Pike Place can feed several quite different appetites. A Filipino lunch counter, a grilled-fish sandwich and a deli picnic are three useful starting points. Choose one meal you actually want to sit with, then leave any extra snacks to chance. A list of famous queues is a poor substitute for lunch.
Oriental Mart rewards looking behind the grocery shelves. The market’s directory describes a three-generation family business, established here in the 1970s, with an 18-seat Filipino lunch counter in the back. The market’s food guide names chicken adobo, pancit and salmon sinigang among its dishes. That combination of pantry and prepared meal gives the shop two lives: a place to buy ingredients and a place to see them become lunch. Ask what is being cooked that day. The published counter hours end at 3 p.m., so put it ahead of an unhurried afternoon browse.
Market Grill offers a more direct decision in the Main Arcade. It has operated since 1996, and the market’s lunch guide singles out its blackened coho salmon sandwich. The restaurant’s own menu builds the sandwich with caramelized onions, romaine, tomato and rosemary mayonnaise; a platter puts the grilled fish with brown rice and mixed greens instead. That gives you a real choice of meal, not just a choice of queue. Ask the counter about current availability and ingredients if a dietary requirement affects your order.
At DeLaurenti, food shopping can become the meal. The specialty shop at First Avenue and Pike Street dates to 1946; its present directory lists cheese, cured meats, sandwiches and an espresso bar. Buy a sandwich or ask the counter to help assemble something to take away. The storefront sits at the entrance to the Economy Market, so a deli stop can lead straight back into the interior passages. Check current hours before saving it for the end of a Sunday.
