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Taylor Shellfish shows off the best of Pacific Northwest Shellfish.
Magnificent seafood is as much our city’s brand as innovation, public radio, and our weird pride about not using umbrellas. But, until recently, we lacked many excellent dedicated seafood bars—though there were oyster bars and sushi destinations aplenty.
We could go out for Italian food and assume there would be brothy shellfish; neighborhood restaurants loaded up on salmon come spring, and chefs all knew their lingcod from their black cod (and that neither is actually a cod). Any restaurant hewing local in any way had seafood options.
Now, we have all that, plus a slate of restaurants that fit the bill of what people from elsewhere imagine a seafood restaurant to be. And that makes us as happy as a geoduck.
Victor Steinbrueck’s Local Tide serves crab rolls just three days a week.
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Local Tide
Fremont
RockCreek
Fremont, Kirkland
Seabird
Bainbridge Island
Brendan McGill’s flagship restaurant pays tribute to the water however it can: seaweed focaccia, a kelp caesar, a martini with shellfish-rested gin. The rest of the menu makes use of McGill’s nearby farm and the wood-fueled oven. The execution isn’t always even, but the service and the menu’s sheer brain-boggling ambition make each meal feel like a special occasion.
Under Renee Erickson’s watch, Westward’s menu has embraced the broader Pacific coastline.
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Westward
Wallingford
Peak PNW: freshly shucked oysters consumed next to bubbling tanks at Taylor Shellfish’s Melrose Market location.
Taylor Shellfish
Capitol Hill, Pioneer Square, Queen Anne
Seattle Fish Guys
Central District
Even the Bloody Mary at the Market is a seafood-centric experience.
The Market
Edmonds, Downtown
Shubert Ho’s downtown Edmonds cafe is tiny—a counter and a covered, heated patio. But it puts out a massive lineup of casual fish dishes. The lobster rolls have a devout following, but the menu’s full of finds, like lobster fries, green curry shrimp and grits, or a bag full of fried soft-shell crab. The Market serves a similar menu, plus morning coffee, at its Seattle Art Museum location.
Pike Place Chowder
Downtown, Pike Place Market
The Walrus and the Carpenter
Ballard
Back in 2010, Renee Erickson thought she was opening a casual, hidden-away oyster bar. Then came the buzz—and the excitement hasn’t diminished since. Yes, it’s a great place to eat oysters, but the broader food menu (part French, wholly Northwest) is full of inspired seafood dishes, not to mention pitch-perfect vegetables and a signature steak tartare. Come early, or plan to wait in the amaro bar next door.
Ivar’s Acres of Clams
Various
Ivar Haglund, Seattle’s own P.T. Barnum with a yen for pranks, started a fish and chips counter on the waterfront in 1938. Today it’s grown to include more than 20 fast-casual outposts that serve chowder and fish and chips from Tacoma to Marysville—including the Alki Spud. Ivar’s also runs three full-service waterside restaurants, where the vibe is far from cool.
White Swan Public House’s dockside patio.
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The White Swan Public House
South Lake Union
Ray’s Boathouse and Ray’s Cafe
Ballard
Bar Harbor
South Lake Union
Aqua by El Gaucho sits on the edge of a pier.
Aqua by El Gaucho
Belltown
Elliott’s Oyster House
Waterfront
Driftwood focuses on finding the best seafood around.
Driftwood
West Seattle
Chef Dan Mallahan meticulously sources his seafood from local waters, working with Quinault and Makah tribal members to bring in the best fish and shellfish and to support the people carrying on the state’s fishing traditions. The hyper-curated ingredients mean that the menu stays small, but it also doesn’t miss with items like halibut cheek terrine, pull-apart rolls with Dungeness crab fat butter, and Neah Bay spring king salmon. The prime spot on Alki Beach and excellent selection of local seafood friendly wines make it a top pick for celebrating a special occasion.
The Garrison
Ballard
The folks behind Fremont’s Le Coin nail the current high-low mix that people want from seafood spots. We want to order a seafood tower for dinner with an upgrade to a whole Dungeness crab, but we also want to dip the house corn chips in some crab dip. While the entrées include seared sablefish with celeriac and Columbia River steelhead with mustard and herb velouté, the fries are also great—and there’s a late-night happy hour with caviar on the menu.
Half Shell’s Dungeness crab roll says, “Lobster who?”
Half Shell
Pike Place Market
Tom Douglas gives the people what they want, and what they want is seafood near Pike Place Market. This modern update to the classic oyster bar is cute and better than it needs to be, especially at happy hour when the mini-tinis are $10 and work well to wash down a roasted oyster with ’nduja butter or ginger shrimp nugget slider.
Oyster Cellar
Downtown
Oyster Cellar’s marble-top bar in the bottom of an almost-century-old downtown building gives it a pleasant old-school gravitas that doesn’t quite fit the food of the more casual, Seattle-side seafood sibling of Brendan McGill’s Seabird. That makes it no less pleasant to sit down for creative takes on local seafood, like the shrimp Louie salad in deviled egg form and burrata-topped tuna toast.
La Marea
Ballard
Mexico’s west coast meets the Northwest at this seafood counter inside Fair Isle Brewing. Though the PNW has traditionally shied away from messing with our oh-so-perfect seafood, LA transplants Bohden Tarantine and Lizbeth Dones bravely dial up the heat on dishes like scallop aguachile and seafood cocktail. Silky tuna and lush hamachi drape over crisp tostadas, with bold supporting casts of chile morita aioli, macha XO sauce, and smoked albacore salad. One of the casual, appetizer-size dishes works well as a bar snack; sharing two or three and an order of chips with roasted green chile queso makes it a fine meal.
