Adey Adeba
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Traditional Ethiopian cuisine (including breakfast!) in a lovely room. Meat-eating fans praise the stews and doro wat; vegetarians love the veggie combination.
Central District
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Bananas Grill
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The bad news is the Link’s Columbia City Station needs more restaurants. The good news is that the two located next to it don’t suck. One of these, Bananas Grill, is a family-owned Halal restaurant. What you must understand is that the food here is made to reward an extreme hunger. Sure, the lentil soup and sambosas have moments of greatness, but if you have a pressing desire to eat, and you do not want it to be disappointed (there is nothing worse than a wasted hunger), then go to Bananas Grill. Here, the US, the Middle East, and Eastern Africa peacefully coexist on the menu. CHARLES MUDEDE
Columbia City
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Black Coffee Northwest
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This community-focused, Black-owned cafe and nonprofit “grounded in excellence” emphasizes social justice, with a barista training program, a weekly youth outreach program, after-school study hours, Zoom “coffee chat” conversations on important topics, coat drives, voter registration drives, and more.
Shoreline
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Boon Boona Coffee
Owned by Efrem Fesaha, who was born in Eritrea and raised in Seattle, this popular coffee shop and roaster exclusively sources its beans from African growers. The cafe quickly gained a loyal following after launching its first location in Renton in 2018 and expanded with an outpost on Capitol Hill in spring 2021.
Capitol Hill, Renton
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Cafe Campagne
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Cafe Campagne is exceedingly pleasant, with soft yellow lights, blond-wood banquettes, framed vintage prints on the walls, and attentive waitstaff. The menu is French comfort food with, naturellement, nods to seasonal Northwest ingredients. Cafe Campagne makes you feel like everything’s alright, especially at weekend brunch.
Pike Place Market
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Cafe Ibex
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Fans love this Ethiopian spot for its generous portions, flavorful food, and laidback vibe—it’s also conveniently open late for all your nocturnal cravings.
Columbia City
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Cafe Selam
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For years, I’ve turned to the Central District’s Cafe Selam for my ful needs. Here the ful is satiny smooth and spicy—the fava beans are lightly pureed with olive oil and red chili. It’s served in a broad white bowl topped with freshly chopped scallions, tomatoes, and serrano chilies, as well as slices of hard-boiled egg and soft crumbles of feta cheese. A red plastic basket filled with two crusty French loaves accompanies each bowl. Immediately after it lands on the table, I’m tearing into the bread and dragging it through the stew. Hours later, my lips are still buzzing from its spice and heat. ANGELA GARBES
Central District
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Central Cafe and Juice Bar
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This eco-conscious cafe features espresso, fresh-pressed juices, smoothies, teas, pastries, and grab-and-go deli items like wraps and sandwiches. The spot also participates in the packaging company noissue’s Eco Packaging Alliance program, which plants a tree in areas of need for every order of packaging materials.
Central District
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The Comfort Zone
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Talya Miller and her daughter, LaShon Lewis, co-own this soul food restaurant in the Royal Esquire Club building in Columbia City, where they serve up fried catfish, shrimp and grits, oxtails with rice, greens, and hush puppies.
Columbia City
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Communion
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Chef Kristi Brown of That Brown Girl Cooks and her son and business partner Damon Bomar opened their much-anticipated “Seattle soul food” restaurant in 2021. The fact that the restaurant and bar is located in the former site of Liberty Bank lends even more meaning to the opening of a Black-owned business in a heavily gentrified neighborhood: The building was home to the region’s first Black-owned bank, opened in 1968 to offer financial support to African American homeowners and counteract racist housing segregation practices. Brown derived inspiration for the menu from her food memories of the Central District as well as Chinatown-International District. Offerings include barbecue shrimp and grits, chicken wings, berbere grilled chicken, po’ mis (a combination of a po’ boy and a banh mi) with fried oyster mushrooms and catfish, and fried catfish “hood sushi.” Aside from being a James Beard semifinalist, Communion also was named Seattle Met‘s Restaurant of the Year 2021 and Eater Seattle Awards’ Best New Restaurant 2021, landed a spot on Condé Nast Traveler’s Best New Restaurants in the World 2021 and the New York Times‘ Restaurant List 2021, and received a rave review from Meg van Huygen in The Stranger.
Central District
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Emerald City Fish & Chips
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The Allen brothers are local (they went to Garfield—go Bulldogs!), with New Orleans heritage, and they run this fish ‘n’ chips place on Rainier. It’s order-at-the-counter with just a few seats, but it’s spick-and-span and also good. The blue-ribbon batter is well seasoned with garlic and cayenne, but not too spicy; it’s smooth and not too thick, sticking to the fish without turning into a grease sponge. “We use panko, but grind it up really fine,” Steve Allen says. “Some people use cornmeal for a little grittier flavor. But we really want people to taste the fish, that nice and clean taste, and the spices, without leaving that taste of grit in your mouth.” Mission accomplished. The french fries—thick cut and slightly seasoned, nice and golden—are also very fine.
Mount Baker
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Emma’s BBQ
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Head to this Hillman City gem for heartily portioned barbecue, including ribs, brisket, pulled pork, chicken, and beef hot links. The menu also includes comforting sides, scratch-made strawberry and blackberry lemonade, and sweet potato pie.
Hillman City
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Ezell’s Famous Chicken
“That’s Oprah’s favorite fried chicken” is a sentence you’ll hear over and over when people refer to Ezell’s. It is, indeed, famous chicken. But while we at The Stranger tend to think famous things are a load of hoopla, Ezell’s reputation isn’t hyperbole. The blessed people at this Seattle chain take the carnage of a basic bird and transmute it into a holy American meal. You won’t find a better companion than a three-piece chicken dinner combo from Ezell’s. CHASE BURNS
Various locations
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Fat’s Chicken & Waffles
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A New Orleans–influenced Southern food gem in the heart of the Central District, Fat’s has some of our favorite on-the-bone fried chicken—you can get a pair of drumsticks for a mere $5—but there are also plenty of other standouts: the savory-sweet sausage links, absolutely divine red beans and rice, toasted cornbread, and crispy fried okra. Get all of it together, and you’ll be sure to have nothing but cleaned plates at the end of your meal. JAKE UITTI
Central District
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Habesha Cafe
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This Ethiopian and Eritrean food destination in Hillman City offers an array of satisfying specialties, including foul, falafel wraps, veggie sandwiches, and shiro wat (an Eritrean-spiced stew made with chickpeas, onions, tomato, garlic, and olive oil).
Hillman City
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Island Soul Restaurant
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Owner Theo Martin has created a space that is as much a community gathering spot as it is a restaurant. But make no mistake, people come hungry for the Caribbean and soul food dishes like oxtail stew, Southern fried hens, gumbo, and goat curry. The tiny in-house bar also makes great rum cocktails.
Rainier Valley
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Jebena Cafe
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Jebena already leads the highly competitive race for best Ethiopian restaurant in town based solely on the merits of using the freshest ingredients, the best combination of spices in its shiro wot, the cheerful green walls, and the attention to details (like house-made yogurt and cheese). But what makes Jebena’s beef tips and everything else so much better is the service. Martha Ayele dotes on customers, warmly introducing her cuisine to newcomers while cooking the food her regulars and fellow countrymen already know so well, making everyone feel utterly at home in front of her injera. NAOMI TOMKY
Jones Barbeque
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Popular favorites at this West Seattle spot include the giant ribs smoked with Northwestern cedar, spicy collard greens, and sweet potato pie. The sweet-and-fiery Arkansas/Texas–influenced sauce is excellent—many barbecue enthusiasts say it’s the best in town.
West Seattle
Pickup, delivery
Kaffa Coffee & Wine Bar
Between the heady mix of berbere, coffee, and incense in the air, you may catch a little buzz. There’s an attention to detail here—red onions, jalapeños, and tomatoes are diced with precision and, along with some dry cheese (it resembles the dusty Parmesan cheese that comes in packets with pizzas), lovingly placed in their own quadrant on top of the bowl. ANGELA GARBES
Rainier Beach
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Lil Red Takeout and Catering
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This local gem earned a spot on a list of the top 20 Black-owned barbecue spots in the nation, compiled by James Beard Award-winning author and barbecue expert Adrian Miller in his book Black Smoke: African Americans and the United States of Barbecue. (Considering that Miller sampled barbecue at over 200 restaurants across the country to research his book, this is no faint praise.) The restaurant is run by husband-and-wife team Erasto “Red” Jackson, who specializes in soul food and a style of barbecue that incorporates influences from Texas, Memphis, and Kansas City, and Lelieth Jackson, who is of Jamaican descent and the mastermind behind the restaurant’s Jamaican dishes. Fans love the ribs, the mac and cheese, the jerk chicken, the brisket, the rum cake, and the banana pudding.
Columbia City
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Mama Sambusa
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This Somali restaurant run by Marian Ahmed calls its handmade sambusas “the only love triangle you’d want to be a part of.” They’re made fresh each day and available with “mama sauce” or “liquid gold sauce.”
Rainier Beach
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Marjorie
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Longtime Capitol Hill favorite Marjorie serves an eclectic, ambitious menu of food from all over the place. The steel drum plantain chips have their own loyal following, and can be purchased at the restaurant to take home.
Capitol Hill
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Meskel
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Meskel stands out among the sea of Ethiopian restaurants with an atmosphere unlike any other—or rather, three atmospheres. In the main restaurant, on the upper floor of a remodeled Central District craftsman, diners dig into the stellar qanta firfir (dried beef and injera). On sunny days, the outdoor patio becomes a place to linger over combo platters of lentil stews, and when the barbecue’s running, the air is filled with spices and the tantalizing smoke of mouthwatering meat. And downstairs in the bar, everyone sips Johnny Walker while watching soccer games projected onto the wall. NAOMI TOMKY
Central District
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Pam’s Kitchen
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Roti and curry are the stars of Pam Jacob’s Wallingford kitchen, which turns out plate after plate of meat, potato and chickpeas that have been stewed in the Trinidad native’s special blend of curry spice, cumin and fiery habanero, ready to be mopped up with torn pieces of dhalpuri or paratha roti. The short menu also features Caribbean specialties like jerk chicken, pelau rice, and callaloo, a thick soup of greens and coconut milk. There’s a great lineup of non-alcoholic refreshments, including a creamy peanut punch and spicy ginger beer. Roti curry wraps and coconut bread sandwiches make for a satisfying lunch. JENN CAMPBELL
Wallingford
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Plum Bistro
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Plum Bistro is a pleasantly upscale, 100 percent vegan restaurant. Even for a lifelong vegetarian, a visit to Plum can feel like a taste test in a laboratory on the cutting edge of vegan science, but the kitchen’s experiments are successful. The sloppy joe–style quinoa sliders and the Spicy Mac ’n’ Yease are standouts. Portions seem determined to destroy the myth that vegan food can’t be filling.
Capitol Hill
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Safari Njema Restaurant
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Chef Jane Kagira works magic with the Indian-influenced spices woven into Kenya’s culinary DNA, whether dressing up pan-fried goat meat or stewing chicken thighs. Tilapia comes whole, the length of a forearm, and fried stiff as a board, with a sunshine-yellow sauce to liven up the otherwise ordinary fish. Diners are invited to mix and match their own starch and vegetables, but, when pressed, the server will patiently help you match the chewy, char-speckled chapati (flatbread) to the bone-in, onion-laden goat. The ugali, she says of the dough-like cooked cornmeal starch with a texture like yesterday’s grits, goes well with the saucy chicken. But no matter if you pick matoke (green banana) or mukimo (verdant potatoes with split peas, corn, and greens), everything you order should get smothered under Kagira’s house-made hot sauce. Almost as orange as the walls, the bold, citrusy condiment hides inside innocuous-looking squeeze bottles. Released onto the mild foods of Kagira’s Kenyan kitchen, it burns with the fire and complexity of various peppers, muted not at all by the fragrant spices. This might be the only spot in Seattle to find Kenyan food, but it’s definitely the only place in the world you’ll find her hot sauce. NAOMI TOMKY
Rainier Valley
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Scoop du Jour Creamery
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Scoop du Jour, which has a long history in the Madison Park neighborhood, serves brightly colored local sherberts and ice creams, as well as lunch fare like burgers and sandwiches.
Madison Park
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Shewa-Ber Bar & Restaurant
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This Ethiopian restaurant and Eritrean restaurant serves crispy kitfo rolls (crispy injera rolls filled with ground beef and cooked in Ethiopian herbal butter), qategna (a traditional Ethiopian appetizer with toasted injera filled with berbere and butter), vegetarian sambusas (triangular pastries stuffed with lentils and peppers), doro wat (spicy chicken stew), and other popular Ethiopian dishes.
Central District
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The Station
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This coffee shop and wine bar owned by married couple Luis Rodriguez and Leona Moore-Rodriguez is a beloved Beacon Hill community hub and gathering place, known for its joyful annual neighborhood-wide block party celebrating POC and queer artists. In addition to cozy signature drinks like the Mexican hot chocolate mocha, the “D’Angelo” brown sugar latte, and the “Bowl of Soul” (Earl Grey tea with honey, vanilla, and steamed milk), the menu also features tasty sandwiches, cookies, and snacks.
Beacon Hill
Pickup, delivery, dine-in
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