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AQUA by El Gaucho on Pier 70 — the splurge waterfront dinner pick for cruise-eve evenings

🛳️ Where to eat & stay

Twelve more cruise-passenger picks for Seattle

The picks below are the cruise-passenger restaurants and hotels worth being specific about beyond the main before-your-cruise selection. Ten restaurants split between Pike Place (where most cruise visitors spend their pre-cruise day) and the waterfront (where they're already walking on embarkation morning), plus two hotel additions for visitors who want personality or a longer Pacific Northwest trip.

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Pike Place restaurants

Six picks in and around the market.

Pike Place is where most cruise visitors spend their pre-cruise day. Six restaurants worth being specific about — three sit-down, three grab-and-go.

Pike Place Market stalls — produce vendors, flower stands, and the central arcade where the six picks below are scattered
Lowell's Restaurant & Bar at Pike Place — multi-level Pike Place classic with bay-window seating over Elliott Bay

Pike Place classic · breakfast and lunch

Lowell's

1519 Pike Place

Lowell's Restaurant & Bar is the kind of Pike Place institution locals steer first-time visitors toward when they want them to understand the market beyond the postcard version. Spread across three levels, it's best known for the upstairs bay-window seating overlooking Elliott Bay, where breakfast and lunch unfold against a backdrop of ferries gliding across the water. Order the eggs Benedict at the counter, settle in by the windows, and watch the market wake up around you. The old cash-only reputation is long gone — cards are accepted. From Pier 66, it's about a ten-minute uphill walk, or closer to twelve if the fish-throwing crowds slow you down along the way.

Matt's in the Market — third-floor entrance in the Corner Market Building above Pike Place

Upscale Pacific Northwest · lunch and dinner

Matt's in the Market

94 Pike St, 3rd floor (Corner Market Building)

Matt's in the Market hides in plain sight on the third floor of the Corner Market Building above Pike Place — so discreetly that most visitors pass beneath it without realizing one of the market's best dining rooms is overhead. The space is intimate, with a narrow dining room and a long bar facing west toward Elliott Bay and the Olympic Mountains. The kitchen follows the rhythm of the market itself: whatever the fishmongers, produce vendors, and cheesemongers downstairs brought in that morning often shapes the menu upstairs by lunch and dinner. At midday, the catfish sandwich remains a local favorite; in the evening, the order is usually whatever fish appears on the chalkboard that night. Dinner reservations are highly recommended, while lunch tends to be easier to slip into without much planning. From Pier 66, expect about a twelve-minute walk uphill into the market.

Le Panier — French bakery storefront on Pike Place with the typical line out front

French bakery · grab-and-go

Le Panier

1902 Pike Place

Le Panier is not Seattle's only excellent bakery, but it's the one visitors inevitably drift toward — partly because the scent of butter and fresh pastry seems to spill halfway down Pike Place, and partly because the line moves with surprising efficiency. The almond croissants are consistently worth the reputation, while the kouign-amann delivers the kind of caramelized, buttery excess that justifies carrying sticky fingers through the market afterward. A baguette sandwich makes the second order for the walk ahead. This is less a place to linger than a grab-and-go stop before continuing through Pike Place and down toward the waterfront. Open from breakfast into the late afternoon, it sits about a ten-minute walk uphill from Pier 66.

Chowder house · lunch

Pike Place Chowder

1530 Post Alley

Pike Place Chowder serves six rotating chowders in cups, bowls, or classic sourdough bread bowls, but locals tend to steer visitors toward the smoked-salmon version rather than the traditional New England. It's richer, more distinctly Pacific Northwest, and the chowder most associated with the restaurant's long run of regional taste-test wins. The lunchtime line is part of the experience — substantial but usually fast-moving — though arriving around 2:30 instead of noon can reduce the wait to almost nothing. Reached through Post Alley, it's about a twelve-minute walk uphill from Pier 66.

Italian-American · romantic dinner

The Pink Door

1919 Post Alley

The Pink Door announces itself with almost no fanfare — just an unmarked pink door along Post Alley and a modest placard that many visitors walk past without noticing. Behind it sits one of Pike Place's most atmospheric dining rooms: an Italian-American restaurant with a hidden terrace overlooking Elliott Bay and an eclectic interior where live music, cabaret, and even trapeze performers occasionally swing above dinner service. The ricotta cavatelli is a longtime favorite, though the order is often whatever seasonal special the kitchen is running that week. Reservations are essential, especially for patio seating during summer evenings. From Pier 66, it's about a ten-minute walk uphill; the entrance sits on Post Alley between Stewart and Virginia.

Piroshky Piroshky — tiny Pike Place storefront with the line curling down the sidewalk

Russian bakery · walking food

Piroshky Piroshky

1908 Pike Pl

Piroshky Piroshky turns out Russian-style stuffed hand pies — both savory and sweet — from a tiny Pike Place storefront that almost always has a line curling down the sidewalk. The queue is constant but surprisingly efficient, moving quickly enough that most people spend more time deciding what to order than actually waiting. The smoked salmon pâté piroshky is the signature Northwest choice, while the cardamom braid remains one of the bakery's stronger sweet options. Everything here is designed for walking: food to carry toward the waterfront, onto a ferry, or through the market itself. Open from early morning into the evening, it's about a ten-minute uphill walk from Pier 66.

Waterfront restaurants

Four picks along the seawall.

The waterfront restaurants are mostly seafood, all walkable from Pier 66. From the oyster bar at Elliott's to the bucket-and-mallets chaos at The Crab Pot, the range covers most cruise-visitor preferences.

Elliott's Oyster House at Pier 56 — waterfront seafood and oyster bar

Waterfront seafood · oyster bar

Elliott's Oyster House

1201 Alaskan Way (Pier 56)

Elliott's Oyster House is where many visitors end up once they decide seafood should be the centerpiece of their Seattle meal. The restaurant's oyster program is the draw: more than thirty varieties can appear on the daily list, shucked by specialists at the raw bar and sourced from waters across the Pacific Northwest. Beyond oysters, there's usually Dungeness crab in season and salmon prepared several different ways depending on the catch and the kitchen's mood. Window tables look directly onto Elliott Bay, with the Olympic Mountains rising beyond the ferries and harbor traffic. Dinner reservations are recommended, especially on summer evenings, while the oyster happy hour at the bar offers a softer and more casual introduction. From Pier 66, it's an easy five-minute walk along the waterfront promenade.

Anthony's Pier 66 — Pacific Northwest seafood restaurant on the cruise terminal pier itself

Waterfront seafood · IS on Pier 66

Anthony's Pier 66

2201 Alaskan Way (Pier 66)

Anthony's Pier 66 sits directly on Pier 66, making it the most convenient possible dinner if your cruise departs from the terminal the following morning. Part of a long-running Pacific Northwest seafood group that has operated since 1969, the restaurant focuses on familiar regional standards done with consistency rather than culinary theatrics — exactly the kind of reliability many travelers appreciate before embarkation day. Crab cakes, Penn Cove mussels, and salmon prepared several different ways anchor the menu, alongside broad Elliott Bay views from the dining room and patio. It is dependable Seattle seafood without surprises, which is often the entire goal the night before boarding a ship. From the terminal entrance, it's roughly a two-minute walk.

The Crab Pot Seattle — buckets of seafood and wooden mallets, the loud waterfront experience

Touristy seafood · groups and families

The Crab Pot

1301 Alaskan Way (Pier 57)

The Crab Pot Seattle leans fully into the loud, messy, waterfront-seafood experience — touristy in the most cheerful and self-aware way possible. Instead of carefully plated entrées, the restaurant dumps steaming buckets of crab legs, shrimp, mussels, sausage, corn, and potatoes directly onto paper-covered tables, then hands everyone wooden mallets and encourages controlled chaos. It works for groups, families with children, or visitors who want a memorable Seattle waterfront dinner as much as a serious culinary experience. Those looking for a quiet room or particularly refined cooking will probably be happier elsewhere. From Pier 66, it's about an eight-minute walk south along the waterfront promenade.

Ivar's Acres of Clams at Pier 54 — Seattle waterfront institution since 1938

Seattle institution · since 1938

Ivar's Acres of Clams

1001 Alaskan Way (Pier 54)

Ivar's Acres of Clams has anchored Pier 54 since 1938 and remains one of the defining institutions of the Seattle waterfront. There are really two versions of the experience: the full-service dining room with broad bay views and a classic seafood menu, or the adjacent fish-and-chips counter facing the pier, where locals are more likely to grab chowder and eat outdoors by the gulls and ferries. Both are legitimate Seattle traditions. The clam chowder, based on founder Ivar Haglund's original recipe, continues to win local blind taste tests decade after decade and remains the order most visitors remember. From Pier 66, it's about a ten-minute walk south along the waterfront promenade.

Two more hotels

Beyond the main hotel matrix.

The full hotel matrix lives on /cruises/before-your-cruise — these two are additions worth knowing about for cruise visitors who want either stronger personality or a Pacific Northwest trip with a UW-campus night before sailing.

Belltown boutique · personality over chain

Kimpton Palladian

2000 2nd Ave (Belltown)

Kimpton Palladian Hotel is the downtown boutique option for travelers who prefer personality over polished corporate sameness. Set in Belltown, the hotel mixes moody velvet furnishings, dark wood, and eccentric Renaissance-style portraiture reimagined with rock-star styling — an interior design approach that feels intentionally theatrical without tipping into gimmick. The location works especially well for cruise passengers: roughly an eight-minute walk to Pier 66, about ten minutes to Pike Place Market, and an easy fifteen-minute cab ride to Pier 91. It is also one of the stronger pet-friendly choices in Seattle thanks to Kimpton Hotels & Restaurants' famously accommodating pet policy, which tends to be more flexible and welcoming than most major hotel chains in the city.

U-District themed · Link Light Rail to embark

Graduate by Hilton Seattle

4507 Brooklyn Ave NE (University District)

Graduate by Hilton Seattle leans fully into its University District setting, building its identity around University of Washington traditions and campus culture. Purple-and-gold accents, husky imagery, collegiate details, and a busy coffee bar that often doubles as a student gathering place give the hotel a distinctly local character rather than a generic downtown feel. For cruise travelers, the location works better than it first appears: the nearby Link Light Rail ride is about fifteen minutes to Westlake Station and roughly twenty to Stadium Station, making Pier 66 meaningfully easier to reach than Pier 91 in practical travel terms. It is worth considering for visitors prioritizing lower room rates over immediate waterfront proximity, or for travelers treating their cruise as part of a broader Pacific Northwest trip who want a night near the UW campus before sailing.

More for cruise visitors

The rest of the directory lives elsewhere.

  • Activities — Pike Place Market, Seattle Great Wheel, Chihuly Garden and Glass: see /visitor
  • Getting around — Lime Bike, Washington State Ferries, Sea-Tac transit: see /transit
  • Eat farther afield — neighborhood dining beyond Pike Place and the waterfront: see /eat-drink