The Room
Eric Banh — also of Ba Bar, Monsoon — opened Stateside on Pike Street in 2015 as a working argument for what the Vietnamese-French colonial inheritance could mean at full restaurant scale. The dining room is intentionally relaxed — a converted Capitol Hill bungalow with exposed brick, a long bar, and a wraparound patio that has earned the room its Capitol Hill regulars.
The Seattle Times review listed Stateside among the year's best new restaurants in 2016. Eater Seattle has held the room on its top-twenty list every year since opening. The booking window is one to two weeks for weekend patio service.
The Food
The crispy duck rolls, the lemongrass chicken, the wok-tossed rice cakes, and the Vietnamese-French braised lamb run as the menu's centre. The cocktail programme runs Vietnamese-spice-led: a working pho-spice old-fashioned, a Vietnamese-coffee Manhattan, a yuzu margarita.
Wine programme is short, weighted toward Riesling and Champagne. Beer programme runs Vietnamese-import. Service is informed and warm.
Best Occasion Fit
First Date: The wraparound patio at Stateside is one of Capitol Hill's most-reliable first-date seats. The shareable menu does the conversational work, the cocktail programme is the second move, and the patio reads as warm without becoming a stage.
Birthday: Birthdays at Stateside are warm, Vietnamese-French-led, patio-friendly affairs the room handles with ten years of practice.
Team Dinner: The patio long-tables hold groups of eight to twelve. The kitchen will run a family-style Vietnamese-French menu that the corporate dinner needs without negotiation.