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Seattle’s Best Restaurants For Dinner With The Parents

Your parents sat through your elementary school stage debut as “Fern #2,” and now it’s time to sit through a dinner with them. Here’s where.
Seattle’s Best Restaurants For Dinner With The Parents image

photo credit: Nate Watters

Your apartment has never been this clean. That questionable layer of filth on every bathroom surface has been scrubbed down, you actually did your laundry, and you’ve swapped your impressive collection of treats from Uncle Ike’s on the coffee table for a decorative bowl of fruit and a soy candle.

Your parents are coming.

Whether a visit from Mom and Dad gives you some happy nostalgia or mild to extreme anxiety, you can’t escape the fact that you’re all going to need to eat dinner. “You pick the place, we’ll eat anything!” they say, yet no statement could be further from the truth. Plus, you feel a certain responsibility to make sure the people who raised you don’t eat a terrible meal. Good news: Each place on this list is generally enjoyable to be in and good for groups (in case your brother or grandma or significant other tags along). Plus, most of them take reservations. Godspeed.

The Spots

Pizza

Sodo

$$$$Perfect For:Kids
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Touring the Sodo winery and brewery scene with your parents is not a bad idea. Here’s an even better idea: afterwards, get some New York-style pizza at Nine Pies. Grab a table in the garage-like space and split some quality thin-crust pies with toppings like soppressata, homemade meatballs, chili oil, and pickled peppers. Your parents will like the fact that there’s a parking lot, and you’ll like the fact that the calzones filled with herbed ricotta are delicious (particularly when dipped in the homemade buttermilk ranch). Always get an order of the pesto breadsticks and cannellini bean dip for the table, and keep the wine coming.


Your parents want someplace quiet that has a decent wine list and isn’t outrageously expensive. And they want to eat good food, of course. Pair won’t make you compromise on any of those things. The picnic baskets, red gingham drapes, and acoustic guitar soundtrack make the dining room feel like a French country farmhouse, and the menu is excellent across the board, from the fontina mac and cheese to steak frites with compound butter and red wine sauce to the true sleeper hit of this place: gigante beans with lemon, feta, rosemary, and breadcrumbs.


Nirmal’s is a great spot for an upscale Indian meal with friends, a date, or, yes, your parents. Pass around excellent small plates like chicken tikka pakoras and spicy vegetable samosas, and/or get some curry and tandoori grilled paneer. Your parents will like the bench seating lined with decorative pillows, and you will like the Moscow mules. A lot.


So you moved to Capitol Hill, and your parents are concerned about “all of the chaos and loud people coming from that Unicorn place.” Show them that the Hill isn’t just a swarm of drunk humans plus the smell of hot dog carts wafting in the night. Single Shot is a very attractive space in a little corner of the neighborhood that’s far removed from the major nightlife intersections, and the menu has everything from seasonal small plates to fish and an excellent margherita flatbread with prosciutto.


Whether or not your parents are into vegan food, they’re going to like Plum Bistro - it’s kind of a staple around here, and it feels like a classy restaurant in a well-decorated yoga studio. The meat-free, dairy-free menu has some tasty entrees, like pan-seared creole tempeh and tofu piccata. And if the only vegan thing your dad has ever eaten is french fries, point him in the direction of the panko breaded buffalo portobello sandwich with homemade ranch. The cajun “mac and yease” is also an absolute must.


Some people go camping near a babbling brook with their parents. And some people skip that nonsense and just take their parents to a restaurant that has a giant picture of a babbling brook on the wall. Enter RockCreek, a slightly upscale seafood experience in a space that’s reminiscent of that glamping cabin your mom booked one time (then cancelled). Do some oyster shooters, or grab some small plates (we love the shrimp and grits with brown butter and serrano ham), and then you really can’t go wrong with any of the entrees. If you want the babbling brook scene to feel more realistic, get a whole fish.


Joule is a nice steakhouse serving Korean fusion food, and everything here is insanely good: think geoduck seaweed fried rice, braised octopus with hot bacon vinaigrette, and a ribeye with beef belly and spicy peanut oil. Sit on the string light-covered patio, order some steaks and small plates (don’t miss the corn, or the spicy rice cakes), and for the third time, assure your mom that you really do eat breakfast every day.


photo credit: Nate Watters

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If your parents love Italian food but have already been to Seattle’s usual suspects, take them to Raccolto. Order a few excellent housemade pastas (make sure the strozzapreti with bolognese is on the table), some small plates, and a couple of protein-heavy entrees, then enjoy the laid-back atmosphere over some cocktails and necessary family gossip.


Shaker + Spear feels like a designer furniture showroom with the lights dimmed low. It’s a little bit swanky, but you could still wear jeans and a concert tee if you really wanted. The service is excellent, there’s a big round table you can book if the whole family is around, and they serve a solid lineup of small plates (get the bruleed mac and cheese) and seafood, plus wine on tap.


Bar Del Corso doesn’t take reservations, and you’ll need to get there early in order to secure a table quickly. But despite that inconvenience, Bar Del Corso is the perfect parent-friendly spot for excellent Neapolitan pizza in a special occasion kind of setting. There are plenty of small plates like burrata and arancini (our favorite appetizer here), you get to cut the pizza with a personal pair of shears (just in case that’s something you’ve always wanted to do), and Perihelion Brewery nearby is an excellent place for a beer before or after.


photo credit: Nate Watters

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If your family is made up of ravenous carnivores, you need to bring them to the best meat mecca in the city. Bateau is home to excellent steaks, killer fries (fried in beef fat), great cocktails, and an off-menu burger so perfect your pop won’t even be able to think of a good dad joke about the window full of raw cow carcasses in an otherwise elegant situation: moo-ed lighting.


When your parents ask you to choose “a nice seafood place” for them to treat you to dinner and you get those flashing cartoon dollar signs in your eyeballs, Aqua by El Gaucho is the power play. All of the dishes, from crab-stuffed halibut to cedar plank-roasted salmon, taste like if wedding catering was actually good, and the restaurant is on the waterfront, which means great bay views. Eating indoors isn’t bad either - the vibe is sophisticated but not stuffy, and there’s a pianist in-house. If you’re about to introduce Mom and Dad to the person you will probably end up marrying and you need the venue to do most of the impressing, Aqua is a good choice.


If you’re actually on top of things and are preparing for your parents’ arrival weeks in advance, The Pink Door is the part-burlesque circus, part-Italian trattoria where you should absolutely take them. It’s smack in the middle of Pike Place Market, so it’s a prime location for post-sightseeing crudo, caesar salads, and incredible housemade pastas. An order of fettunta (fancy grilled garlic bread) is mandatory for the table, and get the fresh spinach lasagna to give your parents the best day of their lives (next to the day you were born).


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Suggested Reading

The Pink Door image
9.1

The Pink Door

You haven't really had lasagna until it's hit your table overlooking the Puget Sound at The Pink Door.

Shaker And Spear image

Besides being in a highly attractive space, Shaker + Spear also has excellent seafood. It’s a great spot for a nicer group dinner in Belltown.

Bastille Café & Bar image

Bastille is a French spot in Ballard that’s romantic enough for a date, but also works for a solo meal at the bar or group dinner.

Bramling Cross image

Bramling Cross is an excellent gastropub in Ballard where you could take your parents or a date.

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