Neighborhood restaurants, take-out, shops, or markets to recommend in Columbia City?

Question

We'll be spending a week in a rental home in Columbia City (just NW of Rainier Playfield) this October. We'd love to get the local scoop on any cafes, markets, pubs, or other food shops (bakery, butcher, fish, cheese, wine, etc.) to check out while we're in town. We love to cook and have a very nice kitchen at our rental, so we plan to make most of our dinners at the house -- though we'd also be interested in any good take-out options in the neighborhood.

Thanks for your help!

Answer

La Medusa, on Rainier Avenue is a must restaurant for that neighborhood! Amazing Sicilian-inspired, fresh Italian cuisine. Don't miss it.

Answer

There is a new PCC Natural Markets there:
http://www.pccnaturalmarkets.com/locations/cc.html

It's not a very big retail district so you won't find everything there--I can't think of a wine shop, cheese shop, etc. PCC will have wine and cheese, though. Mutual Fish is north on Rainier Ave and that's your place for seafood.

It's been years since I've been to the farmer's market there, but I found it very interesting--this area has a very large and diverse immigrant population, and so the market carried some less common items.

Answer

Nearby:

Groceries: PCC if you want nearby (Central Co-Op if you want the best in Seattle)
Lunch meats and guanciale: Hitchcock deli 10 min away in Georgetown
Seafood: Mutual Fish 
Bread: Columbia City Bakery
Cool store with a variety of great stuff: Big Jons PFI (~10 min away)

If you want to great cheese go to Calf and the Kid on Melrose, you could take the light rail to Westlake station and walk up to Melrose (~.5 miles). Melrose has all sorts of awesome restaurants/shops/bars/butchers you may like too.

Restaurants near/in Columbia City:
La Medusa has great Sicilian, haven't been in a while but whenever I have been, it has been very good. I've heard some ok reviews from others though.

La Terranga is good Senegalese food, not that I have much experience with Senegalese food, but I enjoy this place and the proprietor is very nice and welcoming.

Salted Sea has a great happy hour (been a handful of times), and I found dinner to be enjoyable there as well.

Geraldines is just classic breakfast fare done right, been here probably 20 times and never had a bad meal. They do dinners on weeknights too, simple fare but still pretty good.

The line at Geraldines is super long on weekends. It does move fast but I generally avoid it and go to Fonda La Catrina in Georgetown instead for a great breakfast and no lines (if you go before like 12). Not the same type of food as Geraldines but it is my go-to breakfast spot on weekends.

The Thai and sushi in Columbia City is just ok, you can find better in other areas.

Unfortunately the butcher (Bobs Quality Meats) recently suffered a fire and has been closed. They say they will be opening in a few months. Hopefully they open by the time you are here. I really miss having it here, I shopped there all the time.

Full Tilt ice cream is pretty good, but not incredible. I like the Ube ice cream and the Mexican chocolate.

Answer

Folks have covered most of the bases. I'll throw these into the hopper:

Columbia City Farmers Market, every Wednesday, ending October 14th

Flying Squirrel Pizza (Good traditional pizza)

Bar del Corso (Great pizza and bar, more artisanal than Flying Squirrel)

Big Chickie (delicious Peruvian roast chicken)

Toshio's Teriyaki (an upstanding member of Seattle's Teriyaki fetish)

If you want Chinese, Thai, Japanese, SE Asian, etc... for the most part, skip the Columbia City area, and drive the extra 5 minutes to the International District (The "ID"). One exception to this is Viengthong, a Thai/Laotian place just north of Rainier Ave on Martin Luther King.

(Edit: Oh! Speaking of the ID. If you want some fine shopping for meats and produce, check out Uwajimaya in the ID. It's a giant Japanese supermarket, but they have some of the best produce, fish and meat in town. Also a ton of fun browsing.)

(2nd edit: Of course, don't deprive yourself of a visit to the Pike Market. Especially Delaurenti's.)

Answer

Cafe Mawadda 4433 S Graham St (~@Rainier) has shish kabob and falafel but not like the usual buddy and Rami can fix you up.
Big Chickie and I have not yet met, but is right across Rainier and promising.
Hummingbird Saloon has beautiful small plates to go with their beautiful cocktails and next door is pinball and ice cream and beer ??? but it works and the ice cream is great. Lemon marshmallow is the summer sugar bomb and mango chili still shines.

Answer

Thanks, everyone -- this list looks fantastic!

Sad to hear about the fire at Bob's. We'll be in town the first week of October, so I'll keep my fingers crossed that they're back up and running (sounds like that might be a long shot...)

Answer

Hi, BB:

 Jones BBQ has its appeal. Their deliberately ungrammatical motto: "The way BBQ is suppose to be!" I like the burnt ends and the pound of rib tips, sauce on the side...

 Mutual Fish is not too far away, too. One of Seattle's best.

Aloha,
Kaleo

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Neighborhood restaurants, take-out, shops, or markets to recommend in Columbia City?

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Discussion Summary

Full Tilt Ice Cream

Full Tilt Ice Cream

PCC Community Markets - Columbia City

PCC Community Markets - Fremont

Mutual Fish Co

Central Co-op

Bob's Quality Meats

Columbia City Farmers Market

Flying Squirrel Pizza Co.

Bar del Corso

Toshio's Teriyaki

Viengthong Restaurant

Uwajimaya Bellevue

Uwajimaya Seattle

The Hummingbird Saloon

Spice Room

Flying Lion Brewing

Super Six

Marination

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