Seattle’s 50 Essential Restaurants: Tomo is No. 7

This capsule restaurant review is part of our ongoing Seattle’s 50 Essential Restaurants project. Find more at seattletimes.com/tag/restaurant-news and in print on Nov. 15, in a special edition of The Mix.

more 50 essential restaurants

• At No. 10, this hot spot is the most fun you can have at dinner in South Lake Union
• Love it or leave: At No. 9, this tiny Seattle wine bar is unapologetically French
• No. 8 on our list raised the bar for high-end Vietnamese food in Seattle

More

No. 7: Tomo

Japanese American

9811 16th Ave. S.W., Seattle (White Center); No phone; tomoseattle.com

Running a small space in White Center has allowed Tomo chef and owner Brady Ishiwata Williams to stay nimble, which is an essential skill for running a successful local restaurant. 

When he opened Tomo in 2021 after an award-winning half-decade at Canlis, Williams’ menu primarily orbited around a five-course tasting menu, with limited a la carte dining offered to customers seated outside. 

Fast-forward a few years and the menu has flipped; the tasting menu is now offered as a “family feast,” and the a la carte menu gets more prominent billing. 

The one thing that has never been in question: Williams’ skill and command of flavors. 

There’s a bit of whimsy in the menu, which you see in the White Castle-esque dry-aged steam burgers with caramelized onions and American cheese. There are highbrow dishes, too, like a rib-eye with a sansho au poivre sauce, a silky chawanmushi egg custard, and fatty Dungeness crab rice with brown butter. 

Every meal at Tomo should end with the comically large kakigori, a tower of Japanese shaved ice drizzled with rotating seasonal flavors.