Depends on what ethnicity you're looking for, I suppose. Still, I think a great place to start for Asian choices, inexpensive, very informal, but a real eye-opener for visitors, is the food court at Uwajimaya Village, the newly expanded pan-Asian (mainly Japanese) supermarket-turned-mall in the International District just east of Pioneer Square. See http://www.uwajimaya.com/

The food court has several Asian food stands, with Japanese, Chinese, Filipino, Thai, Korean, and other goodies on offer, also a Chinese bakery to die for, all set within the drop-dead fascinating surroundings of Uwajimaya. Before or after your meal, go gawk at the geoducks or other fishy things in the fish section, or play name-that-vegetable in the produce section. It's a gas.

The Noodle Ranch in the Belltown area is reasonably priced and offers great Asian noodles dishes.

I usually look for ethnic restaurants near, but maybe not exactly in downtown. The Chinatown/International district, within walking distance or a free bus ride from downtown has many Asian restaurants. One of my favorites is the Phnom Penh Noodle House (Cambodian). A little bit east of there on Jackson St. near 12th Ave. is the Saigon Bistro, one of my favorite Vietnamese restaurants, but there are many, many Vietnamese restaurants. Good Chinese restaurants in this nbrhood include the Sea Garden. A Japanese favorite of mine is Tsukushinbo. An excellent restaurant in"Little Saigon" (12th and Jackson) is the Malay Satay Hut. There are several very good Ethiopian Restaurants on or near 12th Ave. - I like Meskel or Addis or Kokeb. The Afrikando - a West African restaurant is in Belltown, just north of downtown. None of these restaurants is touristy and all are moderately priced. I suggest you ask this question at the usenet site seattle.eats where there are a lot of readers/posters who are serious about food.

Thanks everyone...Pat, if you're still out there, do you have a web address for Seattle eats?

For seattle eats one way to access it is to go to www.seattle.net/community and follow the links to news groups. You will see a listing including seattle.eats

x

Hi...

Take a look at the citysearch site.. They are towards the end of their "Best of" survey for seattle..

Looks good..

http://best.citysearch.com/categories/seattle/2001

Have a great time..

Found another good site for good restaurants in and around Seattle..

I have checked a couple of their reviews in restaurants I have been in, and they are pretty fair...

The reviews are from the "Seattle Weekly"

There is the What's hot section

http://www.seattleweekly.com/features/0133/food-hotsheet.shtml

and there is the "Restaurant Review" search section - by type of food and location..

http://www.seattleweekly.com/food/