48 Hours Eating Seattle's BEST Food!

Seattle might be America’s most slept-on food city, and this episode completely changed how I see it. In this episode of my 2026 World Cup food series, I’m in Seattle, Washington, to find out whether this rainy, coffee-fuelled city might quietly have one of the best food scenes in North America. Seattle is a proper food city. It has seafood, sandwiches, fried chicken, teriyaki, historic markets, bakeries, burgers, ice cream, serious pizza and that Pacific Northwest feeling where everything is a bit misty, a bit moody and somehow tastes better because of it. I start at Market House Meats for one of the best corned beef sandwiches I’ve had on the entire trip. Proper old-school counter food, stacked meat, soft bread, mustard, salt, fat and the kind of sandwich that makes you question why corned beef does not get more respect. Then I head to Cookie’s Country Chicken for a load of fried chicken. Crispy, juicy, golden, heavy in all the right ways, and exactly the sort of food that makes you forget it has probably rained for six months straight. After that, I go to Pike Place Market, one of Seattle’s most iconic food landmarks, to eat my way through the classics. I visit Piroshky Piroshky for warm Russian pastries, Beecher’s Handmade Cheese for their famous mac and cheese, Pike Place Chowder for one of the city’s most talked-about bowls, and Lowell’s for Dungeness crab with a view over the water. Pike Place is not just a market. It is one of the great food stages in America. Fish flying through the air, steam coming off chowder, queues out of tiny bakeries, tourists, locals, noise, history and a proper sense that the city is alive around you. Then I head to Dick’s Drive-In for a classic Seattle burger. Cheap, simple, nostalgic and the kind of place that tells you a lot about what locals actually love. From there, I try Seattle-style teriyaki at Okinawa Teriyaki, because this city has one of the strongest teriyaki cultures in America. Sweet, savoury, grilled, sticky and completely different to the polished version you might expect. Then it is over to Molly Moon’s for ice cream, before finishing at AK Pizza Guy for what might be the best pizza of the entire trip so far. After eating pizza in New York, LA, San Francisco, Toronto and beyond, this was a serious statement. This is part of my 16-part series travelling to every 2026 FIFA World Cup host city in North America to find out which city has the best food. I’ve already visited New York, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Atlanta, Houston, Boston, Miami, Toronto and San Francisco, and now I’m in Seattle, a city that genuinely surprised me from start to finish. 00:00 - Seattle introduction 00:31 - Market House Meats - Old school deli 04:36 - Cookies Country Chicken - Fried chicken with military-honed precision 08:38 - Pike Place Market - Fish throwing and the original Starbucks 09:37 - Piroshky Piroshky - Famous smoked salmon piroshky 11:00 - Beecher’s Handmade Cheese - World-class Mac & Cheese 11:31 - Lowell's Restaurant - Dungeness crab omelette with a view 12:25 - Pike Place Chowder - Award-winning clam chowder 13:33 - Dick’s Drive-In - A Seattle heritage burger spot 15:39 - Okinawa Teriyaki - Exploring Seattle's teriyaki obsession 17:12 - The Gum Wall - The city's most "interesting" landmark 17:30 - Molly Moon’s Homemade Ice Cream - scratch-made local treats 20:38 - Post Alley Pizza / AK Pizza Guy - Pizza mastery and life-changing cookies