clock menu more-arrow no yes mobile
A burger next to a plate of oysters.
The burger at Half Shell.
Harry Cheadle

The Best Happy Hour Food Deals in Seattle

Oysters for $2? In this economy?

View as Map
The burger at Half Shell.
| Harry Cheadle

Happy hour in Seattle is back! At a time when restaurateurs are struggling to get mouths into doors, many have turned to the tried and true method of offering steeply discounted bites during pre-dinner hours. (Time is an illusion, and nothing is stopping you from eating a full meal at 4 p.m.)

Oysters for $2 apiece, once a rarity in Seattle, are now common. There are incredible burgers to be found all over town for about $10 (yes, this is a deal, we said incredible burgers). And one heroic bar is offering some of the best pasta in town for $10.

Here are our picks for incredible happy hour food deals in Seattle. As usual, this list is not ranked but organized geographically. If there’s a happy hour we should know about, please email [email protected].

For all the latest Seattle dining intel, subscribe to Eater Seattle’s newsletter.

Read More
Eater maps are curated by editors and aim to reflect a diversity of neighborhoods, cuisines, and prices. Learn more about our editorial process.

FlintCreek Cattle Co

Copy Link

This meat-driven destination steakhouse in Greenwood offers one of the most tantalizing happy hours in town from 4 to 5:30 p.m. daily. It’s the only time it offers the blue cheese butcher burger, a meal in itself and a steal at $11, and an even more enticing option when accompanied by an $8 Tom Collins or a $5 Coors stubby.

The Garrison

Copy Link

Le Coin’s owners branched out into Ballard with this Champagne bar that also has a streetside window where you can get tacos and sometimes other stuff. So there’s a lot going on here! But let’s focus on what’s important: $12 for a half dozen local oysters. From 3 to 5 p.m. Thursdays through Mondays, a huge chunk of the seafood-focused menu is half off, which means that the oysters — big chonky Treasure Cove lads — are just two bucks each. To wash that down, try 25 percent off Champagne by the glass or $1 beers.

A plate of oysters.
Oysters at the Garrison.
Harry Cheadle

Mamma Melina Ristorante & Pizzeria

Copy Link

The Varchetta Brothers long ruled happy hour in Seattle (Barolo, List, Cinque Terre), and that remains the same at their U District classic, where the steep discounts run all day on Sunday and Monday, from 3 to 6 p.m. daily, plus for an hour in the evening (8 to 9 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday and 9 to 10 p.m. on Friday and Saturday). The bar food menu is 50 percent off, bottles of the house red, white, and rosé are $28 while glasses are $7, and well drinks are $8 each. Plus, one can get a bottle of Veuve Clicquot for $65, or a glass for $7.

Vietnamese restaurant Ba Bar serves happy hour at its original Capitol Hill restaurant from 1 to 5 p.m. and 9 p.m. to midnight daily, and from 2 to 5 p.m. (Monday through Saturday at the South Lake Union and the U Village locations. The restaurant knocks a few bucks off cocktails, and serves up discounted snacks like crispy imperial rolls and the excellent Sài Gòn wings.

Kokkaku

Copy Link

This Wallingford Japanese grilled meat specialist has one of the last remaining oyster happy hours selling the bivalves for less than $2 a pop. From 4:30 to 6 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday, oysters go for $1.75, marinated seafood cost $5, and the $6 drink menu includes draft beer, sake, and cocktails such as the Japanese 75 with yuzu.

Kin Len Thai Night Bites

Copy Link

This colorful and lively Thai spot in Fremont has a lengthy happy hour, from 3 to 6 p.m. and 9 to 10 p.m. daily. On the menu are discounts on delectable snacks like mussels pineapple curry with rice, larb chicken, boat noodles, and Kinlen wings. Well drinks and certain cocktails (such as lychee martinis) are $7.

Japanese Izakaya specialist Rondo serves a daily “Hiru-nomi,” or “day drinking” menu from 2 to 5:30 p.m. daily. There are a ton of discounts here, like a $16 Japanese whiskey flight, a $16 bento box, and a $10 special with a Sapporo, sake, and three chef’s choice appetizers.

Donna's

Copy Link

Donna’s has plenty of cocktail specials during its 4 to 6 p.m. happy hour — including $7 espresso martini shots — but the real draw is the $10 pasta, which in case you missed the memo is really good pasta made by chef Peaches, formerly of the legendary Vito’s. If you’re more of a night person, there’s also a happy hour that runs from 10 p.m. to midnight Thursday through Saturday.

Linda's Tavern

Copy Link

If you go to this Western bar for some day-drinking-turning-maybe-to-night-drinking and decide you’d actually like to just have dinner rather than schlep around Capitol Hill, you’re in luck: From 4 to 6 p.m. every day there’s a lineup of $9 food including chicken strips and fries, a cheeseburger and fries, and nachos. It’s basically a kid’s menu, sure, but after a few $9 PBR pitchers you’ll feel like a kid.

Half Shell

Copy Link

Famed restaurateur Tom Douglas recently turned Etta’s Big Mountain BBQ into an old-school steak-and-oysters joint and it’s coming out of the gate with incredible happy hour specials. From 3 to 6 p.m. oysters are $2 and maybe more importantly the burger is just $14. This is a grown-up burger too, not a “smash” burger, an impressive patty of juicy meat with the regular burger fixings plus some tartar sauce for a dose of tartness.

A burger next to a plate of oysters
The burger at Half Shell.
Harry Cheadle

Itsumono

Copy Link

This self-proclaimed gastropub is one of Seattle’s buzzier restaurants, but from 4 to 5:30 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays, it is also one of the best deals in town. Teriyaki burgers $8 a pop, and while you have to order a drink to get those prices, the drinks are cheap too — $6 for a well cocktail or a draft beer, and $10 for speciality cocktails.

West Wings

Copy Link

On the surface this is a sports-y wing place, but the sauce here has layers — it’s tangy but also has notes of cumin and even a bit of sweetness. We’d be happy to pay full price every time we’re in West Seattle, but on weekdays from 3 to 5 p.m. (and all day Mondays) a half-dozen wings are $9, and you can get a burger plus a wing order for $14. Is there anything that makes you prouder to be an American than the idea that wings can be a side?

A plate of wings with blue cheese sauce and celery.
Wings at West Wings
Harry Cheadle

FlintCreek Cattle Co

This meat-driven destination steakhouse in Greenwood offers one of the most tantalizing happy hours in town from 4 to 5:30 p.m. daily. It’s the only time it offers the blue cheese butcher burger, a meal in itself and a steal at $11, and an even more enticing option when accompanied by an $8 Tom Collins or a $5 Coors stubby.

The Garrison

Le Coin’s owners branched out into Ballard with this Champagne bar that also has a streetside window where you can get tacos and sometimes other stuff. So there’s a lot going on here! But let’s focus on what’s important: $12 for a half dozen local oysters. From 3 to 5 p.m. Thursdays through Mondays, a huge chunk of the seafood-focused menu is half off, which means that the oysters — big chonky Treasure Cove lads — are just two bucks each. To wash that down, try 25 percent off Champagne by the glass or $1 beers.

A plate of oysters.
Oysters at the Garrison.
Harry Cheadle

Mamma Melina Ristorante & Pizzeria

The Varchetta Brothers long ruled happy hour in Seattle (Barolo, List, Cinque Terre), and that remains the same at their U District classic, where the steep discounts run all day on Sunday and Monday, from 3 to 6 p.m. daily, plus for an hour in the evening (8 to 9 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday and 9 to 10 p.m. on Friday and Saturday). The bar food menu is 50 percent off, bottles of the house red, white, and rosé are $28 while glasses are $7, and well drinks are $8 each. Plus, one can get a bottle of Veuve Clicquot for $65, or a glass for $7.

Ba Bar

Vietnamese restaurant Ba Bar serves happy hour at its original Capitol Hill restaurant from 1 to 5 p.m. and 9 p.m. to midnight daily, and from 2 to 5 p.m. (Monday through Saturday at the South Lake Union and the U Village locations. The restaurant knocks a few bucks off cocktails, and serves up discounted snacks like crispy imperial rolls and the excellent Sài Gòn wings.

Kokkaku

This Wallingford Japanese grilled meat specialist has one of the last remaining oyster happy hours selling the bivalves for less than $2 a pop. From 4:30 to 6 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday, oysters go for $1.75, marinated seafood cost $5, and the $6 drink menu includes draft beer, sake, and cocktails such as the Japanese 75 with yuzu.

Kin Len Thai Night Bites

This colorful and lively Thai spot in Fremont has a lengthy happy hour, from 3 to 6 p.m. and 9 to 10 p.m. daily. On the menu are discounts on delectable snacks like mussels pineapple curry with rice, larb chicken, boat noodles, and Kinlen wings. Well drinks and certain cocktails (such as lychee martinis) are $7.

Rondo

Japanese Izakaya specialist Rondo serves a daily “Hiru-nomi,” or “day drinking” menu from 2 to 5:30 p.m. daily. There are a ton of discounts here, like a $16 Japanese whiskey flight, a $16 bento box, and a $10 special with a Sapporo, sake, and three chef’s choice appetizers.

Donna's

Donna’s has plenty of cocktail specials during its 4 to 6 p.m. happy hour — including $7 espresso martini shots — but the real draw is the $10 pasta, which in case you missed the memo is really good pasta made by chef Peaches, formerly of the legendary Vito’s. If you’re more of a night person, there’s also a happy hour that runs from 10 p.m. to midnight Thursday through Saturday.

Linda's Tavern

If you go to this Western bar for some day-drinking-turning-maybe-to-night-drinking and decide you’d actually like to just have dinner rather than schlep around Capitol Hill, you’re in luck: From 4 to 6 p.m. every day there’s a lineup of $9 food including chicken strips and fries, a cheeseburger and fries, and nachos. It’s basically a kid’s menu, sure, but after a few $9 PBR pitchers you’ll feel like a kid.

Half Shell

Famed restaurateur Tom Douglas recently turned Etta’s Big Mountain BBQ into an old-school steak-and-oysters joint and it’s coming out of the gate with incredible happy hour specials. From 3 to 6 p.m. oysters are $2 and maybe more importantly the burger is just $14. This is a grown-up burger too, not a “smash” burger, an impressive patty of juicy meat with the regular burger fixings plus some tartar sauce for a dose of tartness.

A burger next to a plate of oysters
The burger at Half Shell.
Harry Cheadle

Itsumono

This self-proclaimed gastropub is one of Seattle’s buzzier restaurants, but from 4 to 5:30 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays, it is also one of the best deals in town. Teriyaki burgers $8 a pop, and while you have to order a drink to get those prices, the drinks are cheap too — $6 for a well cocktail or a draft beer, and $10 for speciality cocktails.

West Wings

On the surface this is a sports-y wing place, but the sauce here has layers — it’s tangy but also has notes of cumin and even a bit of sweetness. We’d be happy to pay full price every time we’re in West Seattle, but on weekdays from 3 to 5 p.m. (and all day Mondays) a half-dozen wings are $9, and you can get a burger plus a wing order for $14. Is there anything that makes you prouder to be an American than the idea that wings can be a side?

A plate of wings with blue cheese sauce and celery.
Wings at West Wings
Harry Cheadle

Related Maps