Two days in Seattle at the tail end of high season, bolted onto the front of an Alaska cruise. Just enough time to eat our way through Pike Place Market, walk the new waterfront, and form some opinions about service in a city with no tipped wage.
Getting There
Arrival at SEA was easy enough. The airport has its own train system, which is efficient, and Alaska Airlines stood up to their promise of bags on the belt within 20 minutes — more than most airlines, in most cities, can say.
Uber downtown ran about $90; your mileage will vary with vehicle size and time of day, but that seemed to be the going rate. Worth noting there are a fair number of add-on fees at SEA that we haven’t seen elsewhere. There were cheaper ways in — the light rail is genuinely reasonable — but for the amount of luggage we were herding ahead of a cruise, we bit the bullet on door-to-door.
Pike Place, Day One
We fought off the jetlag with an afternoon at Pike Place Market. Lunch was at Old Stove Brewing Company — a solid menu and the classic local brewpub feel.
I went with the chicken katsu sandwich, garlic fries, and a pint of Grodziskie, a Polish-style smoked wheat lager. Light, crisp, with a hint of campfire from the oak-smoked malt; I liked it, my wife did not (she prefers her smoke on meat, not in a glass). The fries were outstanding. The katsu could have used more sauce, but it didn’t disappoint.
The Waterfront
Seattle has spent years rebuilding its waterfront since the viaduct came down, and it shows. The Overlook Walk drops you from the market down to the piers through a landscaped switchback, with the Great Wheel and Elliott Bay in front of you the whole way.
Dinner at La Fontana Siciliana
Dinner was La Fontana Siciliana for Italian — a short walk from the waterfront, though very much uphill (a far more pleasant downhill stroll on full stomachs). Cute spot with a garden seating area and plenty of menu options. My chicken parm was satisfactory, but the table generally found the entrées ordinary — not bad, just nothing to write home about (blog notwithstanding, hello there). Prices ran on the higher end: about $250 for four, with one appetizer, one glass of wine, and no desserts. Then again, we are downtown at the tail end of high season.
Breakfast, and the Doughnut Question
Breakfast the next morning was Pike Place again — fresh peaches and nectarines from one stand, the obligatory espresso and croissants from another, eaten overlooking Elliott Bay before we sauntered back in for more shopping ahead of the storm.
Beecher’s, and the Adequacy Question
We stayed in for our last night, grazing on appetizers at the Marriott Waterfront, though somebody made a dash to Beecher’s for mac and cheese and a grilled cheese. Neither disappointed — genuinely among the finest cheese products this trip, or frankly any trip, is likely to produce. The Pike Place shop makes the cheese right there behind the window, so you can watch tomorrow’s curds get turned while you eat today’s.
A word on service. Nearly every establishment we visited could best be described as adequate. Not rude — never rude — but never rapid either, and nowhere near above-and-beyond. At one bar we were advised that we might get our drinks faster if we simply came back to the bar and got them ourselves. Seattle is a full minimum-wage city with no tipped wage — $21.30/hr in 2026 for all employers, tips on top — and I’d have guessed servers would still be hustling for the upside. Maybe it’s just the tail end of a long tourist season and everyone’s running on fumes.
Would We Come Back?
Yes — and next time with more than 48 hours and less luggage. Seattle rewards walking, the market is worth two visits a day, and the rebuilt waterfront has made the whole downtown core feel stitched back together. Just calibrate your expectations on service and your budget on downtown pricing at the end of the season.