The sad thing about people taking their weekday lunch breaks on their own isn’t that they are eating alone—depending on your job and disposition, dining alone can be a blessed break from office “interfacing”—but that they eat alone in such forlorn places: in fluorscent booths at Subway or upon lonesome barstools in dirty, ill-lit delis.

Recently, however, while dining on some really tasty butternut squash and sage flavored cavatelli at Taste, I noticed a lot of solo diners treating themselves to the fantastic lunch there. It took me back to the every-block bistros in the town where I lived in France. At lunchtime, these bistros were chock-a-block with attractively dressed women eating three-course meals by themselves. It is, in that country, the civilized thing to do. And there’s a certain undeniable self-respect that comes with enjoying a nice lunch by your lonesome. Taste is one downtown Seattle place to do it, here are three more.

The Pink Door
The cabaret-by-day back dining room at Post Alley’s Pink Door is a chill spot where you can sit back with The New Yorker and enjoy a leisurely bowl of pappardelli ragu Bolognese or pasta a la puttanesca, both $15.

Dahlia Lounge
See that little speck next to your typewriter? I think that’s a bit of egg white from that soggy cobb salad you brought back to your desk. Tomorrow, why not try the grilled hanger steak cobb salad from the Dahlia. It’s $15, and world’s away from anything that comes packed in a clamshell.

Place Pigalle
A cup of onion soup gratinee ($9) followed by a white truffle chicken salad with Washington apples($16) at this time-tested French cafe in Pike Place Market is about as civilized as it gets.

Get out there. You’ll thank you.