Amen! As a culinary professional that has lived and worked in practically every major metropolitan city in the U.S., I can truthfully say Seattle is the worst for food and dining. And those passing as "food celebrity" or "professionals" are laughable. There are a handful of places (as you point out) that are great restaurants, but that's it. A handful. Who's at fault? The chefs and restaurantuers for presenting the usual drivel over and over, or the citizenry for settling for it and not knowing the difference? Or is it the media and "critics" who perpetuate the mediocrity? Your voice and website are the only ones of reason. Thank goodness you sum it up it accurately. It Sucks!
You have to try Claim Jumper in Redmond. Awesome cheesecake, and plastic food you can play with to annoy the waiters.
-S.
I'm surprised by your assertions. I found a couple of good places in downtown Seattle just by stumbling around when I last visited. I assumed the whole area was filled with cute little places to eat good food. I did think that fancy place right off the PP Market was overrated, so you could be on to something.
I wonder if the presence of the Pike Place market acts as a depressant to the restaurant business in Seattle. Is it possible that more people cook at home than in most cities because they have access to great ingredients year round?
I'd love to see a discussion betwen you and the Seattle Bon Vivant on this topic.
Interesting rant. I can think of a number of things Seattle falls short on. I mostly chalk it up to the size of the city though. Perhaps I'm being an epicurean relativist, but how would you compare Seattle cuisine to other cities in America of similar size? Seattle is the 24th largest city in America. Here are the +/-5 list of cities:
Milwaukee, Wis.
Fort Worth, Tex.
Charlotte, N.C.
El Paso, Tex.
Boston, Mass.
Seattle, Wash.
Washington, DC
Denver, Colo.
Nashville-Davidson, Tenn.1
Portland, Ore.
Oklahoma City, Okla.
Only having eaten in 6 of the 11 cities listed, my initial assessment is that Seattle compares favorably overall.
In comparison, Seattle is the 605th largest city in the world. The +/-5 cities surrounding it are:
Bengbu, China
Bucaramanga, Colombia
Wuhu, China
Qinhuangdao, China
Bandar Petaling Jaya, Malaysia
Seattle, USA
Chon Buri, Thailand
San Nicolás de los Garzas, Mexico
Banjarmasin, Indonesia
Düsseldorf, Germany
Valenzuela, Philipp
cont'd from prev...
I haven't eaten in any of those cities, but none really pop out as well-known culinary meccas. Again, I would hazard to guess that Seattle compares favorably.
There are some things that leave me bemused, though, like how Chinese food in Seattle could be so mediocre given its geography and demographics. But even with such shortcomings as surprisingly weak Chinese, pizza, and lack of a really good deli, I find that for what I would expect of a city the size of Seattle that things aren't so bad.
I suppose it would be interesting to do this comparison using COLA as the measure instead of population. Perhaps money might be more of a factor. However, Boston's no great culinary shakes either and the COLA there is similar to here, so maybe that's not a good measure either.
I agree! There are very few restaurants here in Seattle that I consider "good." And trying to get decent service anywhere is like tring to find a needle in a haystack.
I've often wondered why.
This is a surprising article. Most people I talk to consider Seattle crappy in the area of mass transit, but not food 
.
First of all, I will say that I agree with you that far too many people get hung up on "popular" places. This bothers me as much as it does you and quite frankly, I'm sick of being disappointed. I'm assuming from here on out that those places are going to be a risk. Please don't assume it's Seattleites that have settled. If you asked around, you'd probably find these places were frequented by Californians! LOL (kidding)
But, I think there are a ton of wonderful restaurants in town, although I'm not clear on what you mean by "good" in your articles. Is it "world class" that you mean? I may not consider dim sum at Hong Kong, or Pho at Than Brothers, or chili at Mike's (no, really!) "world class", but I'd certainly call them very good! Wonderful even!
By the way, very nice site!
Joel
I think your mention of Kathy Casey should be put in context: She lives in the new, hip, cool restaurant world since that is what she does with her Food Studio business.
I'm happy with the restaurant scene in Seattle. Living in Belltown I certainly get a lot of cool, hip exposure and it wears thing. I also find a place, like Marjorie, that I really like in the midst of all of that.
I'll venure a guess at your disappointing restaurant visit: Lark?
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