The Korean Cafe That’s Ideal for a Luxurious Lunch
In a town where many of the best restaurants focus on dinner, Made in House is that rare thing: a lunch destination. Even on rainy days, even when Fremont Place is being torn up by construction crews, this Korean cafe and restaurant is crowded, cheerful, and full of life.
What to order
- The menu is an ever-fluctuating thing, with rotating specials based on seasonal produce and occasional sellouts, so it can be a little hard to navigate. If it’s your first time, get a “daily plate” or a bento box, options that come with a ton of different small bits, including kimchi and other pickly banchan.
- Whatever you do, get the kale tempura. It’s not an obvious signature dish, but it’s incredibly light and delicate, with notes of faint sweetness that you might not associate with greens.
- Made in House also has a number of coffees and teas, as well as some fun rotating nonalcoholic options; the gingerade, with chia and honey, is sharp and clean-tasting, with a relieving layer of sweetness. If you’re here for dinner (or don’t have to go back to work after lunch), there are some interesting alcoholic beverages, including rare-in-Seattle makgeolli, a Korean rice wine.
Best for
You can get takeout from Made in House, but it’s the kind of place where you might as well hang out at the long wooden bar. Also, you can’t get the stone pot bibimbop to go, and the purple rice is best enjoyed when it’s stuck to the bottom of the pot.
Insider tip
Parking here is nearly impossible at times. Nothing makes you believe that Fremont is some sort of mystical place where the rules of the outside world don’t apply like circling the neighborhood in search of a space. Luckily, Made in House is near the Burke-Gilman Trail, making biking a good option.
