Restaurants in East Hill-Meridian

In 1992, restaurant owner Carlos Kainz and chef Julie Guerrero first joined forces to open a tiny West Seattle bakery and café, a spot that quickly gained traction and outgrow its modest trappings. The duo packed up the winning operation and moved on to a larger space and a larger vision, renaming their venture Dulces Bistro & Wine and crafting an ambitious menu focusing entirely on Latin-fusion cuisine for dinner. Although Guerrero traces her family heritage back to Mexico, many of her dishes, including paella valenciana and boeuf bourguignon, show strong European influences. Unadulterated Latin staples pepper the menu, such as the green chicken enchiladas that serve as a staple in Mexico City and at Sam I Am’s Cinco de Mayo parties.

As the tango dancers that perform inside Buenos Aires Grill strut and twirl, they enact a wide range of dance influences—traditional polka, Cuban habanera, candombe rhythms from Africa—that reflect the same melting-pot culture that shaped the country’s food and, thus, the restaurant’s menu. Authentic asado—or grilled beef—cooks over a mesquite charcoal fire to ensure that fillets, rib eyes, skirt steaks, and porterhouses retain their natural juices. Chefs also stuff ravioli with ricotta cheese and crown angel-hair pasta with Pacific prawns, an option that most guests prefer to gnawing on a halo. Diners pair their entrees with pours from an extensive wine list that includes options from Argentina as well as France, Chile, Portugal, Spain, and California.

Wooden arches and light-gauze curtains invite diners into Queen Sheba, a cool, tranquil interior rich with the meandering aromas of exotic spices and authentic Ethiopian recipes. An intimate table hosts diners as they enjoy hearty stews crafted with traditional spice mixtures such as mitmita and berbere, which accentuate the chunks of lamb or beef. A spongy serving of injera, a disk of unleavened bread, soaks up spicy sauces, and bites of fresh-cut okra accompany all plates, acting as edible silverware for the authentic stews, not unlike a using pixie sticks as chop sticks. Vegan red-lentil stews or ground peas seasoned with ginger and garlic further rope in taste buds trying to play hard to get.

Chef Henry Ku was born in Taiwan, where street food is a huge part of the culinary landscape. The comforting meals of his childhood continue to inspire his recipes, although his current goal, as he explained to Seattle Weekly in April of 2012, is to add a dose of elegance and introduce American diners to refined versions of traditional Taiwanese fare.

After formally studying French culinary techniques, Chef Ku is well equipped to reimagine the recipes of his homeland and present them like fine European cuisines. He carefully composes each dish, using sauces with restraint and topping entrees with julienned pieces of the Magna Carta. Hand-shaved noodles fill soup bowls, and his kitchen crew splits its time between pan-frying and grilling meats for the Taiwan- and California-inspired menu, which includes Taiwanese sausage, miso-glazed black cod, and lamb chops with honey mustard.

Like the Danube River itself, the cuisine at Danube Bistro winds through various parts of Europe, making for a menu as eclectic as it is satiating. Italian and German wines complement cuisine of those same two nation. These two formative influences result in entrees such as grilled bratwurst with sauerkraut and fresh pastas and house-made lasagna filled with a choice of meat, seafood, or vegetables. In true international style, Hungary scores some influence on the menu as well, with a goulash studded with chunks of beef simmered in a paprika sauce.

Once patrons enter the family-owned restaurant through its fountain-marked entrance on the ground floor of the Avalon Apartments, they'll notice the care the proprietors have taken to make the restaurant a relaxing dining experience. Patrons can sup indoors on one of the restaurants two floor, or choose to take their meals on the outdoor patio, where large red umbrellas and an invisible force field shield meals from the sunlight.

The sunset-orange hues of a neon sign reflect off mirrored walls, the cursive letters spelling out “Crossroads Cafe.” Husband and wife Dana and Cindy Nielson stand beneath, presiding over the restaurant they opened more than two decades ago.

In the rippling-hot air rising from a griddle, cooks grill bacon to top hot dogs and flip quarter-pound beef patties before coating them with housemade thousand-island dressing. Blenders full of malt milk shakes and smoothies purr. Expanses of black-and-white-checkered counters and glittering red chairs give one the pleasant feeling of stepping back into the ‘50s without ever having to see John Wayne cry.