For more than 20 years, Cafe Paloma has drawn fans to Pioneer Square for a cozy, colorful interior, outdoor seating, and a vegetarian-friendly selection of Turkish specialties. Traditional favorites include lamb pita, falafel, lentil soup, and some of Seattle’s best meze, like hummus and peppery muhammara spread, and thoughtful salads and grilled panini sandwiches round out the menu.

Picture a beer hall — massive wooden tables, large mugs of crisp lagers, and a boisterous conviviality — then add Northwest beers and local ingredients, and Pioneer Square’s Altstadt emerges. Indoors or on the sidewalk patio, high-quality plates of sausage and sauerkraut, schnitzel, cheesy käsespätzle, and, of course, soft pretzels with mustard pair wonderfully with German and German-style beers.

In the nicest way possible, 13 Coins shows its age: The restaurant traces its origins to 1967, and although this sprawling Pioneer Square location opened in 2018, it maintains the swingin’ vibe with captain’s chairs on a swivel, high-backed leather booths, long hours, and an open kitchen that serves as much banter as it does classic fare. Steaks, omelets, Dungeness crab Louie, and bananas Foster are but a few of the many crowd-pleasing options, available indoors or out.

A casual, family-friendly atmosphere prevails at this Pioneer Square burger bar, Two Doors Down’s second location. The burgers feature juicy beef or vegetarian patties, buns in kaiser, brioche, and gluten-free varieties, and creative toppings like hop-garlic mayo and green chile cream cheese. Twenty rotating taps represent the best of the Northwest’s cider and beer producers, and the rest of the menu is small but mighty, featuring fries, milkshakes, deep-fried avocado sandwiches, and an inspired take on the cream cheese-covered Seattle dog.

Smoked crab rolls, curry cauliflower, and shrimp and grits all warrant attention at Pioneer Square D&E, but for brunch or dinner, the lowkey restaurant has diners hooked on fried chicken, which comes on a sandwich, as wings, or teamed with a bacon-stuffed waffle. The patio’s a big draw, too.

Nirmal’s, a destination restaurant in Pioneer Square with indoor and outdoor seating, pulls inspiration from many regions of India for its excellent dishes, from Mumbai street foods to bell peppers stuffed with stir-fried veggies and paneer to a whole pompano fish marinated and fried in semolina and rice flour. The ambiance is inviting, too, with low lighting and brick walls.

A moody Pioneer Square cocktail bar first, Damn the Weather also serves noteworthy food — burgers, handmade pasta in forms like fettuccine with wild mushrooms, duck-fat fries — to complement a wide array of clever drinks and natural wines.

The interior of Dim Sum King is unassuming, but the Chinese food is anything but. The menu at this Chinatown-International District restaurant breaks things down into steamed, baked, crispy, and dessert sections, with quick, affordable dim sum classics like fluffy pork buns, tender shrimp dumplings, and flaky egg tarts available by the piece instead of just by the plate.

Local Chinese chain Dough Zone has perfected the art of fast-casual dumplings, wowing crowds with unbeatable xiao long bao soup dumplings and juicy jian buns in a modern setting. The rest of the menu rocks, too, particularly the spicy dan dan noodles, pickled string beans, and smoky plum juice.

There’s nothing quite like the experience of a seafood boil, dumped across the table for a crowd to pick through. Crawfish King does it Viet-Cajun-style, where the endless choices span crawfish, Dungeness crab, and Andouille sausage to fish balls and quail eggs, not to mention fried sides, copious sauces, gumbo, and neon-colored cocktails in mason jars.

Tai Tung has two major claims to fame: It’s Seattle’s oldest Chinese restaurant, and Bruce Lee loved coming here for the beef in oyster sauce. Lee lived in the neighborhood, now called the Chinatown-International District, and diners can still sit amid the longstanding wood-paneled walls to try his favorite dish today, alongside other classic comforts like chop suey and egg foo young. 

Paseo’s ample outdoor and indoor spaces are nearly as big as their famously juicy Caribbean sandwiches. The best-known version features slow-roasted pork shoulder with caramelized onions, pickled jalapenos, and garlic aioli, but everything else is tasty too, including plates of jambalaya and rice and beans.