Restaurants in Tukwila

"My paternal grandmother's kitchen was like a window into the world of food," head chef Paul Michael reflects on Frontier Room's website. A transplant from Louisiana, he draws much of his culinary inspiration from his Southern roots and his grandma's cooking—a melting pot of such culinary influences as Syrian, French-Louisianan, and African-American. Chef Michael crafts many of his recipes over the smoke of a wood barbecue pit, cooking beef brisket for up to 14 hours and barbecuing Northwest salmon with the same creole spices that the fish migrate every year to harvest.

These dishes are complemented by an extensive list of craft beers from the West Coast and around the world, from a Redhook coffee stout to an Allagash brew selected specifically to pair with barbecue. En route to the outdoor patio, the aromas of smoked meats waft through the Frontier Room's rustic interior, where hardwood tables sit under deer antlers and a bronze-relief cow amid such fixtures of Americana as a pile of chopped firewood reminiscent of Paul Bunyan's pencil shavings.

Queen City Grill's chefs seek out culinary inspiration on land and in the sea, creating a menu that earned praise from the Seattle Times in 2007 and garnered a rating of "very good to excellent" from Zagat. Fillets of Alaskan king salmon and Oaxacan prawns line the grill tops alongside dry-aged new york steaks, slowly roasting over the flames. The chefs embrace northwestern flavors by sourcing local greens for the house salads and topping hand-packed burger patties with Beecher's cheeses. To accompany each meal, servers can recommend wines from the restaurant's 500-bottle selection, which features an extensive spread of crisp whites and bold reds from Washington, Oregon, and beyond.

Opposite the dining room's immense wooden bar, booths line the wall of brick-lined windows, illuminated by sconces and small windowsill lamps. The tables on the outdoor patio area, however, rely on the romantic light of the restaurant's staff of indentured fireflies.