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Seattle’s Best Alfresco Dining

Agua Verde Cafe & Paddle Club

With Labor Day comes the end of summer, but there’s still a little time to make the most of the warmer temps. The following spots offer some of Seattle’s best alfresco dining.

Agua Verde Cafe & Paddle Club
Food: 23
Decor: 17
Service: 15
Cost: $17
Located above a kayak rental store, this UD Baja-style Mexican offers “delicious fish tacos” and “killer margaritas” in a “low-budget”, brightly painted spot with an “awesome view” of Portage Bay; though the “line down the sidewalk” can be “intimidating”, the service is “fast and friendly”, so the wait isn’t too long – and the price “can’t be beat.”

1303 Northeast Boat St.; 206-545-8570

Bastille Cafe & Bar 
Food: 19
Decor: 24
Service: 18
Cost: $35
“Friendly”, “trendy” and “packed with beautiful people”, this midpriced Ballard French bistro is where steak frites “done right” meet salads and veggies from a “rooftop garden” that even has its own beehives; the “fabulous”, “well-designed” setting features Parisian antiques and a 45-ft. zinc bar, and though it gets “noisy” and there are some “kinks to work out” with the “kitchen and staff”, “Francophiles” agree it’s a “winner.”

5307 Ballard Avenue NW; 206-453-5014

El Camino 
Food: 22
Decor: 21
Service: 21
Cost: $26
Tucked into a side street in Fremont, this modern, midpriced Mexican is a “treasured find” say surveyors who find the sliced steak with cheese enchiladas and other “unique” dishes so “superb”, they “want to steal the recipes”; imbibers dub the made-from-scratch margaritas “awesome”, and the service and patio in the colorful quarters also get a thumbs-up.

607 North 35th St.; 206-632-7303

Flying Fish
Food: 24
Decor: 21
Service: 22
Cost: $45
Chef-owner Christine Keff’s “out-of-the-box” thinking produces “some of the best fish dishes” in town say fans of this Eclectic seafooder in South Lake Union; the bright, “lively” quarters make a “fine” setting for business lunches, happy hour or a dinner that’s “everything you look for in a night out”; P.S. takeout is next door at On the Fly.

300 Westlake Avenue N.; 206-728-8595

Il Terrazzo Carmine 
Food: 27
Decor: 25
Service: 26
Cost: $51
Carmine Smeraldo makes everyone “feel like a regular” at his “suave” Pioneer Square Italian where the “stellar” fare is “sinfully delicious” and the “exceptional” staff is “warm and friendly”; the Florentine country setting “breathes power and elegance” and it’s always full of “movers and shakers”, so just remember to “bring the moolah” and “you will be happy.”

Read more: Zagat

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