Could you suggest some local favorite must hit eats, we're vacationing for the food !!!!

Not necessarily my favorite restaurant, but absolutely my favorite meal (salmon rubbed with "love" over cornbread/carmelized onion pudding, with a shitake relish and a beet, walnut, and blue cheese salad) was at Etta's.

Are you looking for fine dining, ethnic places, favorite local joints, or all of the above?

Sazerac http://www.sazeracrestaurant.com

Etta's Seafood is excellent
Salumi in Pioneer Square
go to Chinatown
along the waterfront
Rover's
Union
anyplace in Pike Place Market
Brasa
Assagio's
La Fontana
Ohana
Le Pichet
Emmett Watson's Oyster Bar
Ray's Boathouse

We're looking for reasonably priced places, not the touristy places, more local favorites..

Thank you. In that case I suggest:

Baguette Box
Bambuza
Bell Street Diner
Cactus
Chinook
Deluxe
Greenleaf, Vietnamese
Harborside
Red Mill Burgers
Siam on Broadway
Tutta Bella Pizza
Vios
Aqua Verde
Chinoise
Racha
Tamarind Tree

I second Cactus and Tutta Bella.

Dixie's BBQ
Costal Kitchen
Mama Melina's
Cedars
Calabria
Cactus
Pumphouse
Red Mill Burgers
Pagliacci
Rikki Rikki
Taco Time
Mojito Cafe

Seattle experts, your opinion is requested. Red Mill Burgers or Burgermaster? Also Elliot's Oyster House or Emmett Watson's? We will be staying at the Grand Hyatt using public transportation if that matters.

Of these options, Red Mill and Elliot's.

Now that I see you are using public transportion, I don't think Red Mill is worth traveling to by bus.

Another popular "Seattle" burger place is Dick's, which has a sit-down restaurant on Lower Queen Anne. However, I prefer nearby Seattle-original Kidd Valley which also happens to have spectacular hand-made batter fried onions.

But those are my local favorites

Bakeman's sandwich shop 122 Cherry see roadfood.com for a recent write-up.

Elliot's v. Emmett's: Elliot's is great for oysters-go for the oyster happy hour from 3-6 (cheapest at 3, progressively more expensive), but uneven for everything else. Emmett's is too heavy on the deep fried for me and I don't think it's the best quality. If you're looking for other casual seafood in that area, the grilled salmon sandwiches and clam chowder at Market Grill are fantastic. They're only open until 5, though. Matt's in the Market is a nicer, sit down restaurant with a small menu but great seafood.
I love Red Mill but not sure it's worth the bus ride just for a burger...Palace Kitchen downtown makes a great burger and is an all around great place (fyi-it's a real restaurant-not a burger joint).

To the OP: If you're vacationing for the food I'd try to hit the kind of places that you might not find elsewhere. My top picks would be Seven Stars Pepper (Szechuan), Tamarind Tree and Green Leaf (Vietnamese), Market Grill (casual seafood sandwiches), Osteria La Spiga (Emilia-Romagna Italian), Salumi (cured meats, Italian, very short hours). All of these are either in or fairly close to downtown. I'd add Union and Lark but they might be a little more expensive than "reasonable."

Not knowing where the OP is coming from, or what s/he can get near home, it's kind of a crapshoot. Plus this is Fodor's, not Chowhound.

There are some local specialties that are hard to replicate in other places. Fresh salmon, halibut and oysters, for instance. Cold Dungeness crab consumed with great artisan bread and a bottle of some decent local wine - who needs a restaurant?

But I'd have to say go for things you can't get other places - especially the vast array of Asian places. (Plus, the fusion of great local seafood and Asian preparation methods - wow.)

Burgers? Barbecue? Other places have more and better. Want a kosher-style deli? Good luck with that. Italian can be workmanlike to good, but not up there with other cities, even on the west coast. Greek? I can count the good places on one hand. Less than one hand.

Some places mentioned already, or soon to be -

Seven Stars Pepper - uniformly good, also nicely cheap.

Siam on Broadway (the Lake Union place is okay, too.)

Hiroshi's - small Japanese place on Eastlake - personal fave.

Sea Garden in Chinatown

House of Hong (mainly for excellent dim sum served in the presence of several hundred of your best friends.)

Uwajimaya food court - a collection of Asian food stalls in a supermarket/department store food court. Fun at lunchtime, very cheap. Try the Huli Huli chicken at Aloha Plates. Oh, bruddah.

And, okay, you can go to Ivar's take-away for nicely greasy fish 'n chips. Keep clam.

Red Mill v. Burgermaster?? Hey, do they have carhops at Red Mill? Russian speaking servers? Noooo....

Maybe I better explain myself a bit more. During family summer visits to Seattle as a teenager (many more years ago than I would like to admit to), one of the great treats I remember was going to Burgermaster for cheeseburgers, fries and shakes. I saw Burgermaster featured on the Food Network a few years ago and told myself I had to stop in again if ever in the area.

So is it still as good as ever or just a distant memory?

Curious,

I get where you're coming from. The hamburgers of my Seattle childhood were served at places called Ben Paris (downdown) and Brooms (in Wallingford)--both are now long gone.

I recently stopped at the Burgermaster located near the UW. It is shabby, it has no carhops, and the "Burgermaster" I ate was nothing special.

Nonetheless, if I were you, I would visit Burgermaster to commemorate happy family times of your youth.

I always love it when someone seems to insist that the famous places must be for tourists and not locals. How silly is that? Do all locals avoid famous places which became famous because they professionally serve spectacular or innovative food in a great atmosphere? Trust me there are locals in some cities who patronize the finest places in town.

Meanwhile if a "locals" hangout is really great, what makes anyone think that it won't have been discovered and patronized by tourists?

The bottom line klclary, is that if you are traveling for the food as you say, then you can rest assured that thousands of other "foodies" who travel for the food and the thousands of food writers who seek out and write about the best food in Seattle have already made virtually any really good restaurant in town known.

Mc Cormick and Smiccls on first avenue. Great food.Paul