HUNGRY FOR NEWS? Welcome to our Friday Feed, where we run through all the local food and restaurant news this month—and maybe help you figure out where to eat this weekend.
Image: Seattle Met Staff
Branching Out
Two extremely popular suburban restaurants have opened the doors to much-anticipated Seattle locations this month. Tendon Kohaku, the Singapore-based tempura chain that drew hours-long lines in Bellevue, is now frying in the Chinatown–International District. Meanwhile, Auburn taco shop Sonora Carne Asada House made the jump to Seattle, opening a second location in Hillman City. Come for the juicy steak wrapped in housemade flour tortillas, stay for the creative drinks like the tart grape soda.
Image: Amber Fouts
More Openings
A few more places that are now serving:
- Okonomiyaki Jiban-Ya: Count us among those who will follow the Secret Congee team anywhere. For now, that means to Northlake, where they have just opened a Japanese pancake shop. Much like Secret Congee, it takes a comforting classic and plays with big flavors—natto, scallops, and mala koji shrimp tempura.
- Stacked: The long-running sandwich pop-up from veteran local chef and zine author Sarah Monson (Cornelly, Rupee Bar) has settled down and now operates daily out of Montana Badlands on Queen Anne. Make haste for the dirty jojos.
- Zoco Café & Wine: Despite the name, this addition to White Center is currently more café than wine, with evening hours only three days a week—but serving chilaquiles for breakfast six days a week.
- Curry’s Culture Indian Cuisine: Just a block up from the Columbia City light rail station comes this casual Indian spot with a novel-length menu. Highlights include significant vegetarian options and many Indo-Chinese dishes.
- Creamy Cone Café: After a permanent-sounding closure of the storefront last year, one of our favorite ice cream shops is back, still in the original shop, and as enthusiastic about cold treats and community as ever.
Status Check?
What’s going on with…
- Eldr? More than a year after a fire tore through General Harvest’s Sunset Hill restaurant, it has finally reopened!
- Cafe Suliman? Following some staffing issues and mismanagement (see more on Capitol Hill Seattle) leading to a temporary closure, the toastmaster is back in business.
- Bait Shop? Unfortunately for french fry lovers, the Capitol Hill bar’s days are numbered—at least at the current location, reports The Stranger. Sometime after early next year, it will get booted when the building is demolished. But that’s plenty of time for another slushy cocktail, and they hope to open elsewhere soon.
- Bush Garden? The longtime Japanese restaurant and karaoke stalwart says it is very close to reopening after closing its Chinatown–International District location in 2020. The new location is just a few blocks away, and the team includes long-time Nijo chef Ed Tang, Tiger’s Eye pop-up chef Alisha Davis, and bar manager Carmelita Valenzuela.
- Starla’s? The one-time Blotto folks who moved to Bellingham and opened Starla’s are now bringing their pizza back to Seattle. Their website still says late 2026 or early 2027 for the Seattle opening, but paperwork has been filed, which means we have a location: Nestled up against I-90 on Rainier, near the new Judkins Park light rail station.
Image: Courtesy Pike Place Market
Looking Up and Forward
Here’s what’s opening soon… or eventually:
- Shaah & Seeko: On May 23, this Somali-inspired pop-up will softly open a beautifully decorated Renton café—just the kind of place Seattle-raised cookbook author Ifrah Ahmed told us to get excited about.
- Aditi Chai: Aditi Master started selling her Gujarati-style tea in 2018 and dispensed it from her Pike Place Market stall for two years now, but starting May 30, she will also be serving Bombay street food—vada pav, behl puri—from the same location.
- Ember BBQ: One of our 2025 best new restaurants is back at it again. The Westerfields, the chefs behind De La Soil, will team up again with Copperworks on a new concept. The distillery will take over the neighboring space (previously 192 Brewing) and open it as Copperworks Tavern and Whiskey Garden in early summer, serving Ember’s “globally inspired BBQ.”
- Yoka Tea: Only a year after opening, one of the city’s hottest matcha cafes hooked the former Little Tin Goods and Apothecary space and plans to open the second location this fall.
- Sea’d In: Prolific restaurateur Heong Soon Park—who recently sold Meet Korean BBQ and the Cheese Room, but still owns Bacco Cafe, Chan, Gol Mak, and Luna Park Cafe—plans to open his newest spot this summer inside Chophouse Row on Capitol Hill. He will turn the former Light Sleeper space into a seafood restaurant specializing in Japanese- and Korean-style dry-aged fish cooked over a wood-fired grill.
- Wine Darling: The full version of this eclectic Pioneer Square wine bar won’t open until next year, reports Puget Sound Business Journal, but a limited version will be here in August and a temporary version called Footie on First earlier, just in time for the World Cup games.
Image: Jane Sherman
Looking Back
And now, for the bad news—the places that have closed or will be closing soon:
- Sacro Bosco Pizza: One of our 2025 best new restaurants and producer of excellent pizza has announced that this is its final week. Thankfully, the bakery (Temple Pastries) will soldier on.
- Le Beastro: Across town, a similar contraction is going on at Beast & Cleaver, which will continue both the core butcher shop operations, its lunch sandwiches, and its fancy Friday night operation, The Peasant, but close its casual bistro. Not to worry, it’s just a hop away from its sibling and our 2025 restaurant of the year, Little Beast.
- Loxsmith Bagels: The Beacon Hill location has closed as of today; per Instagram, the new tenant will be a sushi spot.
- Sam’s Tavern: The much-loved burger shop is closing… kind of? Capitol Hill Seattle has a little insight into the wheeling and dealing that might mean Sam’s comes back to life soon.
Image: Amber Fouts
Oh, BTW, here’s what you missed last time.
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