The Best Restaurants in Tacoma

From fried chicken and waffles in Lincoln to luscious bagel sandwiches in Edison City, from Vegas-style fine dining in rural Midland to the absolute ocean of Korean food in Lakewood, the dining options here are tremendous. And don’t forget the beer, gothic vegan Cuban food, and the destination Vietnamese barbecue. Don’t sleep on Grit City.

Bar Bistro

You’d never know there’s a slick, Vegas-y brasserie inside this nondescript little building. Its location, about 20 minutes from the urban crux of Tacoma, by the decommissioned train tracks, means the restaurant’s tiny parking lot is rarely full and rates have stayed really reasonable.

Serving well-styled comfort food like elk sliders dressed with lingonberries and pimento cheese alongside innovative cocktails — like the Viola Sorso with house bitter liqueur and butterfly pea tea-infused Copperworks Gin — Bar Bistro’s worth the drive.

Hot Fish House

Around 100th and South Tacoma Way, in an industrial part of suburban Lakewood, keep your eyes peeled for a sign promising “SEAFOOD, DAIQUIRI & TURKEY LEGS.” Inside, owner Quinton Gethers is serving fried seafood from back home in South Carolina as well as some Cajun and pan-Southern standards. Among a roster of greats, the MVP is easily the triple-stuffed smoked turkey leg.

Served in an aluminum pan the size of a Stouffer’s lasagna, the two-pound drumstick is smoked to a hamlike texture and taste, then absolutely buried in three stripes of parsley-flecked macaroni and cheese, sausage jambalaya, and stewed collards, looking like a tricolor Pan-African flag. Your job is to slowly comb through the Thanksgiving dinner trough and assemble perfectly balanced little bites on your fork.

It’s a beautiful, savory spectacle, and enough food for at least three people. Among other Southern faves, Hot Fish House in addition does great work with fried catfish, fried pork chops, Cajun shrimp and grits, wings in five sauces, and Louisiana-style frozen daiquiris with the big fat straws. It doesn’t take long to realize that this menu is actually a personal checklist.

Cho Dang Tofu

Pillowy clouds of soft tofu give this spicy Korean soondubu soup its signature silken texture. From the list of 14 soondubu, first-timers should order the bacon tofu soup and ask for extra yellow croaker banchan if available.

There’s limited dine-in service, but the soups are also packaged to travel well for those who prefer takeout.

Bloom Thai Cuisine

Just over the southern city limits, down by the military base, Noppassorn “Blue” Numdee runs a tiny Thai bistro that’s been getting huge underground cred from all the Instagram foodie insiders.

Chef Blue (in Thai, her first name means “sky”) kicked off doing homestyle Thai pop-ups during the pandemic lockdowns, leading to her eventual takeover of a strip-mall teriyaki spot. The menu features both Americanized Thai faves like pad Thai and garlic fried chicken as well some real crunchy, off-the-grid specials, such as moo palo (five-spice pork and boiled egg stew) or tom saap, a mind-bendingly spicy beef soup.

Don’t skip the “money bags,” either: a.k.a. thung thong; they’re deep-fried wonton pouches full of gingery pork and shrimp, tied shut with green onions. Bloom is technically counter service, except Chef is kinda too chatty to allow it — if you’re ordering to stay, she’ll probably serve your dishes personally, start up a fun conversation about each dish and why she loves making it, and then rope in the other tables too.

You’ll leave feeling like you just went to the most delicious little party.

Mimi Teriyaki #2

This previously unassuming teriyaki shop has recently developed something of a cult following. Dae “David” and Sujin “Su” Chang acquired the joint in early 2026, and whether it’s their comedic Instagram reels, pithy banners in the parking lot (“Eat here or we both starve”), or the snappy new names for the generously portioned dishes — e.g., Hot Chick for spicy teriyaki, Garlic AF for garlic chicken, or the Please Don’t Fight combo — the place is suddenly poppin’ night and day.

On the rare occasion that it’s not, you might spot David outside, handing out little samples of chicken to drivers at the intersection. As well exciting are the unorthodox side dishes; when they order their teriyaki as a plate rather than a bowl, guests can pick two choices from a list of items like sauteed green beans, pickled cucumber salad, edamame, or Japanese mac salad, which come in addition to the rice.

The vibe inside is always chatty and vivacious too, and the Changs couldn’t be friendlier. No matter what you order, it’s pretty much always a party in here.

Howdy Bagel

Who knew that one of Tacoma’s most happening queer spaces would turn out to be a bagel shop?

This darling bakery is festooned in Western kitsch with an LGBTQ undercurrent (note the sexy cowpoke pinup logo, with one thigh slung through a giant bagel). Howdy’s bagels are chewy with a tight crumb and a glossy carapace, and the sandwiches are both delicious and highly Instagrammable, like the gooey pastrami egg and cheese and the Grit City (that’s Tacoma!) Lox.

The Church Cantina

There’s a super fun menu at this spooky/silly goth bar, and a bunch of it is vegan, appropriately. (A substantial percentage of goths are vegans!) Owner Nicole de la Paz and her partner Adam Jones pay homage to her Cuban heritage with a menu of Latin flavors in inventive permutations. (“If you are looking for authentic Cuban cuisine,

YOU WILL NOT find it here,” de la Paz states.) Standouts include the vegan Cubano with crispy mojo seitan, the vegan not-chos with jackfruit and guac, a lavish chimichurri cheesesteak with sirloin and a mix of Swiss and Gruyère, and the Killer Tomato: a wagyu smash burger with jalapeño cream cheese and herb-marinated tomatoes. If you’re looking for dinner and a show, dine at the bar, among the candelabras and fake skeletons — there’s usually a corny old horror movie playing on VHS.

Side Piece Kitchen

Side Piece might be the Tacoma-iest restaurant in Tacoma, if we’re talking attitude. The restaurant is styled like your grandma’s kitchen in 1973, with macrame wall hangings and avocado-toned wall phones, and patrons settle down for breakfast amid a soundtrack of Korn and Ying Yang Twins.

Owners Hailey and Dante Hernandez started out in 2022 as a take-out-only kitchen serving “banging biscuits and dank AF cheesecake,” and their restaurant offers more variations on the theme, like the Sizzurp breakfast sandwich: maple sausage, white cheddar, two hard-fried eggs, maple syrup, and chives on a buttery biscuit. (Their love of stoner and hip-hop culture is reflected in their very funny, irreverent Instagram reels.) The regular menu is full of killer tracks, but keep your eye on the specials, since Side Piece is continually freestyling wonderfully weird-ass items like Thai tea tiramisu cheesecake dotted with boba, or a Caesar salad cheesecake made with anchovies, black pepper, lemon juice, and Parmesan, topped with dressed Romaine and croutons.

The restaurant often sells out of biscuits, so go early.

My Philly

On 44th and Portland, just over the Puyallup Reservation line, My Philly is one of the few PNW joints doing some real justice to the art of the Philadelphia cheesesteak.

These deliciously unphotogenic sandwiches are served on rolls shipped in from famous Philadelphia bakery Amoroso’s, and these suckers are huge, weighing in around a pound and a half apiece. Peppers and onions are optional, and you can as well order a mushroom-and-onion version, swap in chicken for steak, or even customize your cheesesteak as a hoagie, with mayo, lettuce, and tomatoes.

A word to the uninitiated: Per East Coast tradition, the white American cheese melts completely into the rib-eye, binding the meat together — it’s in there, and you’ll know it when you take a bite. But if you want to see the cheese glistening on top of your sandwich, just ask for extra.

More cheese never hurt anybody.

Lunar’s Pho

Lunar’s is on a street with several other pho joints, but this is the one you want.

Its luscious beef rib pho, which comes with two massive, meaty dinosaur bones stuck defiantly in the middle of your bowl. It’s a spectacle to behold, and especially once you see the tender meat slide into the soup the second you touch the bones. Steak and ginger pho, served with a Chinese doughnut and cilantro in place of basil, is another special item — the steak in the soup is rolled around superfine matchsticks of ginger that gradually perfume the whole bowl.

Don’t forget a buttery slice of house banana cake for dessert.

Tho Tuong BBQ

Family-owned Tho Tuong has been locally beloved for nearly 30 years for its Vietnamese-style barbecue, centering on pork and duck. The hours are limited to daytime and the lunch menu is brief, with duck and pork done two ways — roasted and crackly or glazed and barbecued.

The classic fave is the lunch box, where you can pick two or three meats with steamed rice, pickled mustard greens, jalapeños, a mess of fresh herbs. Green onions, and a cup of nuoc leo (a dark, flavorful broth) for dipping and/or pouring over everything. The combo can in addition be ordered in soup form, as a steamy bowl of noodles in broth loaded with your choice of meats.

Sometimes, though, the move is just to order a pound of barbecued pork and walk away snacking on the shiny scarlet slices — a personal box of porky candy, just for you.

Buddy’s Chicken & Waffles

Many Tacomans are familiar with Buddy Brown’s grueling, year-long struggle with the city the authorities and health department over the permits to turn his outrageously popular fried chicken-and-waffle takeout business into a restaurant. In the hallowed old Uncle Thurm’s Soul Food space, but if you haven’t been following his very funny Instagram account: Brown finally triumphed and threw open its doors his doors in May 2024.

Buddy and business keep things simple on the fried chicken side, offering only hand-breaded, crispy halal tenders. Then get creative with the six kinds of waffles, including blueberry, cinnamon roll, Southern cornbread, and red velvet cake varieties. Don’t skip the sides — the extra-seasoned crinkle-cut fries are mandatory eating here.

Note: It’s extremely weighty to order ahead, as if it’s a day that ends in Y, Buddy’s is guaranteed to sell out.

Loco Lechon

Loco Lechon is the reincarnation of Ruca, and the location and restaurant are the same — Mexican-Filipino fusion in McKinley Hill.

But since it was acquired in early 2025 by chef Gerold Castro, who comes from the hotel catering universe, everything’s just, like, better. The reason you’re here is right there in the name: The lechon plate is a generous pile of roast suckling pig with the fried-out chicharron attached, served over pork adobo rice with a crispy fried-egg hat.

You can in addition get tacos, enchiladas, and burritos filled with options like lechon, chicken mole, braised brisket, or chicken adobo. Or how about a giant Gordian knot of pancit?

With both rice noodles and eggy mein and studded with chunks of lechon, bay shrimp, carrots, green beans, celery, onions, and more, it’s easily enough for two. Eat your porky noodles at the little back bar with a Pacifico — Castro is a leading Seahawks fan, and the game will definitely be on.

The Huckleberry Club

Once considered rough around the edges, the Hilltop neighborhood these days is home to gluten-free bakeries, vera pizza Napoletana, and novelty dive bars. The Huckleberry Club opened in 2024 to fill a dearth in the neighborhood: a weed-themed neo-dive that serves weird stoner food like baked potatoes with Vietnamese pork floss and sauteed shrimp and corn, or cheesy esquites with mayo, crema, Tajín, and Hot Cheeto dust, or personal pan nachos.

There are also a bunch of surprisingly elaborate salads on the menu, plus the space has a ton of pinball machines and a rainbow glitter bathroom. This scrappy little spot kinda embodies Tacoma, actually: Some bartenders got high. Made up a very… unserious restaurant idea, and though the neighborhood is gentrifying, the rent around there is still accessible enough to try nonsensical things like this out. And, famously, Tacoma takes itself unseriously enough to make this type of thing work.

Not Bad

When Dave Cooper began trading his French-ish sandwich shop in the basement of the historic Courthouse Square in summer 2025, he wasn’t expecting this level of hype. Within months, he was featured in the Tacoma News-Tribune, KING-5’s Evening Magazine, and even in the hallowed old Seattle Times.

Not bad, A former exec chef at Seattle institution Le Pichet, Cooper’s bringing that Parisienne pizzazz down to the South Sound, and it’s the classic jambon beurre that he’s built his rep around: French ham, butter, sliced Comté, and cornichons on a chewy Grand Central Bakery half-baguette. It’s, in fact, not bad — it’s spectacular — but you’d be wrong to sleep on his other sandwiches, like, say, the braised beef with labneh and red cabbage-carrot slaw on a baguette, or the light, stupidly juicy fried chicken schnitzel with Gruyère and mayo on a round bun.

Not Bad can get backlogged around lunchtime, but if you need something to ride you over until your sandwich is ready, try a lovely li’l bowl of soup with lentils, garbanzos, carrots, and harissa.

Field Bar & Bottle Shop

On trendy Sixth Avenue, Field Bar is holding down the balance between upscale dinner bistro and chill spot for cocktails and snacky bar bites.

The hyper-seasonal, ever-changing menu is always a masterwork of creative composition: think beef chuck short rib in strawberry barbecue sauce with couscous salad, maitake mushrooms, baharat yogurt, hazelnuts, and fresh herbs. The Wes Andersonian details in the decor and the cocktail list are super cute, and Field Bar in addition has one of the city’s most extensive amari libraries.

Da Tiki Hut

It’s the Hawaiian restaurant of your dreams.

Inside a former Taco Time on Sixth Avenue, this family restaurant-slash-tiki bar feels like it was preserved in amber in about 1961, though it actually opened in 2014. The campy rattan hut-booths, all decorated with carved masks and potted palms, are fun for dinner, but the real party is in the secret bar in the back, where cocktails come loaded with tropical fruit, orchids, and tons of rum.

Don’t miss the short rib combo, the various mocos and musubis — including a Spam katsu musubi — or anything that comes with mac salad (like the bacon cheeseburger, heh). Top it all off with a Dole whip since you gotta.

If any restaurant in Tacoma is worth the drive all by itself, it’s this one. In homage to their grann-mothers, chef Reginald Jacob Howell (En Rama) and pitmaster Danzel Johnson came up with a brilliant bricolage of Caribbean, Indian, Southeast Asian, and Southern soul food… and it all goes crazy. The pimento cheese-stuffed pani puri is one of the best bites of your entire year.

Past dishes have included barbecue carrots with harissa butter, honey, yogurt, and carrot gremolata, a show-stopping tandoori pork chop with white beans in a viridescent apple gastrique, and a batter-fried miso-accented black cod, served on a hill of creamy grits that itself holds a lake of Appalachian butter gravy. The cocktail list is also full of creative retellings — and Black culture references — like the Love Jones, which is a mango lassi with El Jimador in it, and the scrumpy Detroit Red, made from pineapple shrub, clarified red bell pepper syrup, lemon, and rye.

You’ve never had any of this stuff before.

Kingfisher and Rye Tavern

Kingfisher & Rye is a more elaborate version of the owners’ now-closed taprooms, Edison CIty Alehouse and the Copper Door. Now they have a full kitchen to go with their fancy beer list, and dang, you can’t get some of this stuff anywhere else in the area.

The Irish spice bag comes in a brown paper sack with a secret spice mix at the bottom, plus fries, chicken tendies, and bits of frizzled onion and red pepper, and served alongside curry, sweet and sour, or satay sauce for dipping. “Just shake and pour!” Other bangers include the rich Flemish beef stew (despite containing no bangers), a butternut squash-and-Swiss grilled cheese, and an immaculate beer-battered haddock and chips that tastes straight off the boardwalk in Brixham.

The light British Isles undercurrent runs through the space as well, with a huge Winterfellian stone fireplace and some Brit signage (like one reading “Donbea-Wanchor Street”). Weekly trivia and karaoke nights are always good parties, overseen by the giant benevolent bison head on the wall — a relic from the space’s previous life as the beloved, divey Crown Bar.

State Street

Tacoma pizza is having a moment right now, and State Street — formerly a garden-variety taproom — joined the movement during the pandemic with a selection of rustic, wood-fired, leopard-spotted pies. Topping options like pickled grapes, speck, potatoes, pistachio pesto, and ranch keep things at once interesting and down-to-earth.

Nondescript on the outside, the indoor vibe is all vintage, with midcentury industrial chairs and clocks, roomy wooden booths, and upcycled Bauhaus-looking windows. There are also about a bazillion beers here, both on tap and in cans, and some simple sides, like a lovely, lightly vinaigretted arugula salad that will probably end up on your pizza slice. Two alums of now-closed James Beard-nominated restaurant, Table — former chef de cuisine Craig Tronset and sommelier Trevor Hamilton —went on to open this “Franco-Tacoman” brasserie.

In addition a veteran of Seattle’s Bastille (RIP), Tronset has toned his chops down a little on this accessible French-ish menu, full of updated countryside faves. The mushroom cassoulet with a sunny egg and the sablefish with charred radicchio. Black garlic molasses are comfort food, while the croque madame and the skillet-fried pork collar with white beans and za’atar is a page out of Jacques Pepin’s diary. It’s all complemented by Hamilton’s thoughtful, mostly French wine program; he also runs the Crowfriends Wine Club from Corbeau.