"When about seven out of every ten Seattleites are transplants, it’s no surprise that few of them seem to know the history behind Ben Paris. Fun fact: It’s the fancier resurrection of Ben Paris Cigars, Lunch & Cards, which once inhabited the very same space between 1914 and 1950 — and got reanimated when the Eitel Building was overhauled into the State Hotel in 2019. With its splashy muraled dining room, beautiful Ben Paris does modern takes on comfort food classics, like lamb tagliatelle and buttermilk fried chicken, but these folks really cut loose on the desserts. The lemon mousse sounds innocuous, but don’t believe it — it’s a gorgeous constructivist food sculpture that was born to be Instagrammed. The smooth ball of light lemony crème is encased in poppyseed-flecked white chocolate, then accented with citrus suprèmes, grapefruit gelée, edible flower petals, and finally a shard of sesame brittle is stabbed into the top. All the desserts at Ben Paris are unexpectedly breathtaking in this way — like the towering and multilaminous carrot cake that’s dotted with pastel mini-macarons — and helpfully, everything tastes just as great if you don’t know the cool story behind it. But now that you know, you should go." - Meg van Huygen, Dylan Joffe, Harry Cheadle
