The Athenian has been at Pike Place Market since 1909, which makes it one of the oldest restaurants in Seattle by a significant margin. It began as a bakery and luncheonette and expanded into full seafood service over the decades. The window seats overlooking Elliott Bay are among the best lunch seats in the city, and the restaurant's film cameo in Sleepless in Seattle (1993) has kept the tourist trade steady ever since.
The menu focuses on fresh Pacific Northwest seafood: Dungeness crab, salmon prepared several ways, and oysters. The service is workmanlike rather than refined — this is a market restaurant, not a fine dining room — but the quality of the ingredients is reliable and the setting is hard to improve on. Come for lunch when the light is best.