17 Best Restaurants in The Olympic Peninsula and Washington Coast, Washington

Since the early '90s, this cheerful art-filled spot has been a go-to on the peninsula for celebrating special occasions and simply enjoying stellar comfort food with locally sourced ingredients. Consider kicking off your meal with goat cheese fondue or a half pound of Willapa Bay clams steamed in white wine, before graduating to flash-fried razor clams with seasonal vegetables, or ravioli stuffed with wild mushrooms and topped with tomato sauce. Rich chocolate rum truffle cheesecake is a popular dessert.

Convivial, cozy, and a bit off-the-wall, this is one of Port Townsend's best sources of generous, unfussy breakfasts and lunches, like thick pancakes and decadent eggs Benedicts, plus hefty burgers and sandwiches. Long popular with sailors and shipwrights who work in the surrounding Port Townsend Boat Haven, this hole-in-the-wall fills up fast on weekends, but you can help yourself to a mug of drip coffee while you wait.

Pick up a baguette, loaf of fig-anise bread, chocolate-chip cookies, maple-pecan scones, or cinnamon buns at this top-notch bakery, tucked into a small storefront in the heart of the Uptown district. There's a selection of cheeses, jams, granola, kombucha, and other gourmet goods to go as well. Additional locations are on the Port Townsend waterfront, in Sequim, and on Bainbridge Island.

From Westport, it's a scenic 20-mile drive down the coast to reach the much-buzzed-about eatery that is inside the historic and offbeat Tokeland Hotel and run by young restaurateurs who had operated the original Wandering Goose in Seattle before relocating here in 2018. Folks come from all over to sample the fluffy scratch-made biscuits and Japanese-style oyakodon omelets (eggs with chicken), but dinner is the star attraction—and duck confit slow-simmered for six hours is the most celebrated dish. In addition to a thoughtfully curated wine and cocktail list, the restaurant has interesting nonalcoholic drinks, from natural sodas to drinking vinegars. A team of cute resident cats and dogs often amble about the dining room visiting with patrons.

The most popular local saloon and brothel during Aberdeen's rough-and-tumble logging and seafaring years, this colorful tavern has a collection of prints recalling those bawdy days and remembering the life of the notorious original owner, Billy Ghol, who was rumored to have killed more than 100 men. The standard comfort fare includes steak and eggs, grilled local oysters, French dip sandwiches, and fish-and-chips. If you're looking for a challenge, try the Billy's Belt Buster, a burger with four patties, cheese, and bacon.

Venture inside this endearingly dive-y diner with wood-paneled walls and nautical decor for formidable portions of stick-to-your-ribs breakfast and lunch fare. Consider the Dungeness crab omelet or fluffy biscuits and sausage gravy in the morning; top lunch offerings include New England–style clam chowder and the shrimp Louie salad.

This friendly, no-frills seafood spot has a simply furnished dining room as well as picnic tables and Adirondack chairs on the beach overlooking the Strait of San Juan de Fuca. On warm days it's an idyllic spot to enjoy fresh fish-and-chips (your choice of salmon, halibut, prawns, or oysters), plus hearty seafood chowder and Dungeness crab when it's in season. It closes at 7 pm, so plan accordingly.

There can be a wait for a table at this homey country cottage–inspired restaurant, especially on weekend mornings when hikers and families pile in for sustenance before visiting Olympic National Park. Favorites include bacon-and-Brie egg scrambles, crème brûlée French toast, and—for lunch—barbecue chicken pizzas. 

An enjoyable stopover between Westport and the Long Beach Peninsula, this airy café with three walls of windows has panoramic views of the Willapa River and is decorated with colorfully painted chairs, hanging plants, and potted flowers. First-rate espresso drinks, chai teas, and light snacks—black currant scones, lavender-honey toast with goat cheese, bacon-tomato-avocado sandwiches—are offered.

The Copalis River flows beside this cash-only, cedar-shake-covered local favorite, in business since the 1930s and known for filling comfort food throughout the day, starting with bay shrimp breakfast scrambles and continuing later in the day with BLTs, burgers, chicken-fried steak sandwiches, clam strips, and fish-and-chips served in baskets. The laid-back dining room has a 10-foot-long clam-digging shovel in the corner.

Pop into this dapper downtown java house while browsing Sequim's bounty of boutiques and galleries for a blackberry mocha or a golden turmeric chai. The food offerings hit the spot, too—consider the caprese panini or triple-chocolate croissant.

Carefully crafted breakfasts and lunches are the focus of this well-run, family-friendly eatery, a Sequim institution since 1981. Breakfast is served throughout the day, and on Sunday morning the large, well-lit dining room is especially bustling. The selection is extensive: thickly sliced bacon and eggs are a top seller, but the restaurant is best known for its creamy blintzes, golden-brown waffles, and variety of crepes and pancakes. Lunch choices include several salads, sandwiches, burgers, and a soup du jour.

Espresso, beer, wine, and a variety of sweet baked goods—including memorable cinnamon rolls and lemon bars—are served in this inviting roastery and bistro with a gas fireplace, cathedral ceilings, and a cozy upstairs loft with armchairs and sofas. The kitchen doles out creative fare such as blackened-prawn tacos and a harvest salad with hazelnuts and house-pickled beets.

Located near the tip of the Point Brown Peninsula, this stylish contemporary bistro with ample seating in a festive courtyard draws discerning diners from up and down the coast. The eclectic cuisine relies heavily on local produce and seafood and includes thin-crust pizzas, blackened ahi with seasonal veggies, and hand-cut rib-eye steaks topped with grilled wild prawns or scallops.

Most of the seats in this third-floor restaurant at the Adrift Hotel offer panoramic views of the dunes and the ocean beyond, making this a popular—though sometimes a bit crowded—place for breakfast, lunch, and dinner in summer and on weekends. It's worth persevering for a reservation, though, as the creative renditions of classic beach fare are consistently excellent, from roasted mushroom-and-chèvre crepes and sticky salted-caramel buns in the morning to roasted half chicken with smoked-honey jus and charred-broccoli pizzas with roasted squash and smoked provolone later in the day.

Operated in partnership with the nearby Alderbrook Resort, this restored market at the Hood Canal Marina is open most days for gourmet snacks and to-go items, local beer and wine, and nicely curated nautical souvenirs, and its Hook & Fork waterfront eatery serves afternoon appetizers on Friday and leisurely brunches on weekends. A juice bar doles out freshly squeezed concoctions, and the rotating brunch menu features baked oysters, smoked-trout toast, and crab BLTs and Benedicts.