Places to eat and stay in Seattle and Vancouver?

August 2, 2005 9:50 AM

Advice on restaurants and B+B accomodations for Seattle and Vancouver?

My sweetie and I will be visiting Seattle and Vancouver at the end of August for a week. I'd like to ask the good people of Ask Metafilter for your advice on excellent seafood and Thai restos ($15-25/pp, BYOB or not), as well as inexpensive-but-fun ($60-100/night) bed+breakfasts in the area. Gay-friendly is a bonus. I appreciate any and all pointers.

posted by Mr. Six to Travel & Transportation (14 answers total)

Siam on upper Broadway used to be good; I haven't been there in a couple of years. Thai Tom in the U District (University Way around 52nd) is excellent if very very tiny and crowded. Thai restaurants are thick on the ground around here. Many are awesome, several are mediocre. Oh, and this is Seattle.
posted by matildaben at 9:53 AM on August 2, 2005

Go here and my favorite Thai restaurant is Racha, in Lower Queen Anne.
posted by black8 at 10:03 AM on August 2, 2005

I stayed at the Wall Street Inn on First Avenue a few years ago. Nice place, family-run with a tasty breakfast from a nearby bakery. They also have a patio and grill for guest use, in case you want to cook up some goodies you pick up from Pike Place Market.

As for food, you must go to Piroshky, Piroshky in the Market. Yum yum yum.

For fancier stuff, I liked Dahlia Lounge quite a bit. And, God, stopping by Fran's Chocolates for gold bars and ice cream is so totally worth it.
posted by Sully6 at 10:09 AM on August 2, 2005

Also, Flying Fish was recommended to me by just about everyone, including the owner of the B&B, but my husband and I didn't get a chance to check it out while we were there.
posted by Sully6 at 10:12 AM on August 2, 2005

I recommend posting your question regard restaurants to chowhound.com, and specifically to:

Pacific Northwest (for Seattle)
Canada (for Vancouver)

In fact, browsing the postings at these two sites may give you what you want without having to post your own question.

You can post your question at no charge; there is no registration; you don't have to even provide an email address. (Hint: be specific in the title of your question - don't just make it "Looking for restaurant recommendation in Seattle", or many folks may well ignore it.) I highly recommend the sites.
posted by WestCoaster at 10:30 AM on August 2, 2005

Last year my girlfriend and I went to Seattle for a week and stayed at the Bacon Mansion, which was a great little B+B with 10 or 12 different styled rooms to choose from. It's in the Capitol Hill district, which is sorta like Seattle's Haight/Ashbury (or at least I thought so). There's a bus stop on the next corner and it's a lovely 10 minutes bus ride into Downtown/Pike's Market.
posted by spicynuts at 11:03 AM on August 2, 2005

Towards the high side of your range, depending on the exchange rate, but when I last stayed in Vancouver, I enjoyed staying at the Johnson Heritage House. It's in a nice neighborhood, it's luxuriously furnished and full of unusual historical curiousities, and they take the "Breakfast" part of BnB seriously (best breakfasts I've ever had). Gay-friendly? No personal experience with that, but the owners seemed like a fairly accepting lot. I suppose if you're worried, they wouldn't mind someone asking about that...
posted by rossmik at 11:24 AM on August 2, 2005

Vancouver recs:

Seafood: Blue Water in Yaletown, Sandbar on Granville Island, Rodney's Oyster House (for mussels, oysters and chowder) in Yaletown, Tojo's for sushi, C for a modern/slightly expensive experience.

Thai: Simply Thai in Yaletown (sit on the patio, get the violet purple dumplings to start), Tropika for Malaysian food, Montri's for great Thai.

For other recommendations, search the older Vancouver threads and look through the Vancouver magazine listings on the best restaurants.
posted by fionab at 11:31 AM on August 2, 2005

I live 10 blocks from the Bacon Mansion. The residential neighborhood it's in is very beautiful, with dense foliage and expansive mansions making for quite the sightseeing. However, it's also close enough to Broadway that walking is a feasible option, and if you don't mind walking up hills, the shopping districts on 15th Ave E and 19th Ave E are also within walking distance.

Seattle also has the Kingfish Cafe, which serves up excellent homemade Southern food and is about a mile east from the Bacon Mansion.
posted by spinifex23 at 12:00 PM on August 2, 2005

Well if your in the mood for some amazing chinese with the best sauces you might try Judy Foo's Snappy Dragon

Also, in the freemont district is a pretty hip Kaiten sushi restaurant Blue C Sushi

there's no lack of thai and i've also heard Dahlia's lounge is great as sully6
posted by freudianslipper at 12:07 PM on August 2, 2005

In the Vancouver B&B bracket I heartily second The Johnson Heritage House. For seafood in Seattle I have yet to beat Ponti's.
posted by Shutter at 12:18 PM on August 2, 2005

In the Vancouver area, I highly recommend the Bravo Morelli B&B. We went there on our honeymoon and it's by far been our favorite B & B anywhere in the world.
posted by shawnmk at 12:21 PM on August 2, 2005

Similar, though by no means identical question here -- on food in Seattle & Vancouver, though not with the Thai/seafood exclusion. Still, it might be helpful. Several of us had sushi advice.

As for Thai in Seattle, I've heard good things about May but haven't been yet.
posted by librarina at 1:57 PM on August 2, 2005

I'll second (third?) Bacon Mansion. I live just a few blocks away as well, didn't realize it was a B&B. But it's a great neighborhood, easy bus/driving distance to most places you want to go, right near a very nice area for large/historic mansions and Volunteer Park, very near Broadway for lots of shops and restaurants, etc.
posted by hincandenza at 4:31 PM on August 2, 2005