How My Best Seattle picks the city's best businesses
Five steps from Lake City to Rainier Beach: how My Best Seattle editors research, verify and choose every business in our Seattle rankings, and keep them fresh.
Seattleites are polite, and that can make honest recommendations surprisingly hard to come by. Our rankings fill that gap. Behind every list is the same five-part process, whether we are choosing teriyaki shops, pediatric dentists or roof cleaning services. It is not complicated, but we apply it every time, without shortcuts.
Lake City to Rainier Beach
We begin with every business in the relevant trade across Seattle, north to south and over the West Seattle Bridge. A bakery in Lake City or an auto shop in South Park counts as much as any famous stall at Pike Place Market. Neighborhoods that visitors never reach get as much attention as the ones they do.
A good name that has lasted
A business earns its place by looking after customers well, consistently, for years. We look hard at that long-term track record and stay wary of businesses whose popularity seems to rest on novelty alone. In a city that loves the next new thing, staying power says a great deal.
The essentials, verified
Every business is checked before it appears: still open, correct address, working phone number, accurate hours. Closures, duplicates and businesses that have moved away are taken out, so nobody ends up driving across the Ship Canal for nothing on a wet Tuesday evening.
Head to head within each trade
Each list compares businesses only within their own trade, so a Vietnamese restaurant faces other Vietnamese restaurants and an electrician faces other electricians. We keep the businesses that clearly lead their field and are comfortable publishing a short list when only a few have earned it.
A steady review rhythm
Lists come back to our editors at a steady rhythm through the year. Closures come off, promising newcomers are added once their reputation has settled, and details such as winter hours are refreshed. In between, credible reports from readers are acted on quickly, because a closed café or a changed phone number should not wait months to be fixed.
If we got something wrong
Write to info@mybestseattle.com. We check every report before changing the guide, and good tips about overlooked businesses are always welcome, especially from people with deep roots in their part of town.
Owner updates
Business owners can take charge of their listing, including photos and hours, on the For Businesses page.