19 Best Restaurants in Ballard, Seattle

This steak house gives high-quality beef a Mexican accent. Barley-fed Australian Angus and American, Japanese, and Australian Wagyu hit the grill, while USDA Prime meat goes into tacos and tortas. The salsa bar and appetizers, including handmade guacamole, are fresh and flavorful. There's a strong wine list to go along with all the beef, and the bar stocks a superb selection of mezcals.

There's an unassuming air to this family-run Lebanese restaurant: it's in a relatively remote north Ballard neighborhood, and there's nothing flashy about the dining room's white walls and tablecloths. But when you look at the menu, you start to sense that something special is going on. Dishes are described in tantalizing detail, promising traditional Middle Eastern flavors in creative combinations. It's all as good as it sounds. The grilled meat skewers are delicious, but you won't go wrong making a meal of mezzes—pears with tahini and pomegranate, eggplant with fresh cheese and honey, and lamb-filled phyllo "cigars" are a few of your many choices.

Brandon Pettit spent years developing his thin-but-chewy pizza crust, and the final product has made him a contender for the city's best pies. Neighborhood families and far-flung travelers alike line up before opening time for seasonal pizzas topped with anything from fresh sausage to local clams to blistered padrón peppers. The wine list is is short but elegant; desserts are simple but inspired—the homemade chocolate chip cookie with sea salt is delicious. Long wait? Pop next door to charming Essex, the owners' artisanal cocktail bar.

Local restaurateur Renee Erickson was inspired by the casual oyster bars of Paris when she opened this inconspicuous spot, located at the south end of Ballard Ave, behind Staple & Fancy. The result has been a lasting sensation. In town full of oysters, the freshness and selection here manage to be a cut above. Reservations aren't accepted, which is why every day when the doors open at 4, there's a line waiting to fill the tall tables and the seats at the zinc barand why at any time a wait is likely. The menu also offers refined small plates, mostly other seafood and vegetables, but oysters are center stage. If you love them, you'll love it here.

Set in a largely residential section of eastern Ballard, this place has everything you could hope for in a neighborhood restaurant: a comfortable, warm setting, attentive service, and creative comfort food made from local, seasonal ingredients. They’re known for their bread; often a restaurant afterthought, here it’s given star treatment—cut thick, grilled, and topped with butter as though it were a ribeye. Everything on the small menu gets that same kind of care and attention, whether it’s a steak, a fish, a vegetable, or a cocktail. If the weather’s nice, try for a table on the garden patio.

Nestled on the ground floor of an inconspicuous apartment building between Ballard Ave. and the National Nordic Museum, this little café is a one-of-a-kind hybrid. The co-owners are German and Chinese, and the menu mixes those two cultures in unique, surprising ways. Along with familiar espresso drinks and five varieties of Chinese tea, there are specialty drinks that border on the surreal: seaweed latte (with soy sauce caramel) and yuzu vanilla espresso tonic are prime examples. The food choices—mainly pastries and breakfast bites—are equally daring.

This tiny café, which looks like a cross between a truck-stop diner and a Tex-Mex joint, serves an outstanding Mexican-style breakfast (and lunch and dinner are just as good). Wait for a space in the tiny dining room, belly up to the counter, or just watch the frenetic activity as everything from soup to salsa is made from scratch. Try delectable pork carnitas; chorizo from the state of Michoacán; mole negro over pork or chicken; rockfish with cinnamon and guajillo chiles; or mouthwatering chilaquiles—tortilla chips cooked in green or red salsa and topped with cream.

Autumn Martin specializes in creative, high-quality desserts (including vegan options) such as a s'mores molten chocolate cake with house-made marshmallows and caramel, and cookies with house-smoked chocolate chips. Thick, rich milkshakes come in gourmet seasonal flavors like Meyer lemon with lavender, or grownup boozy shakes like smoked chocolate and scotch. Hot Cakes is open late night, too. A few long communal tables make for casual dining. The company's take-and-bake mason-jar desserts make a great gift. For a lighter bite, head north to Martin's plant-based ice cream shop, Frankie & Jo's ( 1411 NW 70th St.).

True to its name, this low-key, bustling Ballard favorite serves traditional Mexican food from the Oaxaca region. The mole negro is a must, served over chicken, pork, or tamales, and there's a long menu of other good options, from tacos to pozole to rack of lamb. It's a small, casual space with comfortable tables, seating at the counter overlooking the open kitchen, and gorgeous black-and-white photos adorning the walls. It can get busy, especially on weekend evenings, and they don't take reservations.

This small, unpretentious Ballard café makes some of the city's best bagels, which you can get with a classic schmear or as part of a creative, elaborate sandwich. Breakfast burritos come in regular and giant (one-pound) sizes and include a variety of delicious salsas made from scratch. Bagels and burritos may sound like an unusual pairing, but Rachel has them both down, making this a dependable choice for a quick, tasty breakfast or snack.

Ray's has a split personality: there's a fancy dinner-only dining room downstairs (reservations essential) and a casual café and bar upstairs. Both serve fresh seafood in classic preparations—clam chowder, steamed mussels, crab cakes, grilled salmon—but the main draw here is the view over Shilshole Bay. Competition can be stiff for seats on the café's deck, especially at happy hour. If you're going to splurge on dinner downstairs, reserve a window table.

During the day, this café/restaurant centrally located on Ballard Ave. is a handy pitstop, similar to a coffee shop but on a grander scale. Come dinnertime, the mood changes: there’s table service, craft cocktails flow, and the Middle Eastern flavors are stronger, with more mezze options and five types of kebabs. There’s a large, open dining room and a covered patio; counter-service breakfast and lunch offers around 20 options for eggs, wraps, mezze, and salads, most with a Middle Eastern accent; and the coffee bar is managed by local chain Café Vita.

Its distinctive setting, in charming old house smack in the middle of Ballard Avenue, suits San Fermo's simple yet elegant Italian menu, which emphasizes house-made pasta and local ingredients (some coming from the restaurant's own farm). Tables both on the porch and in the small dining rooms have a relaxed, homey ambiance.

This is a hyper-focused "only-in-Seattle" kind of place, serving only congee (Asian rice porridge), only for breakfast and lunch, in a a breezy location along Shilshole Bay. Congee, like risotto, is really a vehicle for other ingredients, and the choices here shine, whether it's a classic, like chicken or tofu, or something more distinctive, like blue crab or wild boar. The simple dining area doesn't have water views, but it's a quick trip with a to-go order to the beach at Golden Gardens or the gardens at Chittenden Locks.

A "Staple" at this glam Italian restaurant might mean spaghetti with clams or a grilled half chicken. But visitors looking for a special experience are best served by going "fancy"—settling in at their table in the exposed-brick dining room and choosing the chef's menu. Four courses are served family-style and change nightly—expect handmade pasta, something for the wood-fired grill, and a surprise or two.

Oak paneling, dark accents, and wide windows onto bustling Ballard Avenue give this quasi-Italian joint an lively, stylish vibe. The menu keeps one foot firmly rooted in Italy, particularly with creative pizzas and pasta, but there are decidedly non-Italian alternatives such as a lamb burger, Dutch fries, and baked Alaska for dessert. Sunday brunch is similarly eclectic: you can have baked eggs, biscuits and gravy, or stick with pizza.

Dine here to experience a classic Ballard phenomenon: a casually sophisticated kid-friendly restaurant. Local families come here for pizza night, but this ain't Chuck E Cheese; toppings include foraged mushrooms, shishito peppers, garlic-and-fennel sausage, and five kinds of cheese. There are two crust choices: thin, blistered, and round, or thick, chewy, and square. That all may sound a little pretentious, but as the 10-year-old at the next table will tell you, mainly it's delicious. (She may not be so enthusiastic about the charred broccoli.) Local microbrews and a long, predominantly Italian wine list help keep the grownups happy.

There's a battle between Paseo (in Fremont) and Un Bien for the title of best Caribbean roast sandwich in Seattle—and everyone's a winner. At both places, the signature sandwich consists of succulent, slow-roasted pork shoulder, stuffed in a baguette along with caramelized onions, jalapeños, cilantro, and aioli. That's the classic, but the menu has a dozen variations, including steak, chicken, tofu, and prawns, and you can ditch the bread for a rice bowl. Whatever way you go, you'll end up with a sweet, savory, juicy indulgence. There are a few picnic benches for eating on site, but a takeout order makes an easy, delicious picnic up the road at Golden Gardens.

A sibling spot to the Mexican steakhouse next door, this ode to Mexican coffee uses a single-origin beans grown by a cooperative in Oaxaca and roasted locally by Fulcrum. Fresh-squeezed orange juice and tres leches cakes complete the feel of a contemporary Mexico City café, but a few touches keep it Seattle, including the assortment of locally baked pastries.