Favorite
Make like the K-Pop stars shown savoring this Korean chain’s glorious, gaudy corn dogs in photos on the wall, and get yourself one of these rice-battered beasts, studded with cubes of fried potato or coated in squiggles of crunchy ramen noodles. A careful fry job lifts dogs above gimmick status to a reasonable culinary composition that’s fun as hell. The Read more...
Favorite
Even the tagline “Korean Mexican fusion” doesn’t fully describe Suzana Olmos’s former Citizen Six pub, now renamed and relocated to the longtime Crow space in Lower Queen Anne. Palm-green tiles and tropical flourishes balance mod light fixtures, and japchae bowls and bulgogi burritos balance fish tacos and burgers. Best to not worry overmuch about nomenclature and just kick back with Read more...
Favorite
Of course Korean grocery giant H Mart planted its first U.S. food hall spin-off in our city’s quick-lunch tech capital. Across from the Whole Foods in South Lake Union, a crisp maze of counters dispenses dumplings, grilled-to-order galbi or squid atop kimchi rice, tteokbokki, and a menu of bibimbap. Gimbap, a mix of hot and cold textures rolled in rice and seaweed Read more...
Favorite
This perennial favorite in a Factoria strip mall drapes cheese across seemingly half the menu (on the kimchi fried rice, the crisp seafood pancake, even the tteokbokki) but non-cheesed comforts spark with fresh ingredients and great marinades—like kimbap rolls and chadol jjolmyeon, cold spicy noodles that hide under a salad’s worth of fresh greens and crunchy, shredded vegetables, not to Read more...
Favorite
Liquor license requirements meant Sam Jo needed to serve food at his Korean-toned cocktail bar in White Center. So he embraced it—and his heritage—to build a singular bar food lineup that includes a Roy Choi–inspired “Koreadilla,” and kimchi mac and cheese balls. A basket of dakgangjeong, aka bites of sticky-sweet fried chicken, easily justifies another round of the beer-soju cocktails Read more...
Favorite
A fine dining expat by way of New York and San Francisco composes jewel box tributes to Korean flavors: fried rice, black with squid ink, punchy with bacon and kimchi, topped with a confit quail egg yolk, or hand-rolled ricotta dumplings layered in pyogo beoseot, also known as shiitake mushrooms. Bulgogi is gussied with truffles. Prices remain surprisingly casual given Read more...
Favorite
Korean barbecue, a pastime all too scarce in Seattle, now fills a strip mall space in Eastlake with the sizzle of galbi and pork belly, and the clink of cold bottles of Hite. Ventilation systems dangle over tables like some sort of turn-of-the-century communication system, and servers take up your scissors and tongs to help keep tabletop grill efforts on Read more...
Favorite
This friendly Madison Park dining room is mostly a modest neighborhood restaurant, albeit one that makes Korean dishes you still can’t find in many of Seattle’s neighborhoods (interspersed with some Japanese fare, like udon and tonkatsu). A punchy sauce made with gochujang pairs with fish balls or gimmari, deep fried rolls of glass noodles wrapped in seaweed. And while, Bibimbap might Read more...
Favorite
Vegans, carb-averse diners, and fans of a really good bulgogi rib eye all descend upon this pocket-size lunchroom in Georgetown. Its bibimbap and other bowls (japchae, yakisoba, kimchi fried rice) pack the sort of rich flavors achieved when a kitchen make everything from scratch. The plug and play mix of proteins, sauces, and grains accommodates a ton of dietary philosophies. Read more...
Favorite
Unsuccessful experiments with cereal milk lattes inspired the menu’s crowdpleaser: french toast coated with either fruity pebbles or frosted flakes. The former’s rainbow-crunchy surface may win Instagram, but those sugary beige flakes delivers a surprisingly cohesive flavor on thick slices of cider-spiked whole wheat from Macrina—a french toast more complex than eggy. That’s just one of many surprises in this Read more...