Red Papaya Ale & Spirits

We dropped in for dinner on a whim after seeing a movie at SIFF Uptown. Based on the unassuming vibe from the street I had no idea the Vietnamese food inside would be so delicious. I had the vegetarian phở and shared a tofu coconut roll with my partner – both were yummy and I appreciated the variety of vegetables in the soup. Our friends had pork belly dishes that looked great! Food was delivered quick and Jes provided wonderful service.

Until today this place was my absolute favorite place for fresh rolls and a cider. We walked into a virtually empty establishment late afternoon intent on a very quick bite. As we walked toward a table we were told to wait. Another person said sit where you want and the female again said to wait then promptly told the other person «you’re not in charge right now». She took her time then finally said «you can sit down now» with lots of attitude. Sorry Red Papaya. You’ve lost my business.

I enjoyed the vermicelli here but had the pancake and it was eh. Sort of like they just threw something together that was greasy and undercooked. With so many other phở places around its hard to have a reason to come back here. Also it during summertime it was pretty warm and the blinds were broken, but with no where else to sit the sun was really uncomfortable.

The secret is out on one of my favorite neighborhood haunts and I can no longer saunter in there on a Friday night and expect to get a table, especially not when there is an event at Seattle Center (Shania Twain night was hilarious!). Perhaps it’s because the silly new mega-​sized apartment buildings in the area– with kitschy, borrowed nostalgia names like Astro and Aperture– have come to fruition and are flush with brogrammer money, but I digress. Point is, these guys deserve the success.
Much has been said about their hybrid business model of serious beer and elevated Vietnamese cuisine, and whether or not the food is truly authentic, it works. Real well. Having bounced around Lower Queen Anne’s numerous phở restaurants, these guys always end up reeling me back in. The veggies are crisp and numerous and the veggie broth is rich. They even upgrade the ingredients, including enoki mushrooms and zucchini. Most every menu item I’ve tried is excellent and attentively prepared.
Their servers are some of my favorite in town, hitting that sweet spot of authentically kind and warm but not cloyingly fake. My only gripe with the restaurant is that they do not heat up their broth enough when I take phở to-​go. I think they may rush my order if I arrive before it’s ready and package up lukewarm broth. This has happened ³⁄₅ times I’ve ordered from them, which is officially a pattern. I’m down to wait an extra few minutes for broth that’ll cook my food and will request as much next time.

Red Papaya has one of the most eclectic menus I’ve seen in recent memory. Upon walking in, it straight up looks like a bar, and it is, but it’s a bar that serves both Vietnamese and American food. There aren’t many places where you can get phở, bun, burgers, salads, and fish & chips.
They have a solid beer list, and we started with the whole chicken wings, which were hot and crispy. My only complaint was that they served the sauce on the side. They definitely would’ve been better if they had been coated in the sauce. Both of us went with the beef phở (it was a rainy night), and it was solid.
TL;DR There’s something for everyone here

Best food and beer in town. The crêpe, the house soup, the phở, the bahn mis, are all exceptional.

Beer selection was real nice but the food could have been better. Nothing wrong with it, just kinda boring flavors.
Careful on the ciders, they’re on sour side so pucker up. And no tasters available because they’re small.
The take out boxes are clear plastic… whaa…

My friend and I went here for phở soup (vegetarian, with d-​lite option). It tasted great… but about 10 minutes after we began eating we both had a severe MSG reaction. Headache, tightness in the chest, jaw, and head, and a very weird feeling. My friend also had pain down her left arm. We asked the waitress if they use MSG and she said yes. It must have been a huge dose for our severe reactions. We had to stop eating and leave… did not even get an apology or discount of any kind.
Extremely disappointed and will never return :(

Love this place. It’s my go to for Phở and in general for a delicious low cost meal.
I’ve been eating phở for 10 years+ all over the best spots in the Bay Area and several spots in Seattle and this ranks up there with the best. Plus they have a great bar, awesome beer selection, and a very cool vibe with a great staff.
You can customize your phở in all sorts of ways, including the D lite option with Zuchini noodles. I get veggie phở with chicken broth half D lite and it is the bomb. Love it. Their garlic rib eye banh mi is incredible as well.
Check it out.

This is an awesome place for dates! The food is delicious and prices are great.
The food is good and the servers are really nice and fun to talk to.
For service, food, and their awesome prices I totally give the highest regards.
My recommendations for improvement are around the fact that they call themselves an Ale and Spirits bar when:
–They don’t have a cocktail list or drink menu
–The servers weren’t sure what wine they had
–The ale menu was written on a chalk board with no prices or info about what was on draft and what was in bottles
–I ordered a classic craft cocktail that is to be served straight up with no garnish. Mine came with an old school neon-​red maraschino cherry in the bottom. Not a big deal unless you’re a cocktail geek who Kinda loathes chemical-​laced cherries
–The bartender didn’t know wether or not they had Old Tom Gin
It feels a little gimmicky.

Stopped here for lunch as was just average.
Crab Wonton — was unable to find any crab in it. Just a cream cheese won ton. The biggest disappointment was this.
Bacon wrapped shrimp were pretty good although slightly overcooked. I like my bacon crisp but this was beyond crisp.
Bahn Mi — Pretty darn good and would go with that if I decide to return.
All in all just kind of average.

I love this place. Everything I’ve tried is great, and they have a really good rotating beer list.
The green beans. Are to DIE for. Like, a green bean orgasm. I’ve tried to recreate them at home so many times, but I just can’t do it.
They have a lot of really great fresh rolls, not the normal shrimp or tofu– they have a bunch more. I love fresh rolls so I find this very exciting.
Their phở– so good. It’s my second favorite in Seattle and close to my house so I go there a bunch. Their broth is very flavorful and they have great veggies to add. You can also have zucchini noodles instead of the traditional rice noodles. I dig that.
Really fun trivia on Mondays, and the staff are all super nice and friendly.
Green beans and phở– do it now!

Red Papaya I LOVE YOUUUUU
my boyfriend and I only came here because there is a place in Montgomery, Alabama that is called The Green Papaya and it was really good so we had to try its arch nemesis!
We dropped in and it was trivia night!
We had the mango spring rolls and pork banh mi!
The mango rolls were good!
The banh mi was soooo bomb! But omg the jalapeños will blow your face off.
It was so spicy I was crying!
The waitress tried to warn me. But I didn’t believe her.
The bar trivia is insanely hard. But we got a free beer!
And we came in second to last place with two people so there!
We’ll be back red papaya!

I went here with my boyfriend after the Kevin Hart Tour so the place was packed. However, our server was friendly and we were seated fairly quickly for it being so busy.
I was impressed by their menu items and wanted to try EVERYTHING. We ordered the bacon wrapped shrimp po boy and salt and pepper fried tofu for appetizers. The portions were generous and they tasted amazing. For our entrée, my boyfriend had the 5 spice bbq banh mi sandwich and I had the pork belly and egg. Again, the portions were generous and the flavor was on point.
I will be coming here again to try the other items on their menu.

ehhh not sure what happened here, but the food quality has really gone downhill.
to start, we ordered crab wontons; they were stuffed with cream cheese and mayyyyyyyybe a touch of crab. bleck. it was served with sweet chili sauce, which seemed like a weird combo. either way, we couldn’t eat them.
then, hopeful about our lunches, I ordered the kalbi, which I ordered last time I was here, and it was either undercooked or just really bad quality, or both. not sure, but my stomach was feeling sick, so couldn’t eat anymore of that either. hubs ordered steak banh mi: the bread was nice and toasted, but the steak was thin, and the sandwich had too much sauce.
service was still good, it was a busy afternoon in the bar and the bartender was nice. she took off the wontons and the kalbi, which was really nice, even though I hate complaining so much.
overall it’s disappointing and not sure we’ll be back anytime soon. 4 stars for service, 0 stars for food.

Came here for dinner with my boyfriend and his family. Overall, it was a nice dinner with great service. Here’s the breakdown:
Food: Pretty good.
Veggie Phö. The broth was much too sweet for me. I had to add a bunch of soy sauce. The portion size was crazy big and the veggies were very fresh!
Ahi Salad was amazing! The Ahi was so fresh and delicious.
Drinks: Their beer list is wonderful. They also change it every week (I believe).
Atmosphere: Nice, cozy, but odd. It doesn’t really have one theme, so it kind of seemed like the décor was all over the place. It feels more like a bar than a restaurant.
Prices: I was fortunate to be treated to this meal, but I do not recall being shocked by the prices of the dishes, especially since the portion size is very large and the ingredients are very fresh.
Service: Excellent! Our server was top notch and very helpful when helping us decide on menu items and beers to order.
Bottom line, the meal was lovely. I wish my phö had been more salty than sweet, but I was full, warm, and satisfied after eating here. I would come back.

My girlfriend and I stopped by here for lunch and enjoyed ourselves.
I had the clay pot fish (They call it something else on the menu) which I enjoyed. They didn’t tell me there was a choice of white or brown rice. When it arrived (after a long wait), I said I wanted brown rice since I found out there was an option. Then it went back for a while and came back with red rice. The red/​brown rice is an extra $ 1.50 fyi. With that said, I got 3 delicious fillets plus pickled vegetables. Claypot fish is the ultimate in comfort food and this was no exception.
My friend ordered the chicken curry. It came out and she was confused but the guy set it down and said «chicken curry» so she ate it. She said it was good but not what she was expecting. When the bill came, she asked another waitress about it and it turned out it was lemongrass chicken. Ooops.
She quickly took our check and said «I’ll take care of it.» She brought it back and comped my friend’s entire entrée! That was really nice of them.
Thanks to the good food and service, we’ll be back again!

I love papaya salad, and if you haven’t had that before, you’re missing out!
When I found this place, I instantly had to order the papaya rib eye salad.
It’s a Vietnamese dish, to die for.
The salad here was average in my honest opinion — it wasn’t amazing, but that’s not why I love this place.
The reason why I love this place is because of how fascinating and deceiving it may seem. It looks dead on like a dive bar… except there are dragon paintings on the walls and stuff. So think dive bar with a modern Vietnamese twist.
That is pretty darn cool!
The best dish I ordered was the garlic green beans, which runs for $ 6. You can grab it for $ 4 during happy hour. Eat it fresh when it comes out! It’s best when its fresh off the stove. I think I’ll come back just to order some green beans and eat that with rice itself.
A salad and green beans are enough, but I needed something else… I needed soup of course! I mean, it’s a Vietnamese restaurant afterall, sort of. I asked if it was possible to just order the Phở broth — no noodles or anything — because I just wanted something warm. The super sweet waitress was more than happy to hook it up with some soup! It runs for about 2 bucks just for a nice big bowl of the broth soup, REALLY good on a cold day!
Phở normally will go for $ 9 to $ 11 bucks depending on if you elect for beef, chicken, veggie etc.
Not shabby, Red Papaya, I’ll be back next time — maybe for some Ale and Spirits!

Holy Shiz! — We loved this place. I highly recommend for happy hour. The beef phở is a definite choice with many beers to choose from. Lots of delicious beef and noodles with Sriracha sauce is the perfect combo here.
We walked in, 12 of us and they set up tables and sat us down lickety-​split. Our drinks, beer, wine and cider was spread out quickly by one waitress that I fail to remember her name… the food’s arrival to our table was just as fast.
They have a selection of belgian beer, IPAs, reds, ciders and wine that would please a king!

I really like this restaurant. Tons of beer, great food, can make anything vegetarian, and friendly service. Their tofu particularly stands out as it has tons of flavor and very soft. I like to eat it with my banh mi and most recently, the vermicelli bowl. Yes, their tofu is that flavorful that you can eat it with vermicelli and not have to use stinky fish sauce for flavoring!
Although I really like this place, it’s just not a five star establishment in it’s class. Perhaps because they serve the food of my people in a very American (but delicious) way.