3 top Seattle spots for cold noodles - one of summer's best bites
Pasta salad is an obvious summertime standby, ideal for a day that needs chilling out (hopefully with leftovers to eat standing in front of the fridge that night). But beyond that, we're blessed with a variety of super-tasty, refreshing cold noodles to eat in Seattle. Here are three places with especially great versions to seek out when the going gets hot.
An amazing trio of cold noodles at Azuki
2711 E. Madison St., Unit 205, Seattle; 206-328-4910, azukimadison.com; hiyashi udon flight $21
OK, this one is obviously the most fun: Azuki's summer special gets you an entire flight of cold noodles - three dishes lined up on a wooden board, each with its own enticing topping. This hiyashi udon assortment is the kind of hot-weather eating that distracts the eyes and the mind while also chilling out the system.
The noodles themselves are the best udon in the city, super-fresh and extra-long, handmade in-house daily by chef Ryuji Miyata at his undersung Madison Valley counter-service spot. And while Azuki's enormous bowls of soup are excellent, I'm going to say that the cold context showcases the udon's texture even better - refreshing and bouncy, bite after bite (and with no risk of getting broth-logged when savored slowly).
These plump, squiggly, dense-but-pliant pale wheat noodles seem custom-made to play nice with a variety of flavors. The three here are: spicy mentaiko and slices of luxe, fatty-edged wild sockeye salmon, with a tangle of pickled ginger and a measured heat increasing the overall cooling effect; a surprising Italianate combo of prosciutto, arugula and housemade aged-balsamic-and-tomato vinaigrette - maybe every pasta salad should be made with Azuki's noodles?; sesame with chili oil and basil topped with a single shrimp, eating like an udon-improvement on New York's rightfully famous takeout noodles (if that's OK to say!?).
Trying to choose a favorite from this trio is a game I'd play every day until fall.
Icy broth and useful scissors at Onmi Korean Cuisine & BBQ
13231 Aurora Ave. N., Seattle; 206-556-3457, onmiseattle.com; mul naengmyeon $22.99
Brandi Fullwood, host of KUOW's "Seattle Eats," recently mentioned this place out on Aurora where she likes to go with a crew for Korean barbecue - the name translates as "warmth" and "taste." For times when a tabletop grill sounds too hot, though, Onmi's got one side of its sleek dining room reserved for the other stuff on the menu, including an epic traditional cold noodle soup.
The mul naengmyeon here comes legitimately icy - the surface of the mild, sweet-and-tart beef broth looks like a slushy! - and wait a minute, maybe this is the most fun one? Your oversized bowl of superchilled soup is topped with slices of brisket, Korean pear, pickled radish and more; its depths are full of extremely thin, very slippery buckwheat noodles that are so lengthy, scissors are provided to make them manageable. Also: jagged-edged tongs for more noodle-grappling, cute bowls for sharing, hot mustard and vinegar for zinging-up. And: a half-dozen little dishes of banchan, each its own cooling element, including housemade kimchi that you might want to eat a gallon of.
Bonuses: The soundtrack is K-pop, the Terra lager is waiting and Onmi's AC is strong - you might actually want to bring a light sweater, the height of luxury in hot weather.
A Seattle classic at Oh Yeah Banh Mi
2101 S. Grand St., Seattle; 206-422-7102, ohyeahbanhmi.cloveronline.com; bún bowls $14.95-$16.95
Vietnamese bún in a salad/bowl configuration has become a summertime Seattle classic for great reasons. The foundation is soft, cooling rice vermicelli, a texture-eater's angel-hair dream. Toppings include a crunchy pickled carrot-and-daikon mix, fresh julienne cucumber, crispy-fried shallot and peppery leaves of basil and mint. On top of that: grilled chicken, or grilled pork, or lemon grass beef, or … . The traditional dressing, to pour over or dip at your own pace: sweet-tart, garlic-and-chili-spiced nước chấm, blasted with fish-sauce umami, exceptionally flavorful while somehow staying light.
You can get a bowl or plastic clamshell of bún like this at so many places around town - off the counter at Little Saigon's delis, at all three branches of Ba Bar, at your neighborhood banh mi spot, maybe at your favorite Vietnamese restaurant. The latest spot at which I've tried this hot-weather greatness is Oh Yeah Banh Mi, in one of the massive new buildings near Rainier and 23rd Avenue South. Here you can get your bún bowl with a duck leg atop it - glossy golden-browned skin, soft fat, rich and tender meat - which is hard to find around here, so a special treat, and especially pretty for a photo, too. You also get your choice of nước chấm or a deeper-toned garlic-soy. Dine in at a handful of tables and enjoy the fresh-construction AC - and don't miss a nice roster of the stellar summer beverage that is Vietnamese iced coffee, from sweet and strong old-school cà phê sữa đá to cà phê sầu riêng with durian foam.
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This story was originally published July 8, 2026 at 5:04 PM.