Curling up with a warm bowl of soup is the perfect antidote to gray skies. According to the calendar, spring is around the corner, but who are we kidding? Soup season in Seattle runs at least 11 months of the year.
You won’t need to travel far to go on an international culinary journey with your kids. We found family-friendly Thai, Vietnamese, and Chinese soups right in the Seattle area. Trying new flavors together is a fun adventure and a chance to expand your kids’ palates. Toppings and styles can be adjusted and tailored to even the pickiest eaters, no need for a kids’ menu.
Khao soi at Ginger & Scallion
- Open: 11 a.m.-3 p.m. and 5-9 p.m. Tuesday to Sunday
- Location: 500 N.W. 65th St., Seattle
The brothers behind Secret Congee are up to something again. This time, they’ve turned Ginger & Scallion into a Khao Soi bar. There’s only one soup on the menu, and that’s the point: to do one thing and do it well.
Khao soi (pronounced “cal soy”) is a coconut curry broth with all the toppings: egg noodles, pickled mustard greens, scallion, cilantro, shallots, and a wedge of lime. Ginger & Scallion’s recipe comes from Chiang Rai in northern Thailand. Bowls range from $15-$25 — the seared duck was our unanimous pick — and there’s even a $100 snow-aged wagyu if you’re feeling flush. Brothers Akarawin and Jakkapat Lertsirisin, better known as “Boss” and “JP,” pivoted to the khao soi concept in January 2025. “Definitely considered an everyday food,” JP said. “This is such a staple. You would eat it on your lunch break or after work in Thailand.”
(Image: JiaYing Grygiel)
Ginger & Scallion is a cute neighborhood spot on 65th in Ballard, just where it starts to turn into Phinney Ridge. The morning we visited, it was crisp enough to see our breaths. We warmed up nicely between the sunshine pouring in the window and the not-too-spicy-for-kids khao soi.
Growing up in Bangkok, JP remembers going out to try new foods with his grandparents every Saturday morning and evening. It could be a $5 bowl of noodles from the always-packed stall with no name; these Saturday outings were done to make eating a family activity.
“You have to go eat something. It’s not the same as if you just go by yourself,” JP said. “That’s what it’s all about, that sense of community when you go out. You need something to seal that feeling, and I feel like food is one of them.”
Akarawin Boss Lertsirisin owns Ginger-Scallion and Secret-Congee with his brother. (Image: JiaYing Grygiel)
Secret Congee
- Open: 9 a.m.- 3 p.m. Tuesday to Sunday
- Location: 6301 Seaview Ave. N.W., Seattle
Secret Congee is the Lertsirisin brothers’ other restaurant, and it deserves a spot on every soup phile’s list. Congee is rice cooked with a lot of water (or broth, in this case) until it turns into a rice porridge. “Number one breakfast in Thailand,” Boss said. The classic Thai meatball ($14) is the congee of the brothers’ Thai childhood, and the beef and kimchi ($16) is a Korean fusion that always sells out.
(Image: JiaYing Grygiel)
Phở at Phở Bắc Sup Shop
- Open: 10 a.m.-9 p.m. daily; Downtown: 10 a.m.-9 p.m. Monday to Saturday; Rainier Valley: 8 a.m.-9 p.m. daily
- Locations: 1240 S. Jackson St., 1923 7th Ave., and 3300 Rainier Ave. S. (all in Seattle)
Phở (pronounced “fuh”) is Vietnam’s national dish: a steaming bowl of beef broth piled with rice noodles, thinly sliced meat, bean sprouts, and basil. Customize it however you like: steak and brisket, tendon, tripe, meatballs — all cuts of beef, really — and squeeze a wedge of lime over the whole shebang. There’s even chicken phở. Add a squirt of hoisin sauce and Sriracha hot chili sauce for an optional kick.
“It’s an all-occasion food,” Yenvy Pham said. “You can eat every day. You eat it any way you want. It’s a blank canvas.” For the record, Yenvy loves her phở with egg rolls and Chinese doughnuts to dip into the soup.
(Image: JiaYing Grygiel)
Yenvy’s parents opened Seattle’s first phở restaurant, Phở Bắc, in 1982. She grew up in Little Saigon and started working around age 12. “My parents were always working, so we kind of just followed them around. I was always at the restaurant,” she said.
The Phams are three-time James Beard award finalists, but you’d never know it from their modest prices: $15 for a regular bowl and $1 more for the large. Yenvy and her sister Quynh run the family phở business now, and their empire has grown to three phở shops, a bar, and a coffee shop in addition to their original location, dubbed “the Boat.” The most family-friendly location is the Phở Bắc in Rainier Beach, by Franklin High School, because it has the most parking. It’s also the only one with phở sà tê, a super spicy phở with fermented shrimp.
Traditionally a breakfast meal, phở has evolved into an all-day thing. Mornings, nights, late nights, early mornings…. at Phở Bắc, beef bones simmer in giant vats for at least 24 hours to flavor the broth. “It’s continuous,” Yenvy said. “We don’t really stop making phở.”
Hot pot at The Dolar Shop
- Open: 11:30 a.m.-10 p.m. Monday to Thursday, 11 a.m.-11 p.m. Friday to Sunday
- Location: 11020 N.E. 6th St. #90, Bellevue
Hot pot is the Chinese answer to fondue. Instead of a pot of gooey cheese, fresh veggies and raw meat sliced paper-thin are dipped into a pot of bubbling broth to quickly cook right at the table. It’s interactive food! Kids love playing chef. It’s sustenance and entertainment in one. Just make sure to keep little fingers safe by turning off the burner at the toddler’s seat.
Hot pot, called huǒguō or “fire pot” in Mandarin, is meant to be a shared family meal. Getting together over hot pot is a social event where the company is just as important as the food itself. For hot pot newbies, ordering at The Dolar Shop is easy via iPad. If you don’t understand something, touch it, and an explanation will pop up. It’s also easy to keep tabs on your order total this way.
(Image: JiaYing Grygiel)
Start by choosing your base broth; we like the chef’s creamy pork broth ($10.99). You can even do a split, like spicy broth on one side and tomato on the other (also $10.99). The artfully arranged platters of meat are the star ingredient, and there is also seafood, tofu, veggies, noodles, and rice. Servers discreetly refill your pot when the broth runs low. Unlike the communal pots at most hot pot restaurants, diners get individual pots and burners at The Dolar Shop. There is no sibling squabbling, and it is worth every penny.
Don’t be thrown by The Dolar Shop’s Bravern neighbors: Prada, Hermès, and Louis Vuitton. The Dolar Shop is considered an upscale restaurant chain from China, but hot pot isn’t the least bit pretentious. It’s elevated comfort food that the whole family will enjoy.
