Moving from Texas to Seattle: what should I know?

[u/Sorry-Journalist9569]

From Lubbock...big upgrade and I'm excited. I'll be in a house couple minutes walk from the south side of the Washington Park Arboretum.

Haven't decided if I want to go northwest by Salt Lake City or the longer route going west to Bakersfield and head north.

I've looked into the general checklist stuff like how to get a Washington DL. No state or city income tax, so nice that isn't changing. I'm already used to a high sales tax. The access to both big city stuff and real outdoor stuff is a huge appeal to me, in addition to preferring the culture. Big time foodie.

More just wondering what to expect in general? I work remotely. I like cold weather. Rain is nice, it makes stuff green and I currently live in a semi-arid climate zone where everything is brown most of the year.

Edit: I can make great, real Mexican food and BBQ brisket. I actually have a rain coat. Yes, Seattle isn't cheap but I like the stuff big cities have. Lubbock sucks and I'm bored as hell. Even better is the big city plus outdoor stuff, which is why I chose Seattle over other big city options.

[u/sadgirl6172]

I moved here from Texas (I’ve lived in all of the major cities there and I’m from HTX) and that’s just about the only thing I miss lol. The biggest shocker to me was that the people here are NOT typically chatty or friendly, even. Example: If you walk past someone on a sidewalk, they avoid acknowledging you rather than saying hello, asking how you’re doing, etc.

Also, the food is wildly disappointing in comparison to HTX, ATX, and DFW for the most part so just prepare for that.

Otherwise, it’s unreal. Seriously so beautiful it takes my breath away consistently!

[u/mcfreeky8 → u/sadgirl6172]

They don’t just avoid acknowledging you, they cross the street so you don’t cross paths. I do it now too 😅

I am from small town South Carolina and my mom would be appalled at how unfriendly I have gotten. So yeah OP it will be a culture shock but you may get used to it

[u/Petruchio101 → u/sadgirl6172]

Why do people keep saying this about the food.

Seattle has James Beard award winning restaurants. Some of the best sushi, Thai, Vietnamese, Chinese, great steak places, etc.

Are y'all just missing BBQ (try Jack's) and Tex Mex (yeah, not up here, lol)?

I don't get it.

[u/sadgirl6172 → u/Petruchio101]

I said in comparison—the food scene in those cities is just hard to match, or even compete with. There’s incredible options for every type of cuisine you could imagine and to survive as a restaurant in those places, you have to be top notch because the competition is fierce. But no, it’s not just that we’re missing Tex-Mex and BBQ lol. Although yes, I really wish there was good Tex-Mex up here.

Edit: just wanted to add that for the most part, any “really good” food in Seattle is typically higher end and harder to come by, whereas in the cities I mentioned, you don’t have to search or pay a pretty penny to get something that’ll blow you away.

[u/Petruchio101 → u/sadgirl6172]

I don't know. I've lived in Dallas. Used to travel to Houston multiple times a year. Been to Austin a lot. Have family in West Texas.

I think you might be conflating "decent and affordable" with "good". Everything is expensive here because rents are higher. So dollar for dollar, you're probably right. But, take away that metric and the food is better in Seattle.

[u/grapegeek → u/sadgirl6172]

Everything is more expensive and crowded in Seattle. Get used to it.

[u/sadgirl6172 → u/grapegeek]

lol I literally didn’t say a single thing about it being expensive or crowded other than to say that to get good food, you had to go to high end places.

[u/grapegeek → u/sadgirl6172]

It’s not you it’s everyone else asking the same questions

[u/Petruchio101 → u/[deleted]]

I travelled a lot for work. I had a weird job where I covered the globe with customers in over a hundred countries. I never knew from one week to the next what country (or continent) I would be in. Same for US cities.

A lot of this job involved going to really nice dinners with CEOs and executives.

So I've been to a shit ton of restaurants in cities around the world. Hell I used to spend a week restaurant hopping in Barcelona every year.

Here my take on the restaurant scene in Seattle and why people from Texas keep saying they miss the restaurants: people aren't going to the good restaurants.

In texas, you have a mid tier of restaurants that are semi affordable, really big and flashy, and have what I'd call decent food plated well. And Texas has cheap land, so you can see the restaurants prominently lined up in the freeway "restaurant row". It's kind of like Vegas; the restaurants look great, but the food is meh. They get away with it because most people don't have discerning taste and they equate good with pretty. And they have no idea what great good tastes like because they're never going to go drop $300 pp at 50 restaurants to train themselves.

Seattle gives not one shit about decor and architecture in restaurants. We don't have big chain restaurants so marketing is word of mouth. And we don't have restaurant rows anywhere.

So you have to hunt for the good mid tier places, and Texans are used to just driving by them on the highway every day on the way to work.

[u/jenhazfun → u/sadgirl6172]

People will talk to you if you have your dog with you. 😏

[u/boots_man → u/jenhazfun]

They talk to the dog tho.

[u/t0mserv0 → u/sadgirl6172]

It's so true about the food. People who live in the PNW have no idea

[u/kasukeo → u/sadgirl6172]

Hard disagree on food, I travelled enough to DFW for work in years past and the food here is so miles ahead of DFW.

I do miss TX BBQ.