The Best Food in Tacoma, WA and the Surrounding Area

I’ve been on the hunt for the best food in Tacoma, WA ever since a local told me they wished they lived in Seattle for the food scene. Sure Seattle has a lot of restaurants, but food is crazy expensive here. And getting a reservation can sometimes be impossible.

Tacoma on the other hand is full of possibilities. It’s possible to get into a place without waiting for hours in line or months to get a reservation. You can find cheap eats at undiscovered places. There’s Instagram worthy dishes without the hipster pretenses.

What I’m saying is the food in tacoma, WA and its greater metro area have a ton to offer! Here’s my list of the best restaurants in Tacoma, Washington. Consider this your self-guided food tour of the area!

Tacoma is a little over an hour south of Seattle. Like Seattle, it’s a port city along the Puget Sound that also has nearby cities like Lakewood that some people often consider part of Tacoma. The Tacoma restaurants below may be in some of these neighboring towns, but I include a map at the bottom to give you a sense of space.

The Best Food in Tacoma, WA

Save this to Pinterest for later, as I’ll add more Tacoma restaurants as I discover them!

Ice Cream Social

website | directions | best for: ice cream

No trip to Tacoma is complete without a stop at Ice Cream Social. This ice cream shop in Tacoma makes everything from scratch, using locally sourced ingredients and transforming them into really interesting ice cream flavors.

If available, make sure to get almond poppy and sunflower seed butter chocolate chip.

Taqueria La Fondita

website | directions | best for: tacos

Taqueria la Fondita is a food truck parked outside an unassuming store in a more sparse part of town. However, it’s worth a visit because they’re doling out some really awesome carnitas. Insiders know they make some of the best tacos in Seattle, and lucky for you they have a Tacoma location.

The Red Hot

website | directions | best for: hot dogs

Tacoma has quite a few options for cheap eats. Besides Taqueria La Fondita, The Red Hot is another great option for trying the best food in Tacoma, WA affordably. It’s a dive bar serving hot dogs and sausages with funky toppings. It’s another great place for lunch in Tacoma, particularly if you need vegan and vegetarian options.

Make sure to get The Cowboy. It’s basically nacho flavors on top of a sausage with BBQ sauce.

Pro tip: This spot is 21+, but they offer takeout if you have kids in tow.

Indo Asian Street Eatery

website | directions | best for: Thai food

Indo Asian Eatery is a hip Thai restaurant in Tacoma serving interesting dishes inspired by southeast Asia. I’d also say it’s one of the most romantic restaurants in Tacoma, as it’s a nice restaurant with inspiring decor and an energetic buzz that couples can either get lost in or use to fill any awkward silences (you know, for those first dates :D).

Executive chef Yu Nana grew up in Thailand and wanted to recreate the affordable street food dishes he remembers eating growing up.

Make sure to get the curry chicken banh mi and khao nam tod, a crispy rice dish with a lot of ginger and Thai sausage. It’s one of the few restaurants offerings this dish in the Pacific Northwest!

Cham Garden

website | directions | best for: Korean barbecue

There are a ton of Korean restaurants in “Tacoma”. They just so happen to actually be in the nearby neighborhood of Lakewood.

Cham Garden is a good Korean barbecue option for beginners thanks to a buffet that lets you try a lot of traditional items at once. You pick up your sides and raw meats from the buffet (on separate plates!) and then cook them on your own personal grill top table.

Get the pork jowl and pork loin for sure. Both are so flavorful.

Chung Ki Wa

website | directions | best for: Korean banchan (small dishes)

Chung Ki Wa is another place in Lakewood you should go if you’re looking for authentic Korean barbecue in Tacoma. It’s a standalone restaurant that has grill top tables to the right as you enter and regular tables to the left. We sat to the left because this is the place to go for banchan.

You’ll get about 9 banchan dishes, but the standouts included their slightly crispy eggplant, spicy cucumbers, and eomuk (fish cakes), with the latter being the clear winner.

Have you ever had those fish cakes that are white with a red swirl? This is nothing like that. Eomuk is brown and looks like a sponge. It kinda has the texture of one too. But it’s so friggin’ flavorful. This one was the most deeply flavored of the bunch we tried and tasted the most of fish. Honestly, I’d say this little banchan dish right here is some of the best food in Tacoma, WA!

T-Town Cafe

website | directions | best for: ice cream

Jenn at Hello Rigby (the blogger I went on a Willamette Valley glamping trip with) DM-ed me on Instagram and told me I had to stop at T-Town for their taiyaki. I read it fast and thought she said teriyaki, so I brushed it off because I couldn’t think of eating more food.

But later when we were looking for soft serve ice cream in Tacoma, we came across this place. Doh, she said taiyaki, which is a Japanese ice cream snack. Essentially they put soft serve ice cream in a soft cone shaped like a fish, stuffed with something.

This place had a ton of Instagram-worthy ice cream options. There was macha or ube swirl with pocky sticks, sprinkles, oreos, gummies, etc. You had the option to stuff the cone with nutella, custard, or mung beans.

Being the plainest person when it comes to soft serve ice cream, I always get the vanilla swirl with custard and sprinkles. A part of me is pained knowing I won’t ever get as stunning of a photo for the grams, it’s not my style to just get something for a photo.

Bruno’s European Restaurant

website | directions | best for: pierogies and schnitzel

Bruno’s is a German and Polish restaurant that was featured on Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives. It’s kitschy for sure, with the staff wearing traditional German garb. But the food is the real deal.

They’re known for their pork chop schnitzel which is perfectly crunchy without being greasy. You should definitely order this. But my favorite is their pierogies.

The potato and cheese ones are over stuffed with a sharp filling closer to the consistency of cottage cheese than potatoes. The dough was the perfect texture, gummy and swollen thanks to the stuffing. If you can only get one dish, make sure this is it!

Tibbitts at Fernhill

website | directions | best for: brunch and lunch

I’m saving the best for last. The best food in Tacoma, WA is at Tibbitts in the Fern Hill neighborhood of south Tacoma. Heck, it’s one of the best restaurants worth the drive from Seattle period. It’s a tiny spot full of locals that serves creative belly-bomb takes on comfort food classics…all made on two camping stoves.

For example, the lobster bomb is a cross between a lobster bisque and hollandaise-laden eggs Benedict, served in a bread bowl. It reminds me of a wild salmon Benedict, but way more creative and luxurious thanks to the lobster.

But the real stunner is the French toast. I’m not even a French toast person and I can say hands down this is the best food in Tacoma, WA. In the spring and summer it’s usually an apple strudel French toast, but in the fall and winter its a pumpkin French toast.

This pumpkin French toast is a stunner to look at, sure, but it wins because it tastes like pumpkin pie. It’s soft on the inside, crisp on the outside, and not too sweet…even though it’s served with some ice cream on top!

If you can only go to one restaurant in Tacoma, make sure Tibbitts is it.

Not only for the food, but for the story behind the business. Owner Shawn Tibbitts built a welcoming neighborhood restaurant that is deeply entrenched in the community. He regularly hosts charity events and makes sure he greets every table. He typically brings out each dish, making sure to walk slowly by tables that haven’t ordered yet in order to inspire what they get. With his girlfriend Sarah as front of house and his brother in the back, his restaurant feels like an extension of his family. Particularly because it’s decorated with antiques from his mother.

However, you can only truly appreciate what Shawn has built today by first understanding his past.

Shawn told me he grew up on welfare.

As a kid growing up in Washington state, he was diagnosed with ADHD. His mother put him on medication, but he felt it dulled his creativity. So at the age of 14 he left home and continued going to school until they kicked him out in 10th grade. He worked odd jobs, but didn’t realize his calling for the restaurant business until he started working at the Fern Hill Golf Club.

The chef at the country club recognized Shawn’s talent in the kitchen, even though he was just a dishwasher. He took Shawn under his wing and helped him learn the ropes of being a cook. One of the most defining pieces of advice he gave was to never work in one kitchen too long, or else that will be the only menu you ever know.

That made a mark on Shawn, so for the next 28 years he kept moving and worked in over 40 restaurants. He ended up at Little Jerry’s, a breakfast spot next door to the current Tibbitts. Jerry owned the space that is now Tibbitts and told Shawn he should take it.

“But Jerry, I only have like $32 in my account,” Shawn said. “I can’t afford a restaurant.”

“Just do what you can with the space and pay me like $250/month,” Jerry said.

So Shawn planned to do just that. He started preparing to open a restaurant, saving what he could to get equipment that will allow him to make a kitchen out of a space without anything.

But life has a funny way of throwing curveballs. Soon before Shawn planned to open, his mother passed away in a car accident. Without hesitation he decided to use his savings for the funeral. He announced Tibbitts wouldn’t open.

The community was heartbroken, but they wouldn’t be for long.

An old elementary school classmate reached out to Shawn and asked him how much it’d take to open. He ended up providing Shawn the funds he needed and told him not to pay it back.

This is usually the part when I’d say the rest is history. But opening didn’t come easy for Shawn. He had no experience running a business. He told tales of how he’d host free dinners for the less fortunate, despite the warnings from his friends and family. Business was slow, and it didn’t look like Tibbitts would stay open long.

But it’s impossible to miss that Shawn has a lot of hustle. He noticed that the street he was on would become dead after 3 pm. He asked Jerry if he’d be cool if Tibbitts also became a breakfast and lunch only spot like his business. With Jerry’s blessing, Shawn changed the hours of Tibbitts and decided to implement a “reservation only” policy.

At first, he didn’t actually have tables filled up but he’d act as if he did to drum up buzz. Eventually, those spots became full as he fed into people’s appetite for the mechanics of supply of demand…lusting over things that are in low supply.

Now Tibbitts is regularly booked, particularly Friday – Sunday.

I asked Shawn if he’d be ok with me sharing his story, assuming that he may not be comfortable with me publishing the highs and lows of how he opened.

“I’m an open book,” Shawn said casually. “I’m just happy to share my story of being a kid on welfare ending up where I am today.”

It’s people like Shawn that make businesses worth visiting. He also just happens to be doling out exceptional, award-winning dishes to boot. So when you’re looking for the best foods in Tacoma, WA, make sure to stop at Tibbitts so you can experience the welcoming atmosphere Shawn brought into this world.

Map of Tacoma, WA restaurants

Here is my Google Map of things to do in Tacoma, Washington, which also includes all of these restaurants. I update this frequently, so pin this for later!

What to do between Tacoma eats

While hunting for the best food in Tacoma, WA is top of my list of fun activities, we all have to break up the eats somehow!

• Let Me Plan You a Custom Trip
• Unique Things to Do in Tacoma, Washington
• Spend the Day in Nearby Olympia, WA
• Visit Mount Rainier National Park
• Take a Self-Guided Food Tour of Seattle