck confit adobo, a dish which shows off Coquia’s French culinary training. Half or whole Dungeness crabs — sourced locally along with most of the other ingredients used in the restaurant — are served with a balaw sauce (fermented shrimp and coconut butter) and strewn with fresh herbs.

The laid-back Edmonds restaurant has an all-day menu of classic Filipino dishes with Hawaiian influences, such as bowls filled with chicken adobo, kalua pig, and pork belly sisig. There are also a selection of tropical cocktails to go, from whiskey and calamansi slushies to ube coconut milk tea with rum.

The Chicken Supply is the Filipino fried chicken restaurant of chef Paolo Campbell’s dreams, the business he always wanted to own during his many years working in Seattle’s fine-dining restaurants. The gluten-free-soy-marinated chicken here — wings, drumsticks, thighs, or 10-inch long cylinders of breast meat on sticks — crackles under the teeth with the puffy-crisp texture of Rice Krispies. And the tangy Filipino sides, like the soy-marinated vegetables and a cold pancit dish with seared cabbage and pickled celery, are made with twists, reflecting Campbell’s background: born in the Philippines but nurtured by the fine-dining kitchens of the Pacific Northwest.

At this International District shop, chef and co-owner Chera Amlag draws lines of customers for her delectable Filipino treats, like such as use cheesecakes and buko pies. There are also pandan lattes and durian white chocolate mochas, best paired with the cafe’s famed bright purple ube cheesecake. More recently, the cafe has started offering more substantial savory dishes as well, like arroz caldo and a beef mechado pot pie. And at night, the cafe transforms into a bar serving cocktails with Southeast Asian ingredients like calamansi sours and ube daiquiris.

The owners of nearby cocktail destination Knee High Stocking Co. run this Filipino takeout window, which serves up staples such as adobo, lumpia, and sisig, alongside Filipino twists on American classics, like an ube French toast with calamansi glaze. Plus, it offers single-serve to-go cocktails.

This is the main Beacon Hill market for people (including many local chefs) who want to stock up on Filipino ingredients, such as fermented fish sauce, which has a wide range of uses. But there are many excellent grab-and-go dishes perfect for takeout, including ube pastries, fried anchovies, and dinuguan, a pork blood stew.

In 2021, Hillman City’s nationally acclaimed Filipino American fine-dining restaurant restarted its intimate tasting menu dinners, known for their ingenuity, storytelling, and passion. Husband-and-wife team Aaron Verzosa and Amber Manuguid create inventive dishes that weave the narrative of their personal journeys growing up in the area and that of Filipino immigrants to the Pacific Northwest, combining a meal and a compelling history lesson in each 9-to-12-course sitting. The 12-seat restaurant is normally booked out months ahead, but there’s a waiting list on the website.

The Tukwila area got a treat in 2019 with the arrival of the iconic global chain, which dates back to the 1940s and has hundreds of locations worldwide. Max’s is most known for its fried chicken, but also serves dishes like pork hock crispy pata and a soothing pinakbet (vegetable stew).