While lunch in the neighborhood has long boasted a smorgasbord of diverse and phenomenal restaurant options, a recent spate of top-notch restaurateurs opening outlets has brought South Lake Union’s dinner game to the gold-medal match. Names that any Seattleite—or Top Chef viewer—will recognize have brought steak, pasta, Northwest cuisine, and rooftop Mediterranean small plates to the table. And that’s a crowded table—so make your reservations early.
At Vestal, the host stand is actually the stump of a 350-year-old Douglas fir tree, a symbolic representation of what chef Josh Henderson sends out from the kitchen of his latest place. After bringing rotisserie chicken to Poulet Galore and shaping a fast-food restaurant around local tastes at Great State Burger, the Huxley Wallace Collective’s chef comes home to his own hearth—literally. The restaurant, and the eight chef’s counter seats in particular, is designed around the coal-fired hearth. The dark décor—navy and polished concrete—further frames the warmth and light from which come local ingredients combined with global inspirations in dishes like a bouillabaisse with spot prawns, salmon collar, and smoked paprika.