Rainier Restaurant & BBQ

We came here with a large party (19 people), and were immediately seated. +1 star for prompt service.
We also had a couple of Vietnamese folks with us, so they ordered everything on the menu, and the food was phenomenal! I’ve had Vietnamese food before, but this was top notch. +4 stars for food, quality and portions. Total bill came to 255 $ with tax and that included several rounds of Tsingtao beer. That came out to about 58 $ per family (5 checks+ tip), which was great deal.
Minus one star, for slow check out service and the fact that the upstairs seating has 0 to no control over ambient temperature. It went from freezing to feeling like we were walking in a freaking jungle over the course of the meal. And the check was in Vietnamese, so we had those same folks proof read it… Lol.
We’ll definitely be returning for their beef dishes. I highly recommend this place if you want authentic Vietnamese food.

Good food, a little bit rushed and rude at times. My only complaint is why is the bathroom so small and filthy?! It reeks of urines stench!!! And the toilet papers and hand paper all over the floor! It would help if they actually keep up with the Hygiene and sanitation of the place!

I’ve only had the banh hoi thap cam here. The meat is alright but its nice that they give you so many veggies and you wrap it together and it’s quite tasty.

Family loves this place. Always order the banh hoi thap cam here, which comes with a lot of veggies, meat, and is way more than enough for one person. Good variety and always have seating.

I’ve been a patron here for years but only thought to write a review today. My regular here is the com rainier. It’s a dish of broken rice with all sorts of goodies like BBQ pork, Korean style short rips and BBQ shrimp! All topped off with a fried egg… yummmmm. Pricing is very reasonable, and the quality of the food is always consistent. Do try their braised pork, salt and pepper squid, and sour soup with fish if you have enough people to do family style!

I saw the Anthony Bourdain episode where he ate here, and I’ve always wanted to come in and try the food.
But on the cold, raining Seattle evening that I stopped in I ordered a small bowl of hot Phở. Those vietnamese noodles can cure the coldest blues and remedy any hangover!
The soup was delicious!
The only reason I am not giving Five stars is that the two servers that night forgot to bring the sauces and bean sprouts and just basically everything that would help with eating a bowl of phở.
I’ll be back to taste some of the exotic BBQ and more of the food!

Bomb, authentic, Vietnamese food. What more can I say? The canh Chua and ca Kho to are on point. Goi Rau muon is crispy and flavorful. The beer is cold and the atmosphere is lively. If you’re a g they’ll even let you sit in the top floor ;) they have a menu full of personal portions, but don’t be a hooligan… get the family style dishes.

Authentic vietnamese food! Big portions! Always delish! You get free mango pudding with Unilocal check in too.

Probably the best Vietnamese restaurant in south Seattle. It opens late and has a wide variety of food. Must try phở D6, bun rieu, com rainier, spring roll, duck noodle soup, century egg and pork congee and many more. Only reason it’s a 4 star is that the service is really slow here and takes very long for food during dinner time to late night. I recommend not siting upstairs (slow service and many times I got ignored) and coming at Lunch hour is fine!

When in doubt on where to find legit yummy Viet food, swing by Rainier BBQ. Here, you will find some typical dishes like phở, but you will also run into very local and unique dishes that are often not present on regular menus. Located in the MLK area, this place is fairly easy to find and has ample parking. When you enter, you would walk down the stairs and get seated there. With the recent updated menu, a lot of food items have pictures attached, so no worries on ordering something you don’t know!
My recommended favorites are: Ong choy salad, salty fish fried rice, honey walnut prawns, crispy rice cakes/​bot chien, fried mini clams (hen), and the rice combo dishes. You reallllly cannot go wrong with any of these dishes (clams dish might be iffy since it’s a fairly unique taste and texture). One of Rainier BBQ’s most recognizable dish is the unique ong choy salad. It’s an unique dish with its vast array of different flavors and simply, it’s something one must try if feeling on the adventurous side. For other dishes, pairing honey walnut prawns & salty fried fish is a good combo. You get a nice sweet and crunchy bite of the prawns and balance it out with the slightly salted fish in fried rice. As for the other dishes like clams and rice cakes, these are often good appetizers and different from the usual spring rolls and egg rolls. If you have a large group, I highly recommend ordering in advance, the catfish. That thing is hugeeee!
Other notable dishes that are tasty: Rice /​vermicelli combo dishes = yum. Always filling dishes and with a variety of food in it. There are always rotating specials on the board, so make sure to check that out!
Service here is prompt and when things get busy, just wave your hand about to get some attention. If you want a taste of Rainier BBQ on a smaller scale (like a quick lunch), you could always visit their deli next door that serves pretty solid lunch meals and Viet sandwiches. =] Prices in general are average and definitely worth the investment for a happy tummy.

Came here for late night dinner with a big group. Seems like it’s a neighborhood spot, as even around 10pm, there were some large groups hanging out or finishing dinner.
There’s a wide assortment of Vietnamese dishes, with some random Chinese ones in there too — I ended up relying mostly on the pictures for our menu choices (there was some fun matching of dish numbers to pictures to actually figure out what was what). Wanted to try the deep fried whole catfish, but apparently you have to give advance notice, so we skipped it this time. Standouts were the famous” ong choy salad and salt & pepper chicken wings. Banh xeo is usually one of my go-to’s, but it was just so-​so here.
I checked in on Unilocal for the free mango pudding, but none of the servers seemed to know what the check-​in offer was all about. And then there was a lot of confusion because they said they could only make it in multiples of 2, so someone else had to check-​in too. Made no sense as it seems fairly straightforward to prepare a single serving. Something got lost in the communication, i think.

I have to dock a star. This used to be our FAVE Vietnamese stop in Seattle but I’m not sure whether they changed chefs, changed priorities, or changed recipes… their food is becoming fast inconsistent and so is their service. Perhaps because we normally went at odd times that we had attentive service, but if you go at a high time, man, does a switch flip? Someone who used to smile at you turns stone cold blank.
They also used to run this Pirq promo app to reward loyal customers and the last time I tried to use it, everyone was super confused and no one wanted to accommodate me. OK. Not a big deal, because I would have gone without discounts and if the food was up to par… but the interaction left me feeling annoyed and confused. I don’t think I did anything wrong, but they did everything in their power to make it seem like I did, stating things like «in the 3 years I worked here, no one ever tried to redeem anything.» Um. Okay? Why have it then?
Every time I think about going back, I hesitate.
Sometimes it’s good, and when it is, the food and service are great. Sometimes it’s bad, and I just get disappointed. I’ll still go but it’s no longer my fave or first choice.

SHUT THE FREAKIN’ FRONT DOOR. RAINIER BBQ WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN ALL MY LIFE!!!
All my life I’ve only known Vietnamese food in the form of phở, pork chop rice, summer rolls, spring rolls, vermicelli noodle salad but man, I was wrong. I was totally wrong and I’ve missed authenticity by a mile. You see, my fellow Unilocalers, those are just the very basics of Vietnamese cuisine. You are nowhere near close to the heart and core of it.
I’ve never been to Vietnam but if I did I’m 100% sure the food at Rainier BBQ would be the closest thing in America.
The entire menu consists of a few pages and there are so many options and choices that I’ve never seen in my life, not only that hardly anything is in English. This is a good sign.
After reading the descriptions I ended up going for Thit Heo Kho To which is Twice cooked pork and egg and Bun Mang Vit which is Rice Vermicelli in Duck soup with bamboo shoot, served with duck-​salad and ginger sauce.
The Thit Heo Kho To was DA BOMB. Imagine tender soft pork belly melting on your tongue the moment you take a bite. The savory juices oozing out its deliciousness on your taste buds. It was amazing and I had no idea a dish like this existed in Vietnamese culture. I recommend ordering a side of rice with this so you can pour the sauce over it and savor every drop.
The Bun Mang Vit was interesting, it came in two parts a duck salad and a huge bowl of phở with bamboo shoot. The broth was something I’ve never had before, it was very different from your beef noodle soup but in a good way. A lot of flavors happening in this dish between the noodles, broth and duck. Definitely try this over getting the usual beef phở or vermicelli salad.
The portions are very generous, so generous that I forgot to redeem my free check in offer of free dessert because I was so stuffed. I even went home with leftovers.
I knew I could count on my homie, Bourdain. He always knows where the good food at.
I can’t wait to go back again when I’m near the area and hopefully next time I won’t forget my free dessert!

This place is a LIFE saver, the day after the Bumbershoot. My friend and I was craving something soupy so we decided to come here for lunch. We were seated fairly quickly but it took awhile for the server to take our order. I’m assuming because it was busy. We ordered the Thai hotpot, baby clams with rice cracker, and bot chien (fried rice cake).
The hotpot came with an large assortments of veggies and seafood food; scallops, clams, shrimp, fish, and oysters. My friend also ordered a side of slice beef. Everything was really good! The broth is more on the sweet side and I tend to prefer Thai hotpot more to the sour/​spicy side but none the less, it was delicious!
The baby clams is my favorite dish at any restaurant and they make it so flavorful here! It had a kick to it that I really liked. My friend couldn’t really handle the spice but it was definitely my favorite dish there. I don’t have much to say about the fried rice cake because I’ve had it countless times before and it’s always been consistent. It’s hard to mess up bot chien in my opinion.

We have had RR&BBQ on our to-​try list for a long time, but for one reason or another, we haven’t gotten around to going there. I can kick myself now for all the time that we’ve wasted not experiencing their great cooking. We are definitely fans now.
We thought that Com Rainier would be a good way to sample different items in one dish. It was broken rice with grilled pork, beef short ribs, and shrimp with a fried egg. The pork and beef had great flavor from the marinade and the quick char from the grill. The shrimp had an amazing natural sweetness. They must have been recently swimming in the live tanks. This is a serious contender for the best Broken Rice Dish in Seattle.
I have been on the lookout for good Hu Tieu Bo Kho since Lemongrass in Little Saigon closed. I have found my new favorite here. The broth, on the first taste, was a little sweet, but I soon got used to it, then I couldn’t get enough. The beef had plenty of fat for good flavor.
The complimentary Mango Pudding for checking in on Unilocal was delicious.
Their huge menu and the many exotic ingredients promise many more wonderful experiences.

AWESOME VIETNAMESE FOOD HERE — that’s what we’re talking about!
This area cannot be any more ghetto, but Beacon Hill/​Rainier does have some decent eats, with Rainier Restaurant & BBQ being one of them. The name is at first deceiving, but it’s really just a Vietnamese restaurant.
Some highlights:
1) Parking lot = it is large
2) Checking in on Unilocal = gets you a free mango pudding. Perfect level of sweetness, and the black crunchy things on top complement the smooth texture of the pudding well.
3) Bun Mung Vit = AKA duck bamboo soup. The broth was decent and contained enough bamboo in it for my liking. What about the duck salad that comes with the broth? HUGE! They were generous with the duck such that I could not finish it and had to take some of it home.
4) Salt & Pepper Fried Chicken Wings = tasty! It came with various peppers on top to give it a good kick. I will say that the wings were a tad bit on the saltier side, so if rice accompanied the chicken that would have been perfecto.
Verdict? This place has become one of my more favorite Vietnamese restaurants. They got good variety in the menu, so that’s definitely a good hook to get me coming back for more!

Four Score, High Five!
Ever heard that? «Four score and seven years ago…» –Abraham Lincoln. A score is 20 years… so he’s talking about 87 years ago. Get it?! This is almost a 4 star because of the ridiculous late night «you only came for the food» bar style service. But hey… I’m vietnamese if I’m not ignored or neglected at dinner I don’t feel at home.
Get your «Nhau» On.
«Nhau» in Vietnamese is the act of eating (exotic small dishes and typically seafood) and drinking, with emphasis on drinking! Don’t come at noon on a Monday and complain it’s empty, because it’s a «nhau» spot. Don’t come with the family and complain it’s too loud, because it’s a «nhau» spot. Don’t order typical vietnamese hipster food like Phở or Banh mi (it won’t be good!), because it’s a «nhau» spot.
No one goes to Hooters for a quiet time with their family to get a tuna nicoise salad.
Anthony Sh-​manthony…
When in Rome, do what the Romans do. Anthony Bordain, although awesome, is not god. There are better items on the menu than what he ordered. Go there with a handfull of your best buds and before ordering down a couple beers, then look at the menu. Order what the drunk table next to you did and whatever makes your mouth water. I guarantee you won’t have a bad time.
Besides the rarities like rabbit, quail, alligator and so on try all the seafood! If it’s one thing Vietnamese know, it’s seafood. Go as far as asking the waitress what to order, maybe there’s something off menu?! *Hint Hint*

I really wanted to love this restaurant because of Anthony Bourdain, but why is everything too sweet? Everything from the ong choy salad, to the lemongrass alligator, to the venison curry. The flavor in the lemongrass alligator was overkill. You know when something is over-​flavored, and it gets tiresome very fast? This dish was that. The venison curry had way too much pineapple flavoring in it for my liking. Is it me? Was it an off night? Did we order the wrong stuff? The only thing I didn’t mind eating was the congee with blood cubes, but it’s really hard to mess that one up, right?
Portions were gigantic for the price, however, and service, though slow for a not-​too-​busy Friday evening, was very friendly. I don’t mind the location and lack of ambience at all. They have a huge parking lot in the back.
It’s too bad it turned out to be that underwhelming, but just because of Anthony Bourdain, I will return to give it another chance someday soon.

Came here due to Anthony Bourdains no reservation show. The ong choy salad was really good. Also ordered the com bo luc lac (beef cube steak with fried ketchup rice).
The avocado smoothie and café sua da was great. The coffee was nice and strong and you taste the condensed milk as opposed to other places.
The beef cube dish which doesn’t usually get served in Vietnamese restaurants was here and very tasty. Beef was very tender and their sauce was very well seasoned. Highly recommend this dish for people who are not into super authentic or harder to eat Vietnamese dishes.
We also ordered noodles with crab paste, pungent but excellent flavor profile. Soup broth was a touch spicy but very flavorful and authentic to Vietnam. The congealed blood cubes were excellent. They also had real crab legs in the soup which reminded me of how they make it back home. My friends kept asking for more after trying a spoonful. This was definitely the table favorite.
We also got the free mango pudding for checking in here and it was really good and tasty.
Overall staff was friendly, food came very quickly and it was a good experience. Authentic and does not disappoint. They kept refilling our waters which is a nice and simple thing to keep us happy.

I’ll be honest. I came here, like so many tourists do, because I happened to see an old episode of Anthony Bourdain’s No Reservations that focused on Seattle. While there were numerous bars and late-​night eats highlighted, it really was Vietnamese restaurant Ranier BBQ that caught my eye.
Being from San Jose (largest population of Vietnamese in America), I’m no stranger to great Vietnamese eats. But I had never had the ong choy salad that Bourdain recommended and I know he’s traveled enough in Asia to have legit taste buds.
Rainier Restaurant & BBQ is located outside of Seattle and it’s name isn’t the best indication either that they serve Vietnamese food. The BBQ actually refers to their cooked BBQ meats that they also sell (think roast duck, pork, and BBQ pork) alongside their affordable banh mi (sandwiches).
Supposedly, after the show, they expanded and at our visit, there were two separate buildings, one to-​go and a larger two story sit down location. Business was brisk and constant during the lunch hour and service is efficient albeit not super smiley. Our order:
Famous Ong Choy Salad (small) — $ 14. It’s so typical Asian that they take the usually not eaten ends of ong choy (the ends that are not cooked) and have ingeniously used it for a salad. The salad consists of these ends curled and there’s a table in the restaurant where someone is usually preparing the salad parts. Take perfectly cooked rare beef and place on top and add a nice helping of fish sauce and you have a salad that reminded me a lot of Thai salads I’ve had. It’s both tangy and slightly sweet and is really quite good.
The kicker is that I’ve heard that the prices have gradually been going up since the show and a small for $ 14 isn’t that great a deal. Nonetheless, I was happy with the rare beef quality and did enjoy both the flavor and execution. Bourdain didn’t let me down.
Phở Dac Biet — everything else on the menu is almost a bargain compared to the salad. A large phở dac biet was only $ 5.95. Unfortunately, despite the bargain price, I found the soup broth to be very bland and the noodles and meat to be underwhelming. The noodles were in particular lackluster and the meat quality wasn’t anything to write home about. Many places in SJ would beat this place easily for phở, but I guess that isn’t Rainier’s specialty.
Herb Flavored Duck Egg Noodle Soup — this was listed as a Chef specialty and I’ve had several versions, including some great ones in SF at Hai Ky Mi Gia. I came out piping hot and had a large duck leg with egg noodles. The broth tasted a bit artificial (perhaps the herbs) and the duck leg was overcooked and dry. Overall, another disappointing dish.
Seasoned and Deep Fried Quail with Lettuce and Tomato — people rave about this dish and two quail are nicely seasoned and deep fried. It was good, but I’ve had quail at many places and didn’t find these that noteworthy. Again, good, but wouldn’t stand out among the many places I’ve had.
Lemonade and Lemon Soda — I saw several reviews tout the spectacular lemon soda and thought I’d be in for a special treat. But after having the first few sip, it pretty much tasted like every lemonade and lemon soda I’ve had at almost every Vietnamese restaurant I’ve been to. Lots of lemon, lots of sugar and soda or water. Perhaps the places in Seattle don’t do it as well, but even chain Tung Kee has a similar lemon soda.
Overall, I was sorry I wasn’t able to order more exotic fare. I had heard that the razor clams, the wild game, and seafood are great options but I only had time to try their famous ong choy salad and several Vietnamese staples. True to reports the ong choy salad tasted great and had both a subtle savory and tanginess that I hopefully can replicate back home. As for the two noodle soups, I was pretty disappointed. Finally, the deep fried quail and drinks were standard, so I’d say this place was a 3.5 stars. Worthwhile to stop by for the salad, but I’ll stick to the other items back home.
Rainier Restaurants accepts credit cards, but not American Express.