This Roosevelt Way standby serves a wide survey of Indian cuisine and has a large heated and covered outdoor dining area. The aloo gobi, okra masala, and Tandoori prawns are excellent, but the butter chicken is particularly worthy of your attention — enough food for two hungry people, with a creamy sauce that’s the perfect balance of tangy and sweet.

Diners come from around the city to Xi’an for one thing: wide, chewy biang biang noodles, made by hand every morning, at their best when adorned simply with chili oil. The pork dumplings and cucumber salad also make for excellent starters.

This U District biscuit shop offers the kind of folkloric biscuits that breakfast lovers dream of — warm, pillowy interior, crispy exterior, flaky bite. There’s even a gluten-free version. The “fast break,” Morsel’s primary breakfast sandwich, is a behemoth stack of eggs, fatty bacon, and cheddar cheese on a biscuit of your choice that’s smeared with savory tomato jam. You can also opt to grab a buttermilk biscuit plain with butter and jam on the side; there’s strawberry balsamic jam, chocolate hazelnut spread, and raspberry jam, among others.

This lively nook on the Ave has been an institution since Tom Suanpirintra founded it in 1994, and his spirit absolutely lives on here. The family of well-trained wok aces forge Bangkok-style classics with as much virtuosity as Suanpirintra did, expertly inciting flash-infernos from stovetops so blazingly hot they seem equipped with fighter jet afterburners. There’s so much flame, spark, and steel in the back that it looks as much like a foundry as it does a kitchen, and the ambience is unparalleled. The eyebrow-searing heat makes all the difference, imbuing each dish with a smoky char you just can’t get with weaker burners; even ubiquitous classics like pad thai and drunken noodles are a little different here. This spot only accepts cash, so come prepared.

Seattle’s first Native American-owned food truck opened its first restaurant in 2019 at the Burke Museum on the University of Washington campus. Its menu is vibrant as ever, offering fluffy fry bread tacos topped with 12-hour smoked pulled pork, braised bison, or vegetarian chili, plus wild rice bowls.

Thanh Vi is among a number of Vietnamese restaurants on the Ave,but it stands out for options not available at the others, like banh xeo (Vietnamese crepes) and tom nuong (charbroiled shrimp) served with spring-roll wrappers, vermicelli, and vegetables to make DIY rolls on a tray. The banh xeo, made with rice flour, coconut cream, and turmeric, has a wonderfully crisp crust and soft, airy interior and is studded with pieces of shrimp, filled with bean sprouts, and served with sprigs of cilantro and basil.

Please do not sing the babyback — okay, you’re already doing it. Fine. Yes, Chili’s (South Indian Cuisine) has a definite SEO problem, so let us say now that what you want at this Chili’s is the dosa. The crepe-like street food made from a fermented rice and white lentil batter is labor-intensive and still difficult to find in Seattle proper, but it’s been available here, and at the restaurant’s original location on the corner of 50th, since 2008. It’s most succulent with curried lamb, but the paneer and spiced potato version is satisfying, too. Elsewhere on the menu, the Special vegi thali or special non-vegi thali allow for easy sampling variety.

Korean Tofu House, as the name would imply, serves the best sundubu-jjigae (spicy soft tofu stew) in the U District, with options for various meats and seafood added in. Beyond the various tofu stews, the kalbi (beef short ribs) and kimchi fried rice here hit the spot. Rice, hot barley tea, and a variety of banchan is complementary with each meal. Note that there is a Korean Tofu House Express with an abbreviated menu on the Ave — it’s fine in a pinch, but the location on Brooklyn Ave is the one you want for a more leisurely meal.

This inconspicuous, seriously underrated spot just north of the University Bridge is serving some of the U District’s (maybe even the city’s) best Chinese food, with an emphasis on the cuisine of northeast China. The cabbage and pork dumplings are tender and juicy; the mapo tofu is balanced and packed with umami; and the chicken fried rice is some of the best in the city. Be sure to order the comically banal-sounding “spicy potato sticks.” Calling them the best fries in Seattle wouldn’t even do them justice.

Helmed by former London Plane operating partner Yasuaki Saito and Randi Rachlow (also formerly of London Plane, as well as Canlis), this waterfront shrine to carbohydrates has serious credentials and a wide-ranging approach. Both European and Asian baking styles are represented here. The pastry case houses exemplary strawberry cream cheese Danishes next to spot-on melonpan, tart and tender yuzu polenta cakes, and platonic-ideal chocolate chip cookies. And beyond baked goods, the made-to-order menu includes creative and more substantial items like an egg-and-cheese breakfast sandwich on a Hawai’ian bun or melonpan and an okonomiyaki-style tortilla. Saint Bread frequently hosts pop-ups, and opens up its wood-fired yakiniku food truck, Hinoki (paired with cocktails from Heave Ho!) on Thursdays through Saturdays from 4 to 8 p.m.