As Seattle warms up to summer weather, so too does the restaurant scene, with a bunch of exciting restaurant openings this month and next — some already in soft opening and waiting for you to come sample creative Vietnamese food and crunch through Lebanese tacos.

Lupe’s Situ Tacos

Opening mid-May

A pandemic pop-up that spent the last two years inside Belltown bar Jupiter, Situ brings its crunchy Lebanese tacos to the former Bitterroot BBQ space on Ballard Avenue. The now-pink building will give owner Lupe Flores room to expand from the small selection of dishes inherited from her own Lebanese Mexican Situ (grandmother) to a full menu including a Mexican breakfast featuring chilaquiles, huevos rancheros, breakfast tacos, and burritos to a bar with aguas frescas, margaritas on tap, fun shots, micheladas, and more.

Ramie

Grand opening May 22

In a city full of Vietnamese food, sibling restaurateurs Trinh and Thai Nguyen’s new Capitol Hill spot manages to bring something completely new. The owners of Ba Sa on Bainbridge and Pho T&N in Poulsbo use high-quality local ingredients, draw on culinary techniques from elsewhere, and craft beautiful plates without losing the flavors and heart of traditional foods. Photos of the elegant hamachi crudo (with ramps, nettle oil and kumquat nuoc cham), and delicate rice rolls with shrimp butter have already begun trickling in as the pair prepare the former Omega Ouzeri space for a grand opening later this month.

Lenox

Grand opening June 5

The name alludes to a street in Spanish Harlem, and chef Jhonny Reyes’ food represents a similar cultural mingling to the New York City neighborhood where he was born, fluently mixing Afro and Latin American cuisine. The Lenox pop-up has been drawing crowds around town since Reyes stepped out on his own in the early pandemic, and now it’s settling into a permanent spot and bringing an aji-green goddess wedge salad, shrimp criollo with hand-mashed mofongo, giant corndog (alcapurrias), and more to the old Jerk Shack space on First Avenue in Belltown. 

 

Migaku Sushi

Opening in June

Not much is known yet, but the owners of Belltown’s Karaage Setsuna have ambitious plans for the original Watson’s Counter space on 15th Avenue Northwest in Ballard. Along with classic Edomae-style sushi, chefs Migaku Inaba and Toshikazu Sakuma plan to offer kaiseki meals, a form of a seasonal Japanese tasting menu with a specific focus on the aesthetics of presentation.