9 new restaurants and cafes from South Lake Union to West Seattle

Our latest list of Seattle restaurant debuts was overlong, so we're breaking the list up by neighborhood.

We've already counted up new openings from Capitol Hill to Pioneer Square and its surrounding neighborhoods as well as restaurants all over North Seattle.

Our final roundup of the week covers South Lake Union, Belltown, Downtown, Uptown and ... West Seattle (always the odd man out).

Up in Amazon land, the former pop-up Pizza Rasoi - which made my list of favorite fusion pizzas around Seattle - lands a permanent home inside Tapster in South Lake Union.

Maahir Kasliwal reimagines Indian cuisine as Neapolitan pies; he trained at the Culinary Institute of America at Greystone and worked at the Michelin-starred restaurant PRESS in Napa Valley. Many Indian fusion pizzas around the Sound are top-heavy with globs of chicken, curries and cheese, but Kasliwal caters more to the pizza geeks, featuring a fermented dough with a thin, garlicky crust that's similar to naan. His pies get topped with a Punjabi curry tomato sauce.

A half-mile southwest, the sandwich shop Panino on Dexter Avenue specializes in meatballs and Italian cured meats like prosciutto di Parma and the still-trendy mortadella on focaccia.

(Also nearby: Pho Vinason pivots to a fast-casual pho concept in the style of Chipotle, nicknamed "Pho-potle," with an assembly line of meat toppings and the fixings to build your own bowl of pho. And speaking of Vietnamese food news: The popular Tho Tuong BBQ of Tacoma plans to expand to South Lake Union sometime in May.)

For now, you can get your Vietnamese fix at Nom House, a fast-casual counter in downtown Seattle, where office workers have been lining up for banh mi, vermicelli and rice bowls.

Also downtown: Those with expense accounts can splurge on the $72 rib-eye or seafood tower at Cinder + Salt in the Charter Hotel.

And in Belltown, Chennai Express on Bell Street specializes in South Indian cuisine, including a long breakfast lineup featuring dishes like stuffed dosas and uttapam pancakes.

Heading east to Denny Way, the fast-food chain Houston TX Hot Chicken debuts near Climate Pledge Arena, doing Nashville-style hot chicken until 3 a.m. on Fridays and Saturdays. For those who don't want to wait in line at Raising Cane's in the University District, this chain dishes tasty chicken tenders (along with an underrated mac and cheese to dose that fiery heat). If you want your chicken extra hot, this chain requires customers to sign a gimmicky waiver clearing it of all liabilities.

(Also doing this publicity stunt is Sinners Pizza, a new University District slice shop requires a waiver if you order the fiery "hellfire" pizza.)

Over in West Seattle, along the main stretch of California Avenue Southwest, KinD Asian Noodle House churns out fresh noodles for its soup bowls, which get topped off with bone-in beef rib or fancy wagyu beef. The menu also includes Asian fusion bites like a pork katsu banh mi.

Finally, for sweets, try Maddy's Bakeshop near Seattle Center or Orange Goose Coffee in the heart of Uptown.

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