Kingfish Cafe

Repeatable: Yes. Visits: 1

Gumbo with rice at Kingfish Cafe

Twelve years ago, I wrote my first review of the Kingfish Cafe, for Seattle Weekly. I raved about the down-home, deep-fried, long-simmered Southern cooking and the gorgeous Coaston sisters who ran this popular new eatery.

Back then, blogs didn’t exist. Newspapers ruled, and reviewers relied on word of mouth to get a feel for the next big story. An amazing new restaurant often spent up to six months waiting to be reviewed; in that time, their customer base grew by word of mouth, and the kitchen got their act together with plenty of trial and error.

Sometimes, the more things change, the more they stay the same–and thank god the Kingfish is the same homey, comfortable space I remember, with the same wistfully Southern menu: fried chicken, gumbo, hoppin’ john, okra, collard greens, cornbread, biscuits and gravy, catfish, Red Velvet cake. These classics are as fiesty and finger-lickin’ as ever. And the elegant twins, Leslie and Laura, still greet diners at dinnertime, who flock here to see them as much as to savor the fare. There aren’t many tried-and-true classics like the Kingfish in Seattle, so if you haven’t been in awhile, it might be time to take a stroll down memory lane.