Sometimes people email me for restaurant recommendations. I always answer! Here's one for the marvelously named Cedar.

There are a million "new american" and european restaurants that are both yummy and "nice," the sort of places you'd take a date. I'm thinking of Tom Douglas’s places, Ethan Stowell's places, Le Pichet, Terra Plata, Harvest Vine, etc etc etc.

Can you recommend something in the same vein, but some sort of asian food, hopefully Chinese? Except for Monsoon (which isn't even Chinese), I'm not aware of anything along those lines. There are lots of yummy hole-in-the-wall Chinese places, but I'm looking for something a little more upscale.

Halp! Thanks in advance!
Cedar

Dear Cedar,

First off, I love your name. Do you smell good? I bet you do. Onward!

• T-Doug's pan-Asian Tanakasan in Belltown might be what you want in terms of atmosphere, but I haven't heard anything about the food being stellar, and I have not been myself. Anyone?

• Ba Bar on First Hill, run by Eric Banh of Monsoon, is Vietnamese not Chinese, but it has upscale Asian comfort food like chicken wings—and it's nice inside, livelier that Monsoon, and really good.

• Red Lantern in the ID is not quite as contemporary-chic as the above, but still nicer than most and quite pleasant, and the food I've had there has been satisfying (though it's been a while).

• Regent on Capitol Hill is funny insofar as it has a bakery counter in part of the space, but the dining room and bar are on the upscale side, and the food is good (again, it's been a while).

• Chungee's, also on Capitol Hill, has fresher-and-better-than-most Americanized Chinese, and while it's not exactly upscale, the teeny-tiny dining room has a pleasant red-lantern, down-the-rabbit-hole feeling.

Here's a link to all our recommended Chinese places... and maybe Slog commenters have more ideas?

Very best,
Bethany