Seattle’s Best Seafood Restaurants | Eater Seattle

"While Seabird wasn’t conceived as a fine dining restaurant per se, a bevy of early awards — including a nod from Bon Appetit as one of the country’s Best New Restaurants of 2023 — cast its ocean-to-table approach as exclusively special-occasion dining. For 2025, owner Brendan McGill shifted the menu to better convey the idea of conscientiously sourced and nuanced plates, yet with a drop-in-anytime ethos. It’s a fine needle to thread, but the aim is true: Dungeness crab toast with tonnato and grana padano mousse is refined (the grana padano mousse is nutty and creamy without overwhelming the delicate sweetness of the crab) while also as crowd-pleasing as a hit single. Weathervane scallop crudo is a deft weave of texture and flavor, dressed in vanilla bean-infused olive oil, with a spark of acidity from yuzu granita and pops of pickled sea buckthorn. Nothing on the menu is dumbed-down; the technique is as exacting as ever, it’s just more accessibly presented (and priced). Seabird is still a destination, but now it can be a destination on a regular Thursday." - Mark DeJoy