The only thing I've found I liked in Seattle culinary wise is the salmon. The Chinese places are decent, the Italian places are awful.
Restaurant scene in Chicago is outstanding, but not as great if your a seafood maven such as myself.
Oddly, Seattle restaurants rarely exploit the seafood resources at their disposal to the extent they could. On the other hand, places like El Gaucho do beef
damn well. In terms of access to fresh ingredients, PacNor is well-endowed and has access to ultra-premium Alaskan seafood available nowhere else (except maybe Japan). I occasionally have fresh fish (e.g. sable) shipped to me from Seattle, being a semi-competent cook who enjoys fresh seafood. Western Canada also has excellent PacNor style food, possibly better than Seattle in many cases. I look forward to eating at places like the Post Hotel in Lake Louise, but rarely get up there. Where else can you get a divine caribou and elk pate campagne flawlessly executed in the classic French style?
Chicago has fabulous food, but I would agree that seafood is not their thing. Every region takes advantage of the cultures and ingredients commonly found there.