Food & Drink
Seattle’s 45 Best Global Dishes
Think globally, eat locally: The best spots for world tastes in Seattle
By Chelsea Lin and Naomi Tomky, with additional reporting by Rebecca Ratterman March 15, 2017
This article originally appeared in the March 2017 issue of Seattle magazine.
People—readers, friends, random strangers on the street—are always asking us for recommendations on where to eat. Up until recently, the requests were largely for seafood or burger places. Thanks to a growing international population, coupled with our city’s rich Asian history, we’ve finally reached the point of culinary diversity at which the questions are much more encompassing. Where do we go for Chinese food? Mediterranean food? Sorry, but you’ll have to be more specific. Where does one go for Ethiopian kitfo? Japanese strawberry shortcake? Polish pierogi? Thai khao soi? Those are questions we now can enthusiastically answer. Clearly, a whole country’s worth of cuisine can’t be boiled down to a single dish, any more than we can cover a world’s worth of food in 16 pages, so we’ve made some judgment calls and in doing so, had to overlook a few countries (sorry, western Europe). But we’ve pulled together some 50 recommended dishes from 35 countries, from restaurants located in a dozen neighborhoods in and around the Seattle area. So, you’ve got a pretty good place to start. There has perhaps never been a more important time to break bread—and cultural barriers—around the table. Itadakimasu! Bon appétit! You get the idea.
Seattle’s 45 Best Global Dishes: Chinese
Seattle’s 45 Best Global Dishes: Asian
Seattle’s 45 Best Global Dishes: Middle Eastern
Seattle’s 45 Best Global Dishes: Latin American/Carribean
Seattle’s 45 Best Global Dishes: African
Seattle’s 45 Best Global Dishes: Desserts
Chicken and Rice and Everything Nice
Follow Us
Seila: Cambodian Food, Served Haute
Canlis alum Kevin Top shows Seattle the fancy side of Khmer cuisine
The line is long in the back half of Stoup Brewing’s Capitol Hill location, but everyone’s chatting excitedly, even strangers with one another. They’re all united by curiosity, waiting to try Chef Kevin Top’s fast-casual menu of restyled Cambodian dishes, which he’s also been serving in a dinner party format as a popup called Seila….
The Lure of Lamb at Hamdi
New Year’s Eve dinner features special roast
I want a perfume of the air inside Hamdi. It smells like fire, black pepper, charred herbs, almonds, oak. I want to wash my hair in it. I want a little vial of it to keep in my pocket and inhale on the train. Open since late 2022 on a semi-industrial stretch of Leary Way,…
Blazing Birds: Why is Hot Chicken So Hot?
A friend and I were recently discussing the hot-chicken craze when he asked, “why do we need more chicken places? They’re everywhere.” It piqued my curiosity, and a little research uncovered some interesting tidbits. Thanks to Google, I discovered that the chicken wars began in earnest about four years ago, but its modern roots go…
Saint Bread Nabs Top Bakery Honor
The New York Times lists the Portage Bay bakery as one of the best in the U.S.
The New York Times has named Seattle’s Saint Bread as one of its 22 best bakeries in America. It is the only bakery in Washington state on the list. “There are few places more pleasant in Seattle for baked goods than this spot tucked by the shores of Portage Bay,” The Times’ Brian Gallagher writes….