Samburna is one of the Seattle area’s best options for Indian food, and is rare in focusing on well-executed South Indian cuisine. The owners of the restaurant grew up in Tamil Nadu, on the Southern tip of the Indian Subcontinent, where dosa is a staple, and the restaurant serves several excellent versions, including one that’s over three feet in length; all dosas are served with sambar and a variety of chutneys. The goat curry is also a must-try, and madras coffee with a milk-based dessert makes a nice end to the meal. Order Samburna to go, or enjoy a meal with quick service in the dining room.

This Thai restaurant, which started off as Fremont Noodle House in 1995, consistently offers some of the best Thai classics in town, served with carefully crafted cocktails in a restaurant space with a large outdoor patio. The yum tua fahk yow is a nicely balanced dish of prawns, ground pork and toasted coconut in a tangy-sweet coconut milk sauce, the papaya salad is funky with small dried shrimp, and the khao soi’s turmeric-heavy broth is restorative.

This Phinney Ridge bar and restaurant serves over 300 gins, a long list of house cocktails, and a shockingly good menu of New American bites. The steak frites here with a couple of appetizers and cocktails always hits the spot for a date-night meal. For something on the more affordable side, order the fried chicken sandwich (on a Seawolf Bakers bun) or the burger, which comes with white cheddar, mushroom marmalade, and poblano aioli.

This small Thai noodle spot, a sister restaurant to Pestle Rock next door, serves some of the best pad see ew in the city and a huge selection of excellent noodle soups and stir fries made with locally sourced meat, a rarity in Seattle’s Thai food scene. Diners can build their own noodle bowls (the clear broth soup with a pork patty and thin rice noodles is a restorative option), or choose dishes like guay jab, rolled rice noodles with pork spare ribs, tofu, and a hard boiled egg in a five-spice broth fragrant with star anise. 

This pint-sized restaurant (with just a few tables inside) next to a laundromat in the University District serves some of the best Chinese food in the city. The focus here is on Northeastern Chinese dishes, like the braised pork ribs potatoes and green beans, but the menu also includes dishes from other parts of China, and the fried rice dishes here are consistently satisfying. It also serves particularly refreshing jellyfish salad with cucumber matchsticks. Open for indoor dining and takeout.

Bellevue’s Dosa House is packed late into the night with people speaking Hindi and eating affordable, satisfying dosas and other vegetarian Indian snacks, but the restaurant is largely unknown outside of the Eastside. Most of the dosas, which all come with some sides, are only around $11. The potato-filled masala dosa is a good choice, as is the schezwan dosa, an Indo-Chinese fusion dish filled with what tastes like spicy chow mein.

This Lower Queen Anne (Uptown) Mexican restaurant receives shockingly little recognition considering the breadth and consistent quality of its menu. The red pozole here is deeply satisfying with big, juicy, tender pieces of pork, and the green ceviche is balanced and generously portioned. Go on a weekday lunch, and you’ll have the restaurant almost all to yourself.

Saigon Vietnam Deli has a longstanding reputation for quick, inexpensive eats. Banh mi options include pork, chicken, fish, tofu, and more, all around $4.50. The deli serves other grab-and-go items like fresh spring rolls and sesame balls. Though there’s no seating area, this busy deli is the definition of a hidden gem.

This Chinatown-International District restaurant, open until 2 a.m. most days, is a favorite among Seattle restaurant industry folks for its comforting rice claypots filled with sausage, chicken, bok choy, and other ingredients, and for its fried chicken — served with rice and gravy. The XO-sauce-covered green beans are also not to be missed. The intimate bar at the restaurant is the perfect spot for a shot, a beer, and conversations with strangers after a long shift. Despite being one of Shota Nakajima’s favorite restaurants in Seattle, Gan Bei is not well-known outside of the industry.

After five years as a food truck, El Cabrito became a brick-and mortar-restaurant in Burien’s Ambaum Boulevard in 2019. Chef-owner Leticia Sánchez started making moles with her grandmother in Oaxaca when she was five years old, and the years of experience show in the expertly balanced mole coloradito that pools around her pork enchiladas, and in dishes like the molotes (fried masa dumplings filled with potato and chorizo), drowned in smoky morita pepper and avocado salsas, all served on brightly hued ceramics. Sanchez also serves weekly specials like rockfish ceviche, and banana-leaf green mole tamales are available during the winter. There’s a few indoor seats at El Cabrito and a few tables on a covered patio behind the restaurant.

Wilfredo and Elvi Reyes opened the Seattle area’s only full-service Guatemalan restaurant in a Kent strip mall in 2019, which they decorated with bright photos of symbols of their home country: a yellow clocktower on an arch in the country’s old capital, the volcanic lake Atitlán, and the turquoise-colored national bird (the resplendent quetzal). Since then, diners have flocked to the restaurant to eat comforting pre-colonial dishes like banana-leaf tamales made with loroco and chipilín (both indigenous Central American plants) while upbeat salsa music plays. The Spanish-influenced, slow-grilled churrasco chapin strip steak, marinated with tomato and garlic, is one of the best steaks in Seattle, and the tostada topped with chow mein (a popular Guatemalan street food) provides a satisfying contrast of crispy tostada and soft noodle. The restaurant also serves Guatemalan breakfast foods, a comforting atol de elote, and fried plantains stuffed with a sweet bean mixture.