SEAGuide

The Hit List: New Seattle Restaurants To Try Right Now

We checked out these new restaurants and loved them.
The Hit List: New Seattle Restaurants To Try Right Now image

photo credit: Melissa Zink

When new restaurants open, we check them out. This means that we subject our stomachs and social lives to the good, the bad, and more often than not, the perfectly fine. And every once in a while, a new spot makes us feel like a geography nerd at that Pike Place map store. When that happens, we add it here, to The Hit List. 

The Hit List is where you’ll find all of the best new restaurants in Seattle. As long as it opened within the past several months and we’re still talking about it, it’s on this guide. The latest addition might be a buzzy new omakase spot that slaps gold leaf on every piece of fish. Or it might be an under-the-radar lunch counter where a few dollars will get something wonderful and unexpected.

Keep tabs on the Hit List and you will always know just which new restaurants you should be eating at right now.

New to the Hit List (3/27): Ginger & Scallion, Daeho Kalbijjim

THE SPOTS

photo credit: Ginger & Scallion

Thai

Phinney Ridge

$$$$Perfect For:Casual Weeknight DinnerKeeping It Kind Of HealthyGluten-Free OptionsQuiet Meals
Earn 3x points with your sapphire card

Ginger & Scallion knows poultry and grains like Bruce Springsteen knows New Jersey. This bare-bones Phinney Ridge spot with a handful of tables has quickly become one of the best casual weeknight dinner options in town. That’s thanks to a short menu of poached Hainanese chicken, schmaltzy rice, and add-ons like tart cucumber salad or fried skins. Not one morsel of meat is dry—cold-on-purpose hunks of drunken chicken are plump and biting from a rice wine soak, while shreds of moist white meat sauced with tangy curry take a sizable slap of heat from chili crisp. Yeah, having a strong hankering for chicken and rice from the get-go is a prerequisite for enjoying a meal here, but if anything’s going to get us in the mood, it’s this place, which is perfect for a mellow midweek meal with a friend.

If you see a long line in the Seattle area, it’s probably filled with tourists (cough cough, original Starbucks location). But Daeho is one big exception—for good reason. This wildly popular San Francisco Korean chain opened a Bellevue outpost and has even locals waiting two hours for their kalbijjim at prime dinner hours. The giant $79 skillet (which could feed five people) is overflowing with tender short rib meat that falls apart like it just watched A Walk To Remember, chunky carrots, and softened potatoes in a rich gochugaru sauce. It’s hearty and comforting, and even better when ordered with rice cakes and a mountain of melty cheese on top that gets blowtorched tableside. It’s best to get here early (before they open for dinner at 4:30) to avoid those crowds. 

Any Italian wine bar can serve spritzes alongside appetizers that merely require assembly—like burrata and cured meats—but Renee Erickson’s (you know, that chef with the oyster empire) newest spot in Phinney Ridge makes aperitivo hour actually exciting. Spritzes are infused with buddha’s hand. Lemon-oiled burrata is served with ciabatta toast that absorbs stracciatella like a sponge. And prosciutto is shaved thinner than parchment paper. Though, Lioness doesn’t stop at fancy snacks. You can build a full meal with things like buttery cavatelli, an excellent (albeit solitary) meatball, and clams swimming in anise-kicked broth we’d swig by the gallon. To have that in a galley-style space with a marble standing bar, date night chatter swirling around, and some of the best small plates in North Seattle? That’s a win.

To say that we love the New York-style pizza at Stevie’s Famous’ original location in Burien is as much an understatement as the Sound Transit expansion taking “a few years.” And now, Stevie’s has a second counter operation happening inside Clock-Out Lounge on Beacon Hill. You can order the same great pies and slices, like white-sauced ones topped with crisp Italian sausage and caramelized onions, or the Normie Macdonald—a masterpiece where coppa, hot honey, and pools of fresh burrata all come together. And unlike the Burien spot, this place is big. There’s a full-length bar, booth seating along the walls, and a stage where you can watch drag spelling bees with a mouthful of sourdough crust.

photo credit: Nate Watters

We’ve been telling everyone about this Guamanian restaurant on Beacon Hill—coworkers, friends, and even our postal carrier. And that’s because Familyfriend is great for everyone. It’s date night for the couple at the bar splitting a kewpie-slathered smashburger that trumps Loretta’s (yeah, we said it). It’s dinner for the family of four squeezed into a booth passing around tinatak bowls with tofu and smoky eggplant. And it’s an after-shift dinner for our aforementioned mailperson who we’ve spotted with a cup of coconutty corn soup. This place isn’t a secret—expect a bit of a wait at dinnertime—but once you’re in, you’re met with warm service, excellent food, and your own reasons to spread the word.

Sure, Atoma is technically a fine-dining restaurant, but where this Wallingford place shines is in its appetizers. Like the “KFM,” Kentucky fried mushrooms with a paprika-spiced dredge. Or bouncy crumpets smeared with koji butter and fermented garlic honey that have the power to stop the table’s conversation. The space is a repurposed craftsman-style house, and with dim lighting, forest green walls, and Aesop soap in the bathroom, it's both special and cozy. Even though the entrees play second fiddle to the snacks, you can feasibly use Atoma as a great first date spot—if only for miniature martinis and farmer’s cheese-filled rosette cookies before grabbing a Dick’s deluxe on the way home.


While there’s no shortage of casual lunch places in the International District, you should prioritize Kilig. This Filipino spot from the folks behind Musang specializes in pancit and bulalo, and it all happens in a space with seafoam-painted walls and bottles of Maggi displayed like knickknacks. Come here with a group ready to twist kare kare dan dan noodles swimming in a silky peanut and tahini sauce, or get a five-star facial from steaming bowls of beef shank bualo. But it’s their sour tamarind-dusted singang wings that we can't shut up about—dunk each crispy piece in the sweet mango dipping sauce at your discretion. And unlike Musang, which can require patience and pure luck to snag a reservation, Kilig is ideal for an impromptu meal. (And some seasoning-based home decor inspiration.) 


A night out on Capitol Hill usually has a full itinerary—there’s the pregame dinner, the dive bar where pint towers start to form, the inevitable karaoke place, and, of course, the hot dog stand finale. Next time, just go to Donna’s. This new Italian cocktail bar by the folks from Rose Temple has the whole-night-out package. With tasty under-$15 bowls of pasta like curly mafaldine in a creamy bolognese, music loud enough to ripple your tomato-basil martini, and a gold disco ball spinning at the center, there’s enough fun and great food to make Donna’s the one (and only) destination for a rowdy Capitol Hill evening. 


Beast & Cleaver is a Ballard butcher shop that becomes an upscale restaurant after-hours, and it’s one of the toughest tables in town to book. Now, they’ve taken over the kitchen at Fair Isle Brewing, and the result is a second B&C location that makes this brewery special occasion-worthy. And don’t let the relaxed atmosphere and barrel furniture fool you—this food is serious. To pair with Fair Isle’s farmhouse-style ales are decadent confit potatoes, panzanella with corn and heirloom tomatoes, or pork rillette smeared on olive bread. And Beast & Cleaver’s famous 100-day-dry-aged burger is here too. Aside from being 99 days older than the budding Hinge relationship at the next table over, it has a heavy hand of ketchup, American cheese, and thick homemade bacon. Use this place for an upcoming birthday celebration where you can share fancy charcuterie and hand out burger wedges like Costco sheet cake.

Chase Sapphire Card Ad

Suggested Reading

Seattle’s New Restaurant Openings image

Seattle’s New Restaurant Openings

The new restaurant openings you should know about.

The 25 Best Restaurants In Seattle image

Meet our 25 highest-rated restaurants.

The Most Fun Dinner Spots In Seattle image

A night out at one of these restaurants will never be boring.

Infatuation Logo

Company

2024 © The Infatuation Inc. All Rights Reserved.

FIND PLACES ON OUR APP

Get it on Google PlayDownload on the App Store