Hey Duders,

I'll be in Seattle for the first time for PAX next week, wondering if there are any places to eat that I absolutely should hit up. I'm staying in the middle of downtown and will not be renting a car, so looking for things within reasonable walking distance. I'll be there for a week and have no official plans for food so I'm hoping to get as much variety as I can. Also plan on some adult beverages, so any good bars? Any suggestions are appreciated. Look forward to meeting some of you for the GB shows before and during the event!

Thanks!

Seattle local here! Places to consider if you're going to be mostly confined to the downtown area:

• Anything by Tom Douglas is great. Take a look at the site and pick out one or two that look interesting to you. Wide variety of stuff from him, all excellent. I personally would try to hit Serious Pie, Serious Biscuit for breakfast, and Tanaka San, though really you can't go wrong.
• Goldfinch Tavern at the Four Seasons is a bit on the pricey side, but definitely worth it if you want a nice night out. Happy Hour has some good options and is a bit cheaper.l
• Umi Sake House for sushi is fantastic. Again if you can get there for happy hour, they have cheap rolls and beer/sake.
• Pike Place Market has a lot of great options, including walk up/take out places like Piroshky Piroshky or one of the many food stands in the market, to nicer, sit down dining like Cafe Campagne, Matt's At The Market, The Pink Door....I could go on.
• Pike Place Brewing has a great brew pub.

Other than all of that, take a look at Eater Seattle, especially their maps section, including things like their Eater Essential 38 and Hottest Restaurants Right Now. I use these personally when looking for something I maybe haven't tried before. Easy to spot places that are near where you'll be staying. If you spot something outside your walking distance, Uber/Lyft are both very available here and can get you to a lot of places for less than $10 each way if you use the cheapest options.

Hope this helps!

Hot Mama's Pizza on Capitol Hill is awesome, and not that far from the convention center.

Starbucks.

Really, though, I visited a little over a year ago, we stayed in the max hotel (?) Downtown. There's a bar attached to it next door. Drinks and food were pretty good. I forget what it was called though. Don't eat at the museum. Food was dumb and super try-hard.

Was just in Seattle in June and can back up @jtgamble saying that the Pike Place Brewing brew pub is a solid brew pub.

Oh man, I totally left out pretty much all of Capitol Hill....thanks for reminding me @sbaitso. I think the Eater maps cover a good number of places there, but you can also look at the Capitol Hill Neighborhood section of Eater for a lot of recommendations there. Tons of great stuff that way :)

this is great was about to ask the same question. anyone know what the public transportation is like?

I dunno I went to a McDonalds when I visited. It was okay.

Here's a Google Doc put together by past PAX Prime-ers identifying a selection of recommended eateries in downtown Seattle.

Also, there are usually food trucks surfing around the convention center throughout the convention. Generally food truck food can be pretty great, and during PAX you'll sometimes snag a free meal if you're just willing to, like, hashtag some dumb social media phrase for the truck's hosting party.

@philipaubrey: Downtown Seattle is super walkable. If you're staying in a hotel within a mile or two of the event, you can walk to pretty much any significant happening related to PAX.

You should try out Top Pot doughnuts in the morning! It's a little walk away from the convention center - I went there the last time I went to PAX, and it definitely hit the spot! I went right from getting doughnuts to getting in line for Portal 2, which was crazy to see, so I have pretty positive feelings for it haha

Man, PAX was fun

The 5 Point is near the Space Needle and fucking awesome for a skeezy dive bar vibe. They've got great food and are open 24/7, serving booze from when they can legally start in the morning to last call at 2am.

If you've got the means to get out a ways, either Paseo in Fremont or Un Bien in Ballard have got the best cuban sandwiches in the city. Paseo is the original location but under new owners, and Un Bien is a spin off the original owners made after Paseo was closed for a stint. It's debatable which one is better.

You've got Ezell's and Heaven Sent for delicious fried chicken. Similar to Paseo/Un Bien, Ezell's is the original location and Heaven Sent is a spinoff made by Ezell after he split from Ezell's chicken. Still absolutely delicious.

There's a Dick's burgers in Queen Anne (as well as Capitol Hill and near the U-District in Wallingford, but those are out a ways) that serves awesome fast food burgers. Dick's is Seattle's regional cult burger joint, serving up awesome simple fast food burgers in the style of fast food restaurants from 50 years ago. Skip the fries and get another burger, though, they kind of suck. Cash only.

Also, it's not a food spot, but still worth mentioning - Shorty's in Belltown. It's a pinball dive bar with a few arcade machines as well, super cheap, super awesome. They also serve awesomely shitty Coney Island hot dogs with all kinds of nasty delicious fixings. It's only 10-15 blocks from downtown, and there are a bunch of other cool bars in the immediate area.

Pagliacci's Pizza is a local chain, and it's definitely a cut above your normal franchise pizza joints. They have a good variety of different pizzas and they taste handmade. A local Seattle-ite will probably tell you there are 30 better pizza joints in town, but I liked it.