Seattle food scene: Why — and where — you’ll want to eat there in 2018

It may be known for rain, Nirvana and the Space Needle, but Seattle is also a hidden gem for foodies.

The city’s dining community is carving out a niche by showcasing its roots in seafood and vegetable-focused fare.

Its unique flavors — born out of a wet climate, access to an abundance of shellfish and a prime Pacific Rim location — translate into fresh, light, local food with Asian and Hawaiian influences. That means plenty of salmon — especially the famous Copper River variety — along with Penn Cove mussels, Pacific oysters, Dungeness crab and local seasonal vegetables like wild mushrooms, sun chokes, kohlrabi and hazelnuts.

Diners can taste that difference in dishes like the Dungeness crab toast with fennel at Rider or charred broccolini with hazelnut dukkah and dill oil at The London Plane.

As the city gears up to host its annual Taste Washington food festival in March, its chefs said that it has become a must-visit in the food world.

“There is something about the Pacific Northwest that’s kind of, until very recently, has been slept on,” said Jason Stratton, executive chef of Mbar, noting that Seattle chefs espoused the farm-to-table ethos long before it became a buzzword.

“As a chef, you want the best of the best, and we’re really lucky in the Pacific Northwest to live in a place where all those things are close to us,” he said.

There’s another variable that has helped change the city’s restaurant game: Seattle’s tech boom has raised the bar and helped fuel a sea change that is bringing the city into the top tier of the country’s food scene, said Jonathan Fleming, the general manager of Rider.

“The bottom line is that there are more consumers,” Fleming said. “People are migrating to Seattle and they are bringing their own cultures. I think as the city is growing, the industry is going off in all these directions. It’s fun to see things evolve.”

You can’t talk about the Emerald City’s culinary scene without mentioning beverages: Starbucks, of course, was founded there, and a booming independent coffeehouse culture still thrives.

Ali Ghambari, restaurateur and owner of Cherry Street Coffee House, which has 10 locations throughout Seattle, said part of Starbucks’ success was creating living room spaces for customers outside of their own homes — a foundation for the city’s coffee culture.

“People are looking for places that make you feel like home,” Ghambari said. “Individual coffee shops that focus on that are bringing something that nobody else can do. It’s the love of what we do — and good coffee.”

Besides the city’s food chops, chef Tom Douglas, who owns more than a dozen eateries in the city, said Seattle’s success in the dining space is also owed to the city’s high minimum wage ($15/hour) and restaurant owners’ commitment to taking care of their employees.

“We are at the forefront of livable wages [and] health care benefits,” Douglas said. “And I know that that doesn’t always go with the word ‘restaurant,’ but sustainability isn’t just about the type of salmon you’re catching and how you caught it. It’s about how you treat your people.”

Chef-approved Seattle restaurants

They spend most of their time in the back of a hot kitchen, but once quitting time comes, where do chefs in Seattle like to go get a bite?

We asked some of the Emerald City’s top chefs for their current favorites:

Jason Stratton of Mbar: “I love Stateside and Foreign National. [Restaurateur and owner] Eric Johnson is a friend of mine. He worked with Jean-Georges [Vongerichten] in New York and traveled a lot through Southeast Asia. He is approaching Vietnamese cuisine as something that is pretty familiar with people who are from Seattle, but he’s presenting it in kind of a more refined element, really showing the roots of where modern Vietnamese cuisine is. Incorporating the French influence, incorporating the huge influence of Chinese cuisine in a fresh, clean way.” (Mbar, 400 Fairview Ave. N., 206-457-8287, mbarseattle.com; Stateside and Foreign National, 300 E. Pike St, 206-557-7273, statesideseattle.com, foreignnationalbar.com)

Brady Williams of Canlis: “Of the new places, I like Junebaby, [restaurateur and chef Edouardo Jordan’s] place. It has a lot of soul. You can tell he’s really passionate about it. It’s really tasty. And Wataru — I think it’s some of the best rice that I’ve had outside of Japan. It’s really, really good there.” (Canlis, 2576 Aurora Ave. N., 206-283-3313, canlis.com; Junebaby, 2122 NE. 65th St., 206-257-4470, junebabyseattle.com; Wataru, 2400 NE. 65th St., 206-525-2073, wataruseattle.com)

Stuart Lane of Spinasse: “I just had a really good meal. I went to Kedai Makan. It’s Malaysian. It’s so good. Our dishes are more butter, sage and garlic, and theirs are like lime, leafy greens, peanuts, anchovies. All umami things. It’s so good. A good restaurant for drinking beer.” (Spinasse, 1531 14th Ave., 206-251-7673, spinasse.com; Kedai Makan, 1802 Bellevue Ave., kedaimakansea.com)

David Nichols of Rider: “Manolin, it’s a wood-fired ceviche place. A small little spot, a husband-and-wife place. There are some amazing spots that are just tucked in some great areas.” (Rider, 619 Pine St., 206-859-4242, riderseattle.com; Manolin, 3621 Stone Way N., 206-294-3331, manolinseattle.com)