Wild Ginger Asian Restaurant & Satay Bar was an instant classic when it opened at its former location in 1989. Now at a super-convenient-to-everything downtown post, it remains Seattle’s definitive restaurant, achieving the balancing act of being a place for great food and an urbanite hot spot at the same time. Go for lunch or dinner, before or after the theater, a concert at Benaroya Hall or a jaunt to Pike Place Market. Pan-Asian to the core, the menu travels to distant locales like Cambodia and Indonesia, where satay, chunks of foods marinated and grilled on skewers, originated. You can sit at the satay bar and watch the chefs do their thing, or in one of the airy dining rooms done in wood and glass. Go all satay, with rabbit, lamb and boar for a change from pork and chicken, or order a few as appetizers. The signature entrée is the anise and cinnamon-tinged fragrant duck, but you can also choose a coconut bouillabaisse or go local with Dungeness crab curry. And, mysteriously, the kitchen makes plain brown rice into a work of art. The live jazz on Monday nights turns the place into a madhouse – good, loud fun if you dare. From bespectacled sophisticates to rugged Northwesterners in plaid, all of Seattle savors the flavors at Wild Ginger Asian Restaurant & Satay Bar.