The Room
Travis Post opened Plenty of Clouds on East Pike in 2022 — a Capitol Hill Sichuan dining room dedicated to the proposition that Seattle needed serious modern Sichuan cooking outside the strip-mall genre. The dining room is intentionally polished — exposed brick, a long bar, an open kitchen at the back where the wok line is the spectacle.
Eater Seattle named Plenty of Clouds in its 2023 best-new-restaurant list. The Seattle Times review held the kitchen as one of the most-disciplined Asian-restaurant openings of the year.
The Food
The Sichuan programme runs the regional canon: dan-dan noodles, mapo tofu, dry-fried green beans, the seasonal-rotating chile preparations. The hand-pulled lamian (la-mian) noodles are the secondary signature. The seasonal vegetable plates and the family-style sharing platters handle the menu's wider draws.
Cocktail programme runs Chinese-spice-led: a working five-spice old-fashioned, a Sichuan-pepper Margarita, a baijiu-and-yuzu spritz. Wine programme is short, weighted toward Riesling. Service is informed and warm.
Best Occasion Fit
First Date: The bar at Plenty of Clouds is one of Capitol Hill's most-reliable first-date seats. The Sichuan menu shares well, the cocktail programme is the conversation.
Team Dinner: Plenty of Clouds handles team dinners better than most Capitol Hill counters. The family-style format scales, the chile programme is the icebreaker.
Solo Dining: The bar at Plenty of Clouds is one of the better Capitol Hill solo-dining seats. A bowl of dan-dan noodles, a Sichuan-spice cocktail.