Downtown Banya

Best place ever! Wonderful massage! Great food and excellent service! Definitely recommend!

I love a good sauna, however, I was slightly disappointed by my overall experience. The cold pool had a shimmering oil across the top which made me hesitate about jumping in. The actual hot sauna was good. A good hot temp and a very cool looking banya oven which was the best when a regular customer threw water on the stones. My husband and I felt great afterwards, but it was fairly expensive (30 $) for the two of us to stay just a couple hours. The beer we ordered afterwards was great after the sauna but the whole night out came to around $ 75. Two stars because of the price, whereas we’ve been to other saunas with more sauna rooms for less money and nicer facilities.

Good place

Best sauna I have been too in a while! One of the of the robust authentic banya ovens– and it shows!
Always meet new and awesome people when I go.
This places has really been redone lately. The steam room is fixed, no more mold or vent. The wall has been redone that was ruined water damaged. This place looks better and better everyday.
A truly authentic russian atmosphere. Best place for some pelmeni, borscht and dried fish.
Not only would I recommend this place to anyone but I usually do bring a friend with me everytime and they love it!

I’m shocked this banya has high reviews, but again they are all from 2 – 3 years back. This place is raunchy, smelly carpet, a bistro that includes a wrap around leather couch, and no cool insight.

Expired Groupon’s are to be treated the same as cash. Unfortunately they refused to honor my expired Groupon as cash. As per the terms of Groupon. Wasted my Saturday driving up here. I will stick with Banya 5. They may cost more, but you get quality customer service with that.

Terrible customer service. My fiancé and I bought Groupon deals for Downtown Banya. He has been there many times and for me it was the first time. He never made reservations to go there and as I thought all russian banyas would take all walk-​in customers. We came there about 6 PM and the lady at the reception said that we can not go with our groupons without reservation. She also said that she has only 10 spots available and they are only for full price customers. She was very rude. She did not ask if we would like to make a reservation for the next time or apologize for this rule or something. She was not interested in brining new clients to their business or either to make old customers happy. She gave us her attitude and we left very disappointed. Now we don’t even want to go back there. We spend 40 minute driving there from Seattle and won’t do it again.

Downtown Banya… oh dear, oh dear, oh dear. Inflexibility. I treked up from Seattle on a Friday night planning my day around the possibility of having a good soak at night after a long week. Showing up with a Groupon without a reservation but not being able to use it was pretty painful. The facilities look nice but just the sheer inflexibility of the management to accommodate one person makes me not want to go back and spend any money there at all. Yes, I neglected to make a reservation, but no I am not going to spend $ 30 for a day pass when I already have one in my pocket that expires tomorrow.
The poor girl at the front desk empathized with me but seemed scared of the possibility of losing her job for letting me slide. Poor management. Will not return. What a shame!

This place is nothing like spas I’ve been to in the past. With the Russian food and clientele, and the casual, basic atmosphere, it was a refreshing way to relax and sweat out toxins while feeling almost like I’d gone on a trip somewhere. The food was delicious! They serve a few good beers too, ice cold. The dry sauna is broiling hot (good!) and the showers are large with good water pressure. I love a good hot tub, but theirs was barely warm, and customers couldn’t adjust the temperature. The steam room seemed like it was nice once, and as long as there was lots of steam I barely noticed, but there was a strong mold smell in there. I avoided the cold plunge since the still water was visibly full of a day’s worth of hair and body oil (we went during their final hours on a weeknight). Overall, I would go again, but mostly for the quirky experience with friends.

I like this banya/​sauna place. It’s gets really hot in dry sauna, witch I like. Cold plunge is really cold. There is pool table witch you can play if you want to take a break from sweating. TV, s around the place playing Russian music videos. Food here is overpriced and small portions. If you want to try Russian food, go ahead and see what it’s like if you never eaten it before.
You get slippers and towels with your admission that you can use. The best drink in this place is called «Kvas» Get a pitcher of it and you’ll see what I am talking about.
Admission in this place is $ 30. You can be here all day if you want it to. You get discount if you come early, since most of the people comes late afternoon-​evening.

I will be very brief and simple.
A) Massage was great and relatively affordable.
B) staff was professional and checked on people frequently.
I truly enjoyed how hot the steam bath was. Food is very tasty and tastes they way homemade food would taste. !

We first visited Downtown Banya on Valentine’s Day 2013, we were using a groupon type deal and were instantly hooked on the experience!
We were given a brief tour of the facilities, towels, robe and set free to explore. There are few places that you and a partner of the opposite sex can experience together but this is one!
It is very casual and not the typical spa — no candles, relaxing music, fresh flowers… it is traditional and comfortable and provides what is advertised. I should set expectations that on our visits there is usually Russian music videos blaring and loud discussions between the gentlemen patrons. It’s a very social atmosphere, which I love. The music is fun but caught us a little off guard on our first visit.
You can go between their spa area and lounge areas freely. We usually go between the hot tub and dry and wet saunas and as of our last visit enjoyed dinner off their bistro menu. Yum! I added a few pics of what we enjoyed but I’m sorry that I don’t have the items names. Great soup, cabbaged wrapped rice and a fried meat pie. We shared and enjoyed everything :)
For $ 30 a day pass is a great deal! If still active Unilocal had a check in offer for $ 10 off. Use it, try it with some friends or your partner.
They also offere massage services for an additional charge. Some include a day pass with the services.

First, let me start off by saying, this is not your mama’s spa! If you are wanting a nice quiet experience with Enya playing gently in the background, you will not find that here.
That being said, if you want to hang out with friend, sweat your ass off, shoot some pool and enjoy some tasty beverages, then stop by! This is a traditional Russian sauna, and as such the feel is more of a place to hang out and BS with friends. Part of traditional Russian sauna is the use of a venik, which will leave some dried leaves in the sauna, some of which get in the pool or hot tub. Really, we’re sweating our asses off, who cares if there’s some leaves around if there’s a good reason for them?
Yes the business DID suffer from a number of things breaking down, but they have since been fixed.
The Russian sauna is very hot, and the cold pool is very cold, just as they should be! I always enjoy my time here and leave feeling AMAZING. I love that they often run Groupon and AmazonLocal deals, so I can save some money and enjoy doing one of my favorite things.
I took off 1 star only because when I go on busy nights, there has been a shortage of towels and lockers. Other than that, this place is great!

I was here once with my sister and loved my experience! The owner was there and was super nice and friendly. I love, love, love how hot the sauna is and the ice pool has been just perfect! I can go back and forth from the sauna to the ice pool for days.
I had the dry fish to eat and it was really well done and the Kvas tasted right. I definitely recommend this place to anyone who wants a Russian experience.

False advertizing. Don’t bother to go to this spa, it seems like it is in the process of closing down. I went here with a group of friends hoping for a fun evening out. Unfortunately, almost everything at the spa was lacking and/​or not functioning. I agree with the other reviewers who gave low ratings: this place it not worth it.
The hot tub wasn’t working, and the cold plunge had weird scum floating on it, so the only thing to do was to go in the dry or wet sauna. The whole place had a strange vibe like it had seen better days. There was visible dirt and mold in the tiles and drains, and the carpets in the dry rooms smelled like wet dog. The music videos do not lend a relaxing tone to the spa, and instead are fairly annoying. Apart from cheap body soap and q-​tips, there is nothing like is advertized on the website like shampoo, etc.
The biggest disappointment was the «bistro,» which does not really seem to exist. No kitchen in sight, and only a few tables in the dry room. The menu was extensive, and we were excited to order several dishes until we found out that they were only serving «cold fish and beer.» That would be fine, but don’t advertize that you are serving other things if you are not. The website and everything about this place is deceptive.

If your idea of relaxation includes hair and bugs floating in a hot tub, dirt and leaves in the sauna, and the inability to escape Russian pop music videos, slamming doors, and very rude staff, then this is your place!:(Yelp, I am extremely let down by this rating. I am shocked by the fact that they have 4 stars. It has potential, but it is far from being a nice, relaxing spa. There are far better places to go within driving distance of Seattle, especially for women.

This is the best sauna in Seattle area. The Russian Banya is really hot, almost too much, haven’t had sauna this hot since my visit to Ukraine in 2008. If you want to experience real Russian banya this is the place to go.
I came on Saturday and there was almost nobody there, which is nice. They must be reading reviews as they turned down Russian music videos to the level that I wish was a little louder as you almost cannot hear it sitting at the closest location possible.
Bought a venik there for $ 25+tax, it was a nice large and heavy one, excellent quality. There is also a wet sauna there and that one had a lower temperature, much softer heat.
Overall fairly clean and well designed place, but the wood benches in the Russian Sauna need to be rebuilt, especially the lowest step.
I had a great time and will be back.

FYI: I caught a major nasty cold from the sick esthetician who did my scrub :(, ugh. She had initially cancelled on me because she was sick and rescheduled a few days later. During my scrub, she coughed on me a few times accidently and I prayed that I wouldn’t catch what she had. Next thing you know, BOOM! eh eh, sore throat and whole bunch of mess.
In general, not impressive at all and its because I think of my experience at the Olympus Spa which offers the exact opposite environment as the DT Banya (for women only, sorry). I was creeped out by the entire facility: YMCA like entrance, stinky recreational area (smelled like watered mildew), dark spa/​sauna area with dried leaves in the tubs and floors, and tiny bathroom (two showers) that the opposite sex has access to by just opening the door.
If you want a HOT sauna, this place is for you. It was too hot for me and I had never been into one like this and was not provided tips or information on how to tolerate the heat.
I soaked for a few minutes in the hot tub but just wanted to get to my scrub, which was really nice but I just couldn’t 100% relax being in the banya and knowing my esthetician was sick.
I would not recommend this place and definitely go back to the Olympus Spa. I came here through a Groupon and even with the discount, not worth it. I can’t even imagine spending more money to come here.

I tried the food for the first time last night and loved it. The girl working recommended a couple things and even did a «split-​order» so I could try two dishes I wanted without getting too much food (it was still a lot of food!).
Sometimes it is hard to find assistance, but there is a certain authenticity about this place that makes up for a lot.
They just lowered the price from $ 35 to $ 30 a session.
Much more empty compared to Banya5 — but I have heard Friday and Saturday gets packed.
I cannot wait to come back!

Oh my gosh are the staff friendly! They showed us around and answered all our questions and introduced us to people. They made us feel like family.
The Russian sauna is REALLY really hot. Probably normal for Russians, but for someone who goes to the sauna at the gym all the time, this was 100% hotter. Most people wear hats in the sauna. We didn’t know about this so we didn’t bring a hat. I think they dip them in cold water and they say it helps them to stay in the sauna longer… that is if I understood them correctly. A bit of a language barrier.
The steam room was really hot too, again much hotter than any gym steam room I’ve been to. Although they don’t call it a steam room, their term is «Wet Sauna».
The cold pool was suppose to be 33 degrees and extremely cold, we went in a bit, but were too chicken to take the plunge. Maybe if there hadn’t been an audience we would have tried.
The hot tub was really hot and quiet enjoyable.
We also had a «venik massage» which is a massage that a Russian man gives you with leaves in the sauna. It’s suppose to detoxify you and the stuff from the leaves is suppose to go into your pours. At least I think… Again, the language barrier. Maybe I will have to learn Russian.
The changing rooms were really small and I wish there were more room to change/​put your stuff. But they do have a free tanning bed in case you want to use it. They also have Q-​tips, free locker for your stuff, and a hair dryer.
We tried the Kavas, which is a Russian drink and that was cool too.
There is a «dry room» to hang out in, in case you just want to chill for a bit. Play some pool, watch Russian videos, eat Russian food, hang out in comfy chairs and relax.