After operating as a pop-up for two years, Wero officially became a brick-and-mortar restaurant in the spring of 2022, taking over what was formerly a gastropub called the Gerald, where chef Wes Yoo had already been at the helm. Yoo’s small menu comprises updated takes on classic Korean comfort food (Wero means “comfort”). Highlights include jeon (a huge, crispy pancake made with potato, kimchi, and mung beans), kalbi-marinated steak ssam, and jiajang dubop (roasted pork shoulder with mushrooms and vegetables in fermented black bean sauce). The cocktails shine too, like the luminous green sumnara, with vodka, soju, vanilla, coconut, honey, lemon, matcha, and ginger beer. 

Ballard’s Korean-influenced coffee shop serves wonderful brews and Instagram-worthy French toast, which has the perfect combination of crunchiness and sweetness thanks to a cereal-coated crust (options include Fruity Pebbles or Frosted Flakes). Those with a strong appetite may want to tackle the barbecue plate, with roasted pork, samjang, and various kimchi, or the Korean poutine.

What looks like (and is) an upscale bottle shop at first glance hides a wonderful secret: some of the best Korean fried chicken in the city. The menu includes standard Asian American fare like gyoza and broccoli beef as well, and the business was featured in The Seattle Times a few years back for its teriyaki. But the juicy, crispy Korean fried chicken is the star of the show here — and also perhaps the best deal in town, at only $9.99 for twelve pieces. The chicken is perfect for enjoying with one of the many local beers on tap.

This popular Shoreline restaurant has a widespread menu of Korean classics, with large portions at reasonable prices. It’s a good place to try bibim naengmyeon, offering diners a spicy mass of buckwheat noodles with daikon kimchi, beef slices, Asian pear, and half of a hard-boiled egg. And, yes, the kalbi and calamari are excellent as well.

This restaurant at the northern edge of Seattle is particularly popular for its grill-your-own Korean barbecue. Diners can choose from platters of kalbi (boneless, or even better, with the bone), skirt steak, brisket, and beef tongue.

At this James Beard Award-nominated Fremont restaurant known for its meats, diners will find short ribs with grilled peppers and kimchi (simply called “that” short rib steak). But there are non beefy options on the menu, including a delightful kombu-cured mackerel. The more casual sibling spot Revel also recently got a Fremont revival, and serves excellent dumplings, noodles, and rice bowls. Both are open for takeout and limited dine-in.

This restaurant's namesake dish (called seolleongtang in Korean) features a broth made from ox bones, brisket, and other beefy body parts, cooked for more than 24 hours. The “mixed” version is a treat with brisket, tongue, and shank. The spot is open for dine-in, but the soup is a comfort food classic that still holds up when reheated at home.

The casual Korean chain offers some of the best value for soondubu jigae (silken tofu stew). There are other solid items on the menu, but the soft tofu soup is the main draw, the fiery bowls filled with a choice of beef, pork, seafood, intestines, dumplings, vegetables, and more.

This new Capitol Hill Korean barbecue spot has launched a takeout and delivery service in conjunction with Pike Place sibling restaurant Chan. Items include corn cheese and wagyu soybean stew, as well as a chef’s choice of four cuts of assorted meats, either grilled or raw, with japchae, banchan, ssam, and pa muchim. It’s also open for dine-in service.

For over a decade, this U District mainstay has been a popular spot to indulge in soondubu jjigae, a spicy tofu stew. Even if the usual college crowd has thinned out due to the pandemic, it’s still worth the trip for both the soup and other excellent dishes, such as kimchi fried rice and beef short ribs.

Chi Mac feels like a good fit for the Ave (University Way) in the University District, offering a college bar vibe, crushable chicken wings, and Korean beer and soju. The restaurants batters and sauces its chicken with a refreshingly light touch, whether diners choose dry, parmesan-sprinkled snow wings or delicately glazed, crispy soy garlic wings. It’s open for takeout and dine-in service, and there’s a newer Bellevue outpost as well.

This Lynnwood spot is one of the more popular places for bulgogi (marinated meat typically grilled with onions and peppers). One of its specialties is ttukbaegi bulgogi, which comes with sliced rice cake, vegetables, and glass noodles cooked in beef rib broth.

Folks are doing some revolutionary fast-food work in a little hut in the Lynnwood H-Mart parking lot. The little sister of Everett’s Chop Express, the Lynnwood Chops only does bowls and Korean burritos, but not quite like their inventor, L.A’.s Roy Choi, does them. These are lined with white rice, like a sushi roll, then wrapped in a tortilla. Chops also ups its Korrito (Korean burrito) game by offering eight different fillings, including the Flaming Boar, with barbecued pork, daikon, cilantro, cabbage, and spicy mayo, and the Locosoba, with bulgogi beef, soba (noodles), scrambled eggs, cheese, cabbage, and mayonnaise. It’s a whole new level.