The excellent fish served at Seattle restaurants is well-known. The atmosphere, as in the Walrus and the Carpenter or Melusine, or a stunning view of Puget Sound or the city skyline, as in Westward or Ray’s, may distinguish genuinely excellent seafood restaurants from the others.
Pike Place Chowders, for example, has carved out a particular and unique niche for itself that has earned them worldwide acclaim. And, like at Manolin or Seastar, it’s frequently the chefs’ talent that takes the wealth of the sea and transforms it into outstanding and unforgettable dinners, much as painters do with paints and canvas.
Certain attractions may be closed temporarily or need reservations in advance. Currently, some eateries only provide pickup. It’s possible that the hours and availability have changed.
Pike Place Chowder
Pike Place Chowder is one of those restaurants in Seattle that is included in every tourist guide as a must-see. As a consequence, the company’s main Pike Place Market location is packed with visitors eager to sample one of the eight types of chowder offered every day.
Samplers of five chowders are also available. Is it possible to call them chowder flights? The counter service and utilitarian, no-nonsense décor are unobtrusive, and although they just offer chowders and superb sandwiches, that is all they need to be America’s greatest chowder café and Seattle’s best.
If you become absolutely addicted, you’ll be happy to know that they now transport their chowders to any location in the United States. If you’re interested in the fundamental recipe, it calls for slow cooking in small batches with lots of fresh seafood and veggies, as well as genuine butter and cream.
Bar Melusine
With its white and green décor and a cuisine dominated by wonderful land and sea, with appetizers from Normandy and Brittany or grignotages, Bar Melusine is cool and contemporary French, with its unmistakable sense of salt marshes on the windy coastlines of northern France.
There’s a lovely white marble oyster bar with eight different varieties of oysters displayed on the blackboard, mostly from smaller farms in Washington State. Melusine seats 50 people in intimate two-person booths and huge communal tables that encourage conversation, generating a pleasant hum that complements the restaurant’s fresh ambiance.
Chef Jay Guerrero serves dishes including fried fish skin with fish roe and shaved sausages, as well as confit duck gizzard with smoked yogurt. There is an outstanding range of superb French wines, as well as some intriguing cocktails.
The Walrus And The Carpenter
If the simple decor turns you off, know that the huge lineups at this little Ballard oyster bar are a clue that the Walrus and the Carpenter offer excellent cuisine.
The atmosphere is lively, and the large zinc bar and charming outdoor patio area are ideal for slurping their excellent and extensive selection of cold oysters or nibbling on small but delectable plates like grilled sardines with walnuts, fried oysters with cilantro aioli, or black cod brandade while imbibing excellent wines by the glass, craft beer, cider, and fancy cocktails.
If seafood isn’t your thing, they offer a few meat dishes to choose from, such as fried pirozhki with chorizo, spicy quince jam, hardboiled egg, or some of their unique cheeses.
Fob Poke Bar
The poke obsession, which started in Hawaii, made its way to the Pacific Northwest in the early 2010s, and we’re still as hooked as we were back then. Fresh off the Boat, or FOB, is a tiny, energetic poke bar in Belltown that serves patrons build-your-own bowls of some of Seattle’s greatest seafood.
This is our go-to destination for a fast, easy poke with excellent quality and taste. Start with a base (we recommend FOB’s signature jasmine rice blend infused with green tea and coconut), then add a mix-in or two, choose from 13 protein options including ahi tuna, octopus, yellowtail, and eel, choose a house-made sauce, and pile on as many toppings as your poke-loving heart desires.
The good news is that this spot is seafood focus and even offers a seafood guide for great seafood tasting and salmon BLTs.
Sushi Kashiba
Sushi Kashiba provides some of Seattle’s greatest seafood, as well as some of the city’s best sushi. Sushi Kashiba’s experience and food are both highly genuine and memorable.
Menu items may be ordered a la carte, but the best way to experience Sushi Kashiba is to sit at the chef’s counter and watch Shiro, Seattle’s first and most famous sushi chef, prepare the omakase menu right in front of your eyes.
There are only 14 seats available at the counter each night—no reservations accepted, so come early if you want to attempt one—but restaurant seating may be reserved in advance. This is obviously a splurge, but it is well worth it.
Rockcreek Seafood & Spirits
You can depend on Seattle’s foodies to find and return to this excellent restaurant with a groovy ambiance. Rock Creek is a vibrant outdoorsy environment of a fishing lodge or a mountain cabin in the Freemont district, with high ceilings, rustic wood beams, river boulders, and enormous picture murals of roaring rivers.
Chef-owner Eric Donnelly is a master of seafood and fish, serving Northwest mainstays like crab, mussels, and oysters, as well as East Coast favorites like striped bass and unusual fish like Hawaiian Ono and Kona Kampachi. The tastes are diverse and rich, and the presentation is stunning.
Choose small portions and sample a couple to get a flavor of everything. To begin, try the grilled Norwegian mackerel ‘In Saor,’ which is served with pine nuts, currants, celery, pickled shallots, saba, and grilled bread. The wine selection is extensive, and there are some excellent cocktails.
Manolin
Manolin (pronounced “maw-no-lean”) is a small restaurant in Fremont close to Sea Wolf Bakers with a beautiful design. They specialize in small dishes inspired by South America, which are usually cooked over a wood fire that you can watch them stoking from the u-shaped bar that wraps around the open kitchen. A rockfish ceviche is their hallmark dish.
It’s presented wonderfully, heaped with shoestring fried sweet potatoes and herbs and sparkling with coconut milk and aji Amarillo pepper broth that gives it the most lovely color. It’s acidic, like all the greatest ceviches, and it elevates high-quality fish pieces.
Don’t miss the mussels with aji Amarillo and Sea Wolf bread if it’s on the menu. It sounds bland on the menu, but it’s served as an open-faced sandwich with the mussel shells removed. It’s so creamy you’ll think you’re sipping heavy cream, but it’s really carrot puree thickened.
One of the many good places on our list with awesome entree menus where you can order everything from manila clams with french fries to other delicacies. There is no better place in the central district.
Elliott’s Oyster House
Elliott’s Oyster House, located at Pier 56 on Seattle’s busy historic waterfront, has been delighting visitors with a great view over Eliot Bay from its quaint dining room and beautiful outdoor terrace overlooking the sea since 1975. The menu’s highlights are oysters, which come in 30 varieties and are cooked in a variety of ways.
They provide sustainable Dungeness crab, Alaskan halibut, wild salmon, and Pacific Northwest shellfish by collaborating with local fishermen. Sit at the 21-foot-long raw bar if you like your fish raw. Elliott’s features an excellent wine list and a rotating selection of local beers on tap.
During happy hour, the place is packed. Try the little chinook with much chowder in the best place in the Seattle center district. Honorable mentions for a second location here include Elliott Bay and Shiro Kashiba.
Flying Fish
The Flying Fish’s new location and management did not diminish the upmarket restaurant’s well-deserved reputation for super-fresh seafood and an inventive menu that changes daily as new fish becomes available. They deliver super-fresh crabs, oysters, fish, meats, baked products, and fruit to the table by collaborating with local fishermen and food producers.
Tourists and locals from adjacent businesses alike are drawn to the huge, cheerful dining space with floor-to-ceiling windows. The three-course lunch and evening meals with wine choices provide the greatest value. Oysters for $1 at happy hour are a must-try.
A beautiful wine list with a wide range of Northwest wines is available. One of the best seafood restaurants and generally fish restaurants offering awesome clam chowder, fish tacos on the Alaskan way, and other awesome dishes. Certainly one of the best restaurants and fish spots on the Waterbound Town.
Ray’s
Ray’s has been serving fresh seafood in Seattle for more than 40 years, beginning as a humble fish shack and evolving into an exquisite restaurant with an unrivaled view of Puget Sound and the Olympic Mountains. The sophisticated dining room is ideal for special events, while the wide outside terrace is everyone’s favorite place to enjoy a more informal dinner and beverages while watching the sunset.
The menu has everything from straightforward grilled salmon, crab cakes, and raw oysters to a variety of Asian-inspired meals including scallops with green curry and blackfish marinated in ras. There is something for everyone in the excellent wine selection.
Their pristine seafood and anniversary dinners are freshly taken from the downtown seafood market. Honorable mentions here include the Market Grill, Rockfish Banh Mi, and the Covered Patio on the Northlake way.
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