This new Greenwood cocktail spot (where the old Teacher’s Lounge used to be) isn’t afraid of a gimmick. It’s menu at launch included the Pisco & Paparazzi, a drink that comes garnished with a Polaroid of yourself drinking it — yes, the bartender comes out with a camera. Another concoction, the Kimcheech and Chong (an ingenious combination of mezcal, lime, orange, orgeat, peach bitters, and kimchi brine) comes with an orange peel rolled up and singed so as to resemble a joint, get it? But bartenders and owners Matthew Gomez and Matt Hassler are serious cocktail crafters and are doing seriously delicious work here. The Korean-inflected food menu from chef Amy Beaumier (the third owner) makes you want to make a meal out of bar snacks, included marinated mayak eggs served with roe, a kimchi pimento cheese dip, and pork and shrimp sandwiches on the bar’s own milk bread.

It’s baaaaaaack. The good news is that the twice-closed diner by the side of Aurora reopened in February; the bad news is the former 24-hour spot is now only open 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday. But Beth’s devotees will take what they can get, and this local legend is still serving its infamous 12-egg omelets alongside smaller portions of comfort food. It’s not spacious or fancy or pretentious or “elevated,” and thank god for that.

Couple Berk Güldal and Katrina Schult’s Turkish triumph Hamdi, an Eater Award winner for 2022, just transitioned from pop-up to Ballard restaurant, where you’ll find everything from meltingly tender hand-minced lamb kebabs and refreshing celery root soup kereviz corbasi to dry-aged goose with pickled chanterelles and local truffles cooked in full view on a charcoal grill or wood-fired oven. Turkish wine, cocktails, and non-alcoholic options like pickled beet juice play off the intensely flavored food.

Pike Place Market’s terrific but tiny Maíz now has a much-bigger sibling in Denny Triangle, where owners Aldo Góngora, his wife Angelica Góngora, and sister-in-law Roxana Martin are showing off their nixtamalized heirloom-corn tortillas alongside a wider range of specialties, from a complex pork pozole rojo and a dish of griddled barbacoa lamb, olla beans, and consomé at brunch to chochoyote caldo (a seafood stew) and a peanutty chicken mole at dinner. The fancy sit-down Mexican restaurant Maíz Molino, which means corn mill, also serves micheladas and creative cocktails like Whitexican, which you’d best believe also features freshly ground corn in the form of pinole, plus espresso, mezcal, corn liqueur, and almond milk.

The Lao Burger at Taurus Ox was so good that it deserved its own restaurant, and now it has one on Capitol Hill. The original burger is still one of the city’s best, with two beef-and-pork smash patties, taro stem, pickled onions, provolone, and jaew bong mayo to give it a little bit of a kick. They also have fried chicken sandwiches and burgers with more traditional American-style toppings. But if you haven’t had the Lao Burger, that’s what you’re ordering here.

Chef Heong Soon Park (Bacco Cafe, Meet Korean BBQ) has reopened Chan, his excellent Korean restaurant. The former Pike Place Market spot is now in a sleek space at the Paramount Hotel downtown, which used to house happy hour favorite Dragonfish Asian Cafe. You’ll find menu classics like bulgogi sliders, fried rice cakes, and Korean fried chicken; creative cocktails featuring the likes of Japanese whiskey, plum sake, and lotus root; and even lounge-only happy hour discounts from 4 to 6 p.m. Park also owns the Paramount’s Spruce Cafe.

Level 1 of Westlake Center downtown has a new food hall called Asean Streat, decorated brightly with colorful tablecloths, chairs, milk crates hanging from the ceiling, and large video screens. The name refers to the street eats that the food hall serves from food carts representing the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), which comprises 10 countries, so you can order from a centralized kiosk to combine the likes of Thai and Laotian dishes such as larb from Zaab Eli with Vietnamese from Phancy Pho.

Brendan McGill spent 2022 shaking off a pandemic-induced focus on quick-service and takeout. Following the success of Eater Award-winning Seabird, the ocean-to-table masterpiece that replaced his acclaimed Hitchcock on Bainbridge Island, he turned downtown’s Bar Taglio into Bar Solea in November. It’s not a massive shift so much as a recommitment to excellent Italian fare through a local lens in a lively dine-in space. As such, rush over here for pizza (Neo-Neapolitan, now); wine, antipasti, and aperitivo drinks like a creamy draft Negroni (the Nitroni); seafood (wine-cooked clams), and an exploration of vegetables and Roman influences (roasted carrots with garum, or fermented fish paste).

After showing proof of concept with a hugely popular pop-up, cookbook author Sara Upshaw has opened her highly anticipated gluten-free Korean restaurant, Ohsun Banchan Deli & Cafe. Expect about half vegan options among noodles, soups, stewed meats, and 10 or so seasonally rotating banchan, the kinds of fermented side dishes (like various styles of kimchi) that typically accompany rice at Korean meals. The counter-service spot in Pioneer Square also serves soju, wine, cider, and gluten-free beer in the evenings.

In Little Saigon, Pho Bac’s iconic boat-shaped restaurant has become the Boat, where siblings Yenvy and Quynh Pham are continuing to advance the city’s understanding of Vietnamese food. They’re doing so by prioritizing one incredible dish that they say represents how Vietnamese people eat at home: com ga, or chicken rice, which includes a pressure-fried chicken coated with fried garlic atop fluffy rice alongside chrysanthemum chayote salad and sup. Order it to go with some adorable banh kep, or Viet waffles, with the likes of caramelized pineapple and salty sesame peanuts, or dine in to have it with unique cocktails like a green tea martini with shochu, sherry, and fish sauce — garnished with an anchovy.

Acclaimed chef Dan Mallahan and his wife and business partner Jackie Mallahan opened their much-hyped Alki Beach spot in January, serving extremely local seafood sourced with the help of members of the Quinault and Makah tribes. This is a destination for anyone interested in what “Northwest cuisine” can mean, with menu items like pull-apart rolls served with shittake butter and rockfish accompanied by brussel sprout leaves, salsify, and celery root mousse.