Noodles Across Cultures

A World of Noodles in Seattle Southside

Seattle Southside is a hub of international cuisine.

You can try authentic dishes from across the globe, all within our little corner of the Northwest. While that makes for a ton of variety, one of the fascinating things about having so many cuisines in one area is that you notice the commonalities between them. Noodle dishes, for instance, are a staple of many cultures. In many cases, recipes emerged or evolved as different cultures came into contact with one another. From ramen to pho to homemade pasta and everything in between, there's a world of noodles to discover in Seattle Southside. Below are a few of the best places to find them.

Pictured: Marugame Udon in Tukwila.
Japonés
Italiano
Somali
Chino
Vietnamita
Tailandés

Japanese Noodles

Ramen may be one of the most well-known Japanese dishes, but its history is interlaced with other cultures, beginning with Chinese immigrants who brought the first wheat noodles to Japan. After World War II, Japan began importing more wheat from the U.S., accelerating ramen's popularity. In 1958, instant ramen was invented, and by the 1970s, Americans were regularly slurping it up. Now you can find authentic, homemade ramen in restaurants throughout the U.S. ​(Source) Udon, thick wheat noodles known for their chewy texture, has also grown in popularity, with one Seattle Southside restaurant based entirely around the dish. Of course, Japanese cuisine includes many other types of noodles, and you can find nearly all of them here. Below are just a few of the standouts.

Where to Get the Best Ramen in Seattle Southside

It's always a good sign when a restaurant focuses on one type of dish, with a small but high-quality menu. Locally owned Arashi Ramen in Tukwila, led by a chef from Kyoto, specializes in tonkatsu-style ramen made with a rich pork bone broth simmered for more than 16 hours. The menu includes a number of different flavors that build off this base. (All are good, but even seasoned ramen fans may be pleasantly surprised by the savory black garlic ramen). You can customize your order with over a dozen toppings, including corn, bamboo shoots, and fried onion.

Kizuki Ramen & Izakaya, a spinoff of a Japanese chain, is another great option. You can't go wrong with the classic ramen options, but if you want something a bit different and refreshing, the yuzu shio ramen is infused with the subtle citrus notes of Japanese yuzu. And if you're not feeling like soup, try the tsukemen options; the noodles are served on their own along with a thick, flavorful broth for dipping.

Pictured: Ramen at Kizuki Ramen & Izakaya in Tukwila.

Where to Get the Best Udon in Seattle Southside

Japanese restaurant group Marugame Udon opened a location at Westfield Southcenter in 2024, bringing a taste of authentic udon noodles to the region. Specializing in Sanuki udon, the restaurant makes its thick, chewy noodles in-house using imported Japanese flour. There's a signature curry udon with sweet beef and a soft-boiled egg, or the tonkatsu udon with chashu pork and miso ground pork. With a lively cafeteria-style setup, it offers a fast-casual yet high-quality dining experience.

Miyabi Sushi in Tukwila is a longstanding local favorite run by a trio of owners who hail from Japan, including a chef who trained and worked in Tokyo. The menu includes several kinds of udon, including some that are served cold (zaru udon) with a savory, slightly sweet dipping sauce. You can also sub your udon noodles with soba (buckwheat noodles).

Nearby Shinya Shokudo offers a very different yet equally delicious take on the dish: rich, creamy udon topped with tobiko (flying fish roe).

Pictured: Tonkotsu udon at Marugame Udon in Tukwila.

Italian Pasta

Italians may not have invented noodles, but they took the concept and ran with it, creating seemingly endless iterations of shapes, lengths, and textures. Yet most pasta is still made with the same simple ingredients: flour, water, and eggs. While it's easy to buy premade pasta at the store, there's no replacement for fresh, homemade pasta. In the same way that pastries never taste quite as soft and light as they do on the day they were baked, fresh pasta is simply unbeatable.

Where to Find Fresh Pasta in Seattle Southside

Locally owned Grazie Ristorante Italiano has been serving authentic, homemade pasta at its Tukwila location for more than 36 years. The owners and staff have traveled to Italy more than 30 times to deepen their knowledge of Italian cuisine. You'll find all the classics at incredibly reasonable prices, including a simple, clean spaghetti aglio olio tossed in fresh garlic and olive oil for under $20 (the entire pasta menu is under $30). Seafood lovers will want to try the linguini di mare, featuring wild prawns, wild-caught fish, scallops, and mussels in a linguini pasta with a romano cream sauce or spicy marinara.

Sharps Roasthouse in SeaTac is famous for its sourdough pasta, which is made in-house using a custom-built "pasta engine" that churns out more than 500 lbs. of fresh pasta per week! It makes a particular shape of pasta called “scala," characterized by deep ridges and grooves that soak up and hold sauce (yes, please). You'll see what's special about it when you try one of the mac n' cheese dishes, which you can order with various types of smoked meat.

Pictured: Mac n' cheese with made-from-scratch sourdough pasta and applewood smoked pork at Sharps RoastHouse in SeaTac.

Somali-Style Spaghetti

You may be surprised to see pasta on the menu at a Somali restaurant, but spaghetti—with a local twist—is quite common in East Africa, tracing back to Italy's colonial presence in the region. However, the spaghetti you'll find in the region is distinct, sometimes paired with injera and flavored with spices like xawaash—a blend of cinnamon, cumin, coriander, cardamom, and cloves common in East African cuisine. These adaptations transform an imposed dish into something distinctly East African. (Source).

Where to Get Somali-Style Spaghetti in Seattle Southside

One of the specialties at family-owned Zain Restaurant & Bakery Cafe in SeaTac is Somali-style spaghetti tossed with sauteed onion, bell pepper, and chopped cilantro and served with perfectly seasoned beef or chicken. If you're used to Italian pasta, you'll likely find the dish simultaneously familiar yet distinct in a way that's hard to pinpoint. Spices like cumin, turmeric, and paprika compliment traditional Italian herbs, giving the dish just a hint of spice that balances out the sweetness of the tomato. It's comforting, filling, and one order is enough to share with two people. Even more surprising to those unfamiliar with Somali cuisine may be the fact that it's common to pair a banana with your meal. In fact, the owners at Zain often offer bananas to newcomers when it becomes clear they're new to Somali cuisine.

Chinese Noodles

Noodles have deep roots in Chinese history, with the earliest evidence dating back 4,000 years. Over centuries, they spread across Asia, the Middle East, and beyond, evolving into the countless varieties we enjoy today. Hundreds of different iterations of the dish developed within China alone. From savory stir-fried noodles such as lo mein and chow mein to spicy Dan Dan noodles to translucent glass noodles stirred into steaming bowls of soup or hot pot, there's a noodle for every season, mood, and craving.

Where to Get the Best Chinese Noodles in Seattle Southside

Dough Zone, which opened a location in Tukwila in 2024, may be best known for its dumplings, but its noodle dishes are just as strong. The dan dan noodles arrive tangled in a velvety sauce of sesame paste, soy sauce, and chili oil, with a hint of Sichuan peppercorn for a slow-building tingle. The vegetarian Yibin noodles—a specialty from Yibin City in Sichuan—are perfectly seasoned and packed with umami, delivering layers of spice and savoriness in every bite. For something with a bit of heat, the hot & sour glass noodles bring a kick: traditional clear noodles made from sweet potato starch swim in a bold, tangy broth, topped with crunchy peanuts and fresh cilantro.

Din Tai Fung, which has a location at Westfield Southcenter Mall in Tukwila, is another go-to spot for comforting noodle dishes. The noodles with sesame sauce feature house-made thin egg noodles enveloped in a nutty sesame blend, topped with the restaurant's signature chili oil and crushed roasted peanuts. There are also a number of noodle soups to choose from, if you're craving braised beef, chicken, or fried pork chop. Vegans aren't left out either, as the vegan noodles with sesame sauce utilize beautiful, green spinach-infused noodles made with a plant-based egg substitute.

Pictured: Dan Dan Noodles at Dough Zone in Tukwila.

YangGuoFu (YGF) MalaTang is a wildly popular Chinese chain that was introduced to Tukwila when a location opened in 2024. This modern take on hot pot allows you to grab a bowl right when you walk in and fill it with whatever ingredients you like, choosing from fresh veggies, mushrooms, meat, seafood, and, of course, noodles. When you're ready, you take it up to the counter and hand it off for it to be expertly prepared in the kitchen. Meanwhile, head to the sauce bar to create your own custom blend, choosing from Sechuan spices, sesame oil, and other flavors. The ingredients span culinary traditions, as you can get udon, instant ramen, or vermicelli noodles, but the concept has its roots in Chinese hot pot. The signature spicy beef bone soup base is rich and savory, with a mildly numbing spiciness, and you can customize how much spice they use. You can also opt for a brothless dry rub. For an incredibly fast meal, the quality is very impressive.

Pictured: Make-your-own hot pot at YFG MalaTang in Tukwila.

Vietnamese Noodles

Vietnamese noodles are a cornerstone of the country’s cuisine. Introduced through Chinese culinary traditions yet adapted with local ingredients, rice noodles became a staple across Vietnam. Pho, the most famous example, emerged in the early 20th century, featuring silky rice noodles in a slow-simmered beef or chicken broth, served with herbs and lime. Central Vietnam’s bun bo Hue offers a bolder, spicier broth infused with lemongrass, while bun thit nuong (which often appears on menus as simply "vermicelli bowl") highlights thin, light vermicelli noodles topped with grilled meats, fresh herbs, and fish sauce. Whether light and delicate or bold and spicy, Vietnamese noodle dishes reflect the country’s rich history, regional diversity, and deep appreciation for balance in flavor and texture.

Where to get the best pho in Seattle Southside

Dong Thap Noodles, a Tukwila spot that makes all its noodles in-house, is known for its Super Bowl Pho, an enormous challenge featuring three pounds of noodles and three pounds of meat in a rich, slow-simmered broth. The contest is $100 to enter, but if you finish the bowl, you get it all back and then some. If you can't finish it, your money goes into a prize pot for whoever eventually does. While that may seem tempting, don't underestimate how filling pho can be! The restaurant also sells "family bowls" (they bring each person smaller bowls to dish their portion into), and even the bowl for six people is smaller than the challenge one. For those seeking a more manageable portion, the menu offers a variety of traditional pho options, including special pho with steak, brisket, tripe, tendon, and meatballs. If you're not feeling soup, the vermicelli bowls are also very popular and come with a heaping portion of grilled pork or chicken with shrimp and egg rolls.

Other great places to get pho and vermicelli bowls in Seattle Southside include Old Saigon Pho Restaurant, a highly rated gem tucked away in Tukwila. People rave about the broth, which is a bit sweeter than your average bowl but contains a winning combination of secret spices. The owner is known to start brewing the broth early in the morning, and to come out and greet customers when he can.

Thai Noodles

When many Americans think of Thai food, the first dish that comes to mind is pad thai. Yet the "national dish of Thailand" is actually a fusion dish that exemplifies Thai Chinese cuisine. Large waves of Chinese immigrants brought Chinese culinary traditions such as stir-frying rice noodles to Thailand in the 19th and 20th centuries. The dish is made by stir-frying flat, thin rice noodles in sauce until they absorb enough liquid. While it has its roots in Chinese cuisine, what makes the dish distinctly Thai is the flavor, which combines a perfect balance of spice from chili flakes, salt from fish sauce, sourness from Tamarind, and sweetness from palm sugar. The exact origins of pad thai as we know it today are unknown, but some theorize it emerged as late as the 1960s, in part to establish a national dish amidst heavy U.S. presence in the country. (Source) There are, of course, many other kinds of noodles in Thai cuisine, with some of the most common in the U.S. being pad see ew and pad kee mao or "drunken noodles," which both use stir-fried wide rice noodles.

Where to get the best pad thai in Seattle Southside

Bai Tong Thai in Tukwila has been a go-to spot for authentic Thai food for more than 30 years. It was founded in 1989 by a Thai Airways flight attendant who wanted to serve her fellow crew members the meals they missed back home. She brought in chefs from Bangkok to create the menu, and the business became so popular it eventually expanded to several locations throughout the Greater Seattle Area. The pad thai, which is served with a tangy tamarind sauce, egg, tofu, bean sprouts, and ground peanuts, is some of the best you can find in the region. The bright, colorful garnishes make for a pleasing presentation as well.

Mango Thai in SeaTac is another great spot for dependably delicious Thai noodles (and one of the restaurants we order from most often at our office). Located right by the airport, it's a great place to stop before or after a flight. In addition to standbys like pad thai and pad see ew, Mango Thai has a tasty ba mee—egg noodle stir-fried with BBQ pork, a whole host of veggies, and a drizzle of sesame oil.

Both restaurants have pleasant, inviting atmospheres if you're looking for somewhere to stop in for a nice date or a relaxed meal.

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