12 new Capitol Hill restaurants and cafes: Steak, tacos, coffee and more

Our spring roundup of Seattle restaurant openings was overstuffed, featuring more than 40 bistros and cafes. It was so robust that we had to break the list up by neighborhood.

The headliner? The return to Capitol Hill of a steakhouse from Renee Erickson's Sea Creatures restaurant group, arguably our city's most celebrated restaurateurs.

Erickson's Sea Creatures has rebooted the high-end steakhouse Bateau as Jeffry's at Union and 11th, featuring the same dry-aged beef program sold at lower price points. Options include smaller cuts like an 8-ounce bavette steak ($36) that you can fortify with salads or sides ($11-$14).

Some readers want to know if the famous Bateau burger is back on the menu. Do you have to even ask?

The space next door (formerly Boat Bar / Bar Melusine) is now an oyster bar that doubles as a waiting area for Jeffry's. A tip for those who don't have reservations: You can order from the full steak menu at the bar if the dining room at Jeffry's is full.

How about a new spot for Chinese food? Check out Blue Willow on East Pike, where the team behind Tyger Tyger in Uptown brings its Sichuan cuisine to the Pike/Pine corridor in the former Stateside space. Expect family-style meals, with shared plates ($20-$30) such as fried rice served with garlic three ways, mala chicken, and dumplings galore. Blue Willow has also taken over the speakeasy-style bar next door, Foreign National, and will unveil that concept in a few weeks. Blue Willow won a bidding war for that bar space.

Two blocks east, The Counter Shoppe serves breakfast and lunch sandwiches like a Cubano, a Reuben, a BLT and more.

Over on 12th Avenue, Kha-Bar specializes in Bengali cuisine, with pompano fish seasoned in cumin and coriander and comfort fare like mutton curry.

Or head over to East Olive Way, where Craft Meal Collection stocks its coolers with ready-made meals such as Hainanese chicken, mapo tofu and Japanese chicken curry.

North of the Capitol Hill light rail station on Broadway is the Korean noodle house Busan Jeong. This is good news for Seattleites who whine about having to trek to Federal Way or Lynnwood for dwaeji-gukbap, the comfort noodle that gets served in a milky pork bone broth.

Just south of that noodle house is Cafe Lolo, which celebrates locally made produce and grains in its dishes, from a rye focaccia to pasta made from milled red wheat.

You can also grab grilled lamb, chicken or beef at the kebab house Cafe Ashiana at the elbow of Harvard Avenue and East Pine Street.

A block east and a few steps up Broadway, the late-night Mexican food stand Tacos Cometa has landed a permanent home across from Seattle Central College. Its charcoal-grilled beef tacos are a hit. Gone is its late-night stand near Cal Anderson Park, but its brick-and-mortar taqueria stays open until 1 a.m. on Fridays and Saturdays.

(Elsewhere on the steak taco trail, the popular Auburn restaurant Sonora Carne Asada House is expected to expand to Hillman City by the end of May - and Gordo Steak, one of our most anticipated restaurant openings of 2026, is open now on Occidental Avenue South in Pioneer Square.)

Finally, for your caffeine fix and sweet tooth: Offline Coffee Co., Sunright Tea Studio and the Common Cart are all open now around Capitol Hill.

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This story was originally published April 30, 2026 at 6:37 AM.