American-style teriyaki (which shares only a name with Japanese-style teriyaki) has murky origins but one of its leading popularizers is Toshi Kasahara, who opened Toshi’s Teriyaki in 1976. The teriyaki he served then established the genre — slightly charred meat, rice and salad on the side, a sweet, addictive sauce. Most importantly, a filling teriyaki meal should be cheap: $1.85 back in 1976, or around $11 in 2023. You can find teriyaki nearly everywhere, which is sort of the point of teriyaki, but if you want to find the originator, take a trip up to Mill Creek, where Kasahara’s latest spot is.   

A salad, iconic? It is when it’s the most famous dish at Seattle’s most famous fine dining restaurant: Chilled romaine, olive oil, lemon juice, chopped bacon, a coddled egg, cherry tomatoes, croutons, and slivered green onions showered with Romano cheese, mint, and oregano. Though new head chef Aisha Ibrahim doesn’t emphasize the salad, it’s still part of the Canlis experience even as the restaurant has changed with the times.

You can get espresso pretty much anywhere in Seattle — including shipping centers and the dentist’s office — and the reason why is Espresso Vivace. Founder David Schomer wasn’t the one who brought espresso to Seattle, but he is widely credited with elevating the form through his attention to details like water temperature, the size of the grind, and tamping technique. In the ‘90s he trained a generation of baristas and wrote a book on espresso drinks that spread his ideas across the country. He even brought latte art from Italy to America. A trip to Vivace on Capitol Hill (its famed sidewalk bar is gone but its flagship location remains) is worth it for any espresso buff for the historical value alone. 

The Seattle dog isn’t exactly a delicacy; combining a hot dog with cream cheese and onion isn’t high culinary art. But there’s something about the creamy-sweet-meaty combination that makes the perfect food-truck meal. The dish’s origins are somewhat disputed, and you can get Seattle dogs all over the city, especially downtown. A particularly good one can be found at Dog in the Park outside of Westlake Center, which adds some cabbage to the mix. That counts as fusion cuisine, right?

“It is given to some men to know a love so profound, so pure, so all-enrapturing, that their spirits can soar to the heavens and their passions flame at the very sight of their consuming desires. I have been given such a love,” wrote the journalist Emmett Watson in 1990. “I refer, of course, to my ardor for the family Ostreidae. This seductive love object can be found, as a general rule, between tidal levels or in shallow waters along the coasts of all continents.”

Watson, who was probably paid by the word and it shows, opened Seattle’s first oyster bar in 1979, and when you walk in to this Pike Place Market hole-in-the-wall it seems like Seattle’s first oyster bar. Unglamorous, old-school, never crowded, simple. Just order the oysters, which come garnished with lemon and hot sauce, and enjoy a trip back in time.

On rainy days there’s nothing like a big warm bowl of pho, the noodle soup that’s ubiquitous in Seattle. Inexpensive, filling, and customizable depending on what sauces or toppings you throw in your bowl, it’s hard to find a bad pho. But one of the best is surely Pho Bac Sup Shop, owned by the James Beard–nominated Pham family. 

We’re not going to argue with you about banh mi. Everyone has their favorite place to get these Vietnamese sandwiches and there are endless varieties. (Ba Sa even has high-end banh mi for $16!) Our candidate for essential, can’t-miss banh mi, though, can be found at Saigon Deli (the one in Chinatown-International District, not the University District joint of the same name). The hard crust of the bread, the heat from the chiles, the meaty sweetness of the pork, the herbal hit from the cilantro — it all adds up to a sandwich that is somehow still around $6, even with inflation.