2901 E. Madison St.
Seattle, WA 98112
206.325.9100
www.cafeflora.com

As a non-meat-eater for close to 30 years, I have loved dining at Café Flora during my life as a walker, a cane-user, a walker-user, and a wheelchair user.  I have made sure that all our out-of-town guests have sampled the amazing Cheesy Grits that accompany beautiful and delicious breakfast scrambles.  I have introduced lunch buddies

to the addictive Portobello French Dip sandwich and perfectly crisped yam fries.  I have made a full dinner out of Café Flora’s wonderful coconut tofu appetizer, having to fight with daughters and sisters over that last cube of tofu.  I have felt lucky to be able to take my vegan and gluten-free friends to Café Flora for a meal that is creative, satisfying, and anxiety-free.

Not only have I loved the food at Café Flora, but I have loved the space itself.  The garden room is a gorgeous place to dine whether in August with the sweet summer air wafting through the room’s open windows or in November with only the silvery Seattle light shining through.  I have also loved the staff.  They are attentive and interesting.  Such a frequent guest am I that once in a Thai restaurant a Café Flora waitress came up to me and said, “I know you from Café Flora.  Aren’t you the one who leaves the big tips?”

Because I love this place so much, it is very hard for me to give it only three and a half wheels, but in terms of access, there are some problems here.

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6049 Seaview Avenue NW
Seattle, WA 98107-2690
Cafe reservations: 206.782.0094
http://www.rays.com/

Ray’s Café is the restaurant that we Seattleites show off to aunts, uncles, sisters, parents, cousins, nieces, nephews, and friends who are visiting from the Midwest, the Southwest, or any other place that is inland or dry.  At Ray’s Cafe we can give our visitors a water view so beautiful it will make them weep and a delicious taste of Pacific NW seafood without breaking the bank.   When my family comes to visit in the summer,  I’ll take them out for a meal on the Cafe’s famous deck and buy them a hat so they can sit there as long as they want staring at the play of light on water.  On a good day,  they’ll be this close to seals, ships heading out to sea from the Ballard Locks, and the majestic Olympics.

If you are an old Seattle friend, I’ll ask you to meet me inside on a late Friday afternoon, so we can celebrate a long week at work with an exquisite drink from the Café’s bar and a smoked salmon skewer or bowl of corn and clam chowder.

If it’s cold and gray out there, if the line between sky and water are blurred, if the mountains are tucked behind charcoal quilts, that’s fine, too.  Inside, the Café is warm, cozy, delicious.  Ray’s Café is a great spot, night or day, January or July, inside or outside, and it is easily accessible to people in wheelchairs.

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2132 N. Northgate Way
Seattle, WA 98133
206.417.0707
www.saffrongrillseattle.com

My nephew, Tristan, was eight years old and visiting from Oregon when he tasted his first mango lassi at Muhammed Bhatti’s first Indian-Middle Eastern fusion restaurant in the University district.  Tristan’s response was to order a second.   Now grown up, well-travelled, and living in Seattle, he still declares that Bhatti’s lassis are the best there are.  And who wouldn’t agree with that?  Usually when the waiter comes over to take our drink orders, everyone at the table foregoes the bourbon to have the lassi.  Sometimes you just have to prioritize.  Other people will say that, yes, the lassis are good, but—really—you need to check out the garlic naan, the butter chicken, the palak massala, the pakoras…the list goes on but always, always the gulab jamun, those heavenly little spheres in that sweetly scented syrup!

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2043 Eastlake Avenue East Seattle, WA 98102
206.323.0807
www.serafinaseattle.com

Multiply-windowed and magically lit, Serafina is a sweet little Italian restaurant with an elegant but not fussy neighborhood feel.  White tablecloths, dark walls, twinkly lights, candles, and delicious food —every meal I’ve had there has been a joyful chorus of flavors, colors, aromas, and great company.  Even a lunch stop at Serafina, sandwiched into a busy workday, feels like a gift you are giving yourself, not because you deserve it but because you need a little time in the lush land of the senses.  In this particular trip to Serafina, I was joined by a delightful young woman who agreed to make the trip in a wheelchair herself in order to better understand the wheeled dining experience.  As usual, the dinner we had was delicious, and the service was attentive, generous, and warm.  (Really—is every server in Seattle wonderful?  I’m starting to think so.)

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5411 Ballard Ave. NW
206.789.5100
http://volterrarestaurant.com/
Date of visit:  February 16, 2014

Several years ago, when my nephew, a world-traveler, came to Seattle on a work-related visit, he and his colleagues invited us to dinner, asking us to choose the spot.  We wanted the space to be intimate and the food delicious, so we told them we’d meet them at Volterra.  Even with a GPS, it took them awhile to find the place, but once they arrived, we had a great dinner and a fun evening.  My nephew loved it.  He said, “I could have predicted I would like it.  That’s how I always know I’m going to be eating in a good restaurant when I’m traveling:  if it is hard to find and has no parking, it will be a great dinner!”

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