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Washington Cascade Mountains and Valleys Restaurants
Olympia and especially Tacoma have increasingly hip and sophisticated dining scenes, with everything from laid-back cafés to seasonally driven restaurants with water views. After those cities, Gig Harbor and Bellingham have the best food scenes—they’re not terribly big, but support fine little crops of notable restaurants. You’l
Olympia and especially Tacoma have increasingly hip and sophisticated dining scenes, with everything from laid-back cafés to seasonally driven restaurants with water views. After those cities, Gig Harbor and Bellingham have the best food scenes—they’re not terribly big,
Olympia and especially Tacoma have increasingly hip and sophisticated dining scenes, with everything from laid-back café
Olympia and especially Tacoma have increasingly hip and sophisticated dining scenes, with everything from laid-back cafés to seasonally driven restaurants with water views. After those cities, Gig Harbor and Bellingham have the best food scenes—they’re not terribly big, but support fine little crops of notable restaurants. You’ll also find good brewpubs and indie coffeehouses in most of the larger towns in the area. Edmonds also has a growing bounty of exceptional eateries.
On the road, refueling takes place at country-style cafés, farm stands, and kitschy or specialty shops like the ’50s-style sweets shops of Port Gamble and Snoqualmie or the Norwegian bakeries of Poulsbo. None of these is in short supply, and many eateries, however small, pride themselves on using local ingredients.
With a dining room and spacious terrace overlooking the downtown's Waterfront District and Bellingham Bay, this spacious craft cider taproom is an inviting, family-friendly place to sample the rotating selection of small-batch sippers. This is a legit dining option, too, with a kitchen that turns out well-crafted contemporary Northwest fare, from pan-roasted diver scallops with gnocchi to pork tenderloin with rosemary spaetzle and a mustard cream sauce. There's also an impressive selection of beer, wine, and cocktails.
205 Prospect St., Bellingham, Washington, 98225, USA
Rhyme it with "pies" and you'll sound like a local when you enter the town's most famous bakery, a fixture since the early 1900s. Gorgeous Norwegian pastries, braided bread, and lefse (traditional round flatbread) line the shelves. There's only strong coffee and milk to drink, and there are no seats, but you can grab a bench along busy Front Street or take your goodies to the waterfront at Liberty Bay Park.
This casual burger joint with a small but decent beer list and an outdoor space draws hikers, skiers, and other outdoors enthusiasts on their way to Mt. Rainier and Gifford Pinchot National Forest. Fish-and-chips, vegan bean burgers, and BLTs share the menu with a variety of hearty meat patties, including some wild-game options, with a wide variety of toppings.
12968 U.S. 12, Ashford, Washington, 98361, USA
360-494–2055
Known For
Jalapeño burger topped with Swiss cheese and a tangy sauce
You'll find some of northern Washington's tastiest Mexican food, from wild-cod ceviche to chicken in a 30-ingredient mole sauce, at this cheerful and unpretentious eatery that also specializes in made-to-order premium margaritas (try the smooth "top shelf" with Jimador Blanco tequila, lime juice, and agave nectar). There's another location in Mount Vernon.
Nestled beneath towering trees, this old-fashioned roadhouse with rough-hewn fir floors and knotty-pine walls is along the main road to Mt. Rainier. It's been a favorite lunch and dinner stop since it opened in the 1940s, and these days parkgoers still come by in droves to fill up on hearty, straightforward comfort fare, such as biscuits and gravy and chicken-fried steak and eggs in the morning, bacon-and-blue-cheese burgers at lunch, and wild Alaskan salmon with blackberry vinaigrette in the evening. The restaurant is part of a rustic inn with conventional rooms and cabins.
With its soaring ceilings and windows, mod lighting, and streamlined wooden booths, the downtown location of a growing Chinese dumpling empire that began in Bellevue in 2014 is as much fun for people-watching as for devouring perfectly formed pan-fried, boiled, soup, and steamed dumplings. Fillings run the gamut from chicken and vegetables with spicy garlic sauce to shrimp and zucchini, and the menu has an extensive array of sides and appetizers—try the braised pig ears or five-spice beef shank.
Before ordering dessert from whichever Bellingham restaurant you're dining in, keep in mind that this stellar artisan ice-cream parlor is open until 10 or 11 every night, and the thick, creamy concoctions here are seriously superb. The team has come up with literally hundreds of rotating flavors over the years, from coconut latte to burned sugar to black currant–mulled wine.
1323 Railroad Ave., Bellingham, Washington, 98225, USA
In the morning, fuel up at this convivial, sprawling tavern with a latte and a breakfast burrito or bagel and lox plate before a local hike or skiing at nearby Snoqualmie Pass; South Fork is on a rural road surrounded by greenery. Later in the day, a friendly, outdoorsy crowd gathers to mingle over well-prepared gastropub fare, including tofu banh mi bowls, blistered shishito peppers with garlic aioli, and blackened-chicken Alfredo.
14303 436th Ave. SE, Snoqualmie, Washington, 98045, USA
This cavernous downtown brewhouse has a soaring, barrel-vaulted ceiling, monitors airing regional sports, and plenty of bar and booth seating, but it's known first and foremost for turning out some of the area's best ales—strong, barrel-aged Belgian-style beers are a specialty. There are tasty, filling pizzas and pub fare, too, including a notably good bacon burger with mustard, grilled onions, and a tangy house sauce.
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