So often around this time of year, our attention turns to the holiday feast — the giant bird, abundant sides, and numerous pies — such that we forget how everyday meals can be regular opportunities to treat ourselves. Family-owned restaurants are returning to classic recipes and bringing a sense of comfort and ease to our dining experience. It’s often in savoring the simple pleasures — sipping a cup of coffee topped with a sweet foam, slurping beef marrow from a bone broth soup, or eating with your hands — where thankfulness is most deeply felt. 

Classic Thai street food, Ka Praw Gai.

Photo courtesy of Wann Yen

The Uncle Mark Special at Mark Thai Food Box

Since 2015, Wann Yen has been a Thai food staple for University of Washington students. Mark and Picha Pinkaow (formerly of Thai Curry Simple) cook up classic Thai dishes and specialty desserts and teas at Mark Thai Food Box. Mark, often referred to by regulars as Uncle Mark, is easily recognizable from the stickers and labels bearing his likeness on to-go containers. He has soothed many hungry students with his Ka Praw Gai, a classic Thai street food of minced chicken stir-fried with bird’s eye chilis, Thai basil, garlic, and fish sauce over Jasmine rice topped with a sunnyside up egg. The runny yolk adds richness and calms the heat from the bird’s eye chilies. 

University District

The Special Veggie Combo at Delish Ethiopian.

Photo courtesy of Delish Ethiopian Cuisine

Sharing is caring at Delish Ethiopian Cuisine

The very act of sharing Ethiopian food among friends is a secret ingredient in and of itself. That’s why husband and wife duo Delish and Amy Lemma place great importance on their combos, which provide a taste of so many options on the menu that you won’t have any fear of missing out. The Special Veggie Combo at Delish is plentiful and colorful, so each bite differs from the next, jumping from spicy herbed red lentils to berbere spiced split peas and beautiful red beets and potatoes with garlic. Better yet, this filling and affordable combo is also all vegan. 

Hillman City

A warm bowl of Bulalo with cabbage, corn, potato, and beef.

Photo by Melissa Miranda

A warm-you-up pick-me-up at Kilig

Despite achieving great success with her restaurant Musang, Chef Melissa Miranda’s second restaurant, Kilig, is a daytime eatery with a comparatively more casual vibe. Its smaller menu consists of a few types of pancit noodle dishes, with the star of the show being the Bulalo, a hearty beef soup. Her Bulalo is a humble mixture of cabbage, corn, potato, and beef. Bulalo’s clean and robust flavors come from slow-cooking beef shank and bone marrow with sweet cabbage and corn. The humble vegetables soften in the broth and soak up its flavors. It’s a dish that wraps you in its warmth and soothes you. And it behooves you, the diner, to suck the marrow out of each and every bone. 

International District

A Dark Night latte with sweet black sesame foam.

Photo courtesy of Coffeeholic House

A Dark Night Morning at Coffeeholic House

Since Trang Cao and Chen Dian opened Coffeeholic House, Seattle has had a very different experience with coffee. The pair were among the first to introduce a diverse range of Vietnamese and Asian coffee flavors to Seattle. Since then, we’ve had more spots follow suit with colorful, dessert-inspired coffee with flavors like pandan, ube, pistachio, hazelnut, and more. Its Dark Night, a latte with sweet black sesame foam, is a bit of dessert on a latte, but not too sweet. The flavor of toasted sesame brings a hint of winter fireplace to each sip of coffee. In this season when nights are most dark, Coffeeholic’s Dark Night can brighten any morning. 

University District, Greenwood, Columbia City, Bellevue

An order of beef sukiyaki at Donburi Station.

Photo courtesy of Donburi Station

A classic rice bowl at Donburi Station

Fremont Bowl has done for chirashi bowls what other sushi restaurants haven’t — taken a decadent chirashi bowl and made it generous and approachable, almost like if a Japanese mom made you a chirashi bowl. At its sister restaurant, Donburi Station, this approach is used to create a wider variety of rice bowls that are lovingly created, abundant, and unfailingly approachable. Case in point. The beef sukiyaki, a sauce-abundant dish of thin sliced beef cooked with sweet caramelized onions, mirin, dashi, sugar, and soy sauce ladled over rice. It’s a cozy wintertime dish that evokes memories of a homemade lunch on a chilly Sunday afternoon. That said, you could think of ordering it for a quick but satiating meal on any given day.  

Georgetown, Bellevue