Fun In Seattle

Visiting from out of town? Here are some of our favorite places to take visitors when they come and see us. For a more complete list of local attractions, check out visitseattle.org's suggested itineraries as well as their explore Seattle page.

Food: We each picked out five of our favorite restaurants to recommend:

• 663 Bistro ($). The best of Seattle's many hole-in-the-wall Chinese restaurants. Get at least one curry dish. Also, the food is incredibly filling; two dishes plus a fried rice dish will be more than enough for four people. For Dim Sum (say, on a Saturday Brunch), try Jade Garden ($).
• Pike Street Fish Fry ($). Anything and everything that is delicious fried. Try the oysters and the menu of sauces for your fries.
  
• Elysian Brewpub ($). Good variety of pub food with excellent rotating tab of in-house microbrews.
  
• Molly Moon's Ice Cream ($). A great place to stop on a sunny day.
• Julia's on Broadway ($$). A nice late breakfast or brunch spot. Vegetarians may prefer the all-vegetarian Cafe Flora.
• Long's Provincial ($$). A diverse menu of regional Vietnamese food with a great cocktail menu.
• Maneki ($$). The best Japanese restaurant in the best city for Japanese food in the U.S.
• Coastal Kitchen ($$). A combination of regular favorites and a rotating menu of cuisines from around the world.
• Wild Ginger ($$$). A regular on "Best Seattle Restaurants" lists, they serve up the oft-maligned "asian fusion cusine" but manage to get it right. Reservations recommended.
• Lola ($$$). Our favorite of the five restaurants owned by Seattle superchef Tom Douglas. Reservations recommended during peak hours.

Fish tossing at Pike Place Market is always a treat. Cafe Campagne ($$) is our favorite restaurant in the Market, and probably just outside our top ten.

Our Top Picks for things to do while visiting:

• Watch the guys toss the fish at Pike Place Market. While you're there, Grab coffee at the original Starbucks, and do a bit of specialty shopping.
  
• Take the monorail to Seattle Center, where you can visit the Space Needle, Experience Music Project, and the Science Fiction Museum.
  
• Learn a little about Seattle's frontier days at the Underground Tour. A good choice for gray or rainy days. (note: call in advance for schedules and availability.)
• Go whale-watching in the San Juans (note: this is a full-day trip that requires a car to get to the right port).
• The Boeing Museum of Flight is a great place for aviation buffs, the young, and the young at heart. (note: take the 124 bus from downtown if you're traveling car-free)
• Stretch your taste buds in the International District: where you can find more than your standard Hong Kong expat fare. Vietnamese, Thai, Szechuan Chinese, Japanese, and other East & South Asian cuisines dot the neighborhood.

(If you are local and have other suggestions feel free to leave them in the comments).