WHERE DALLAS HAS its steaks, Memphis its barbecue, and LA its Mexican—Seattle has Asian food. From suburban strip-mall sushi to the Chinatown stretch of I-5 that starts smelling like chow mein every afternoon around 3 o’clock—the many and varied cuisines of Asia have enlightened and defined the Northwest palate more than any other ethnic influence. We’ve tracked down the most dazzling representatives of 14 Asian cuisines, along with our picks for the finest versions of the dishes we crave, ramen bowls to chewy Chinese hand-shaved noodles.—Kathryn Robinson
Published: February 2011
Of the Indian restaurants that I have been to the best food I have had is at Spice Route in Bellevue. They are very close to being authentic Indian.
White people still lack appreciation for non-American Chinese cuisines.
Maybe you’ll find this interesting, I’ve been to some on the list.
Hi Liz,
As you go through the different cuisines, you will see the name of the establishment bolded and highlighted at the end of each write-up. If you click on that link it will take you to a map.
It would be much more helpful to me to have these arranged on a map so I can see the ones near my home and work. How bout it, SeattleMet?
Good question. The story we called “Northwest by Far East” concerned itself exclusively with just that, and in putting it together we knowingly left off Middle Eastern, Indian, and Russian cuisines. We did so after much debate, ultimately concluding that there is a specificity to the cuisines of those three regions that rendered them uniquely distinct from the Far Eastern/Southeast Asian cuisines (albeit knowing how distinct those cuisines can be from each other), and therefore worthy of individual coverage in the future. For instance, I’d love to put together a Middle Eastern/North African feature at some point, discussing the seminal place Moroccan food has had in the development of global cuisines…but that’s for another day. Meanwhile, I confess I’m having a rough time finding great Indian food in our area. If you have favorites, please let me know…Seattle needs its Vij’s (Vancouver’s stunning Indian restaurant) but as yet, in my opinion, just doesn’t quite have it.
Why are there no Indian and Pakistani restaurants? These countries are in Asia too – come on Seattle Met!