Best Pacific Northwest Restaurants Around the World

The best-scored pacific northwest place in each of 3 cities.

Regional variations

Seattle and Puget Sound

The Pacific oyster capital (Walrus and the Carpenter is the institution-grade raw bar), the Tom Douglas restaurant family (Dahlia Lounge, Etta's, Palace Kitchen), the modern Asian-PNW fusion (Canlis, Mistral Kitchen alumni), and the Pike Place Market food culture. Salmon, halibut, geoduck, Dungeness crab.

Portland and the Willamette Valley

The chef-driven restaurant city: Le Pigeon (Gabriel Rucker), Beast and Expatriate (Naomi Pomeroy), Pok Pok (Andy Ricker, Thai-PNW), Olympia Provisions (charcuterie), Castagna (modernist), and a deep food cart culture. Willamette Valley Pinot Noir country.

Coastal Oregon and Washington

Astoria, Cannon Beach, Tillamook, Long Beach Peninsula, Hood Canal, the San Juan Islands. Fishing-village restaurants, oyster shacks, smoked salmon producers. The most direct access to the regional larder.

Vancouver and southwest British Columbia

Often grouped with the US Pacific Northwest culinarily. Strong Asian fusion (Vancouver has one of the largest Chinese populations in North America), seafood-led fine dining (Hawksworth, St. Lawrence), and the Sea-to-Sky food scene.

Alaska (southeast)

Juneau, Sitka, and Ketchikan as smaller scenes; salmon, halibut, king crab, spot prawns are all native. Tlingit and Haida indigenous foodways are still alive and increasingly visible in the restaurant scene.

Defining pacific northwest dishes

Cedar-plank salmon

Wild king or sockeye salmon roasted or grilled on a cedar plank, the wood's resinous smoke infusing the fish. A Pacific Northwest indigenous technique, now standard at PNW restaurants. Often finished with brown sugar and grain mustard.

Smoked salmon

Wild salmon (sockeye or king) cured with salt and brown sugar, then cold-smoked over alder or cherry wood. The traditional Pacific Northwest preservation method; sold by smoked-salmon producers like Gerard & Dominique, Pure Food Fish Market, and the Native-owned Trout Lake Abbey.

Oysters on the half shell

Pacific Northwest oysters (Olympia, the only native species, with Kumamoto, Pacific Cup, Shigoku, Hama Hama, Hood Canal, Effingham, Royal Miyagi as the popular varieties) served raw with mignonette, lemon, and horseradish. Walrus and the Carpenter (Seattle) and Eventide (technically Portland Maine but spiritually aligned) are the touchstones.

Dungeness crab

Sweet, large, white-meat crab from the Pacific coast, served whole boiled with drawn butter, picked into salad, or as crab cakes. November through April is the peak season; the Pacific Northwest crab is sweeter and meatier than the East Coast blue crab.

Razor clams

Long, narrow clams dug from the Pacific beaches at low tide. Cleaned, dipped in egg and panko, pan-fried in butter. A Pacific Northwest tradition; razor-clam digging in Washington and Oregon is a regulated and beloved seasonal activity.

Wild mushroom ragout

Foraged chanterelles, morels, porcini, and other wild mushrooms in a butter-and-cream sauce, often over polenta, pasta, or roasted meat. The autumn PNW dish.

Marionberry pie

Marionberry (a blackberry cultivar developed in Oregon in the 1950s, larger and slightly tangier than wild blackberry) baked in a flaky pie crust. The Oregon state pie.

Tom Douglas crab cake

The Etta's (Tom Douglas restaurant) version: lump Dungeness crab lightly bound with mayo and breadcrumb, pan-fried, served with sweet pepper relish. The Seattle benchmark.

Pho

Vietnamese beef noodle soup, which has become integral to Portland and Seattle's everyday food culture due to the large Vietnamese immigrant population. Often available 24 hours, alongside banh mi shops.

Cioppino (or Pacific Northwest seafood stew)

Tomato-based seafood stew with Dungeness crab, mussels, clams, fish, and shrimp. Italian-American origin in San Francisco; naturalized as a Pacific Northwest dish.

Halibut

Pan-seared or grilled wild Pacific halibut, often served with mushrooms, asparagus, or seasonal vegetables. The Pacific Northwest white-fish protein.

Spot prawn ceviche

Wild-caught spot prawn (a Pacific Northwest cold-water shrimp), eaten raw or lightly cured with citrus, soy, or sea salt. The spring delicacy (April-May season).

How to order

A Pacific Northwest restaurant meal typically opens with oysters (a half-dozen or dozen on the half shell, ideally a sampler of regional varieties) and a salad or a smoked-salmon starter. The main is salmon, halibut, or Dungeness crab in season, or a wild-mushroom or seasonal-vegetable dish. Sides are seasonal vegetables (asparagus in spring, brassicas in autumn, root vegetables in winter). Dessert is marionberry pie, an apple-pear-or-plum crisp, or a fruit-led tart. The wine pairing is typically Willamette Pinot Noir or a Washington white.

The rookie mistakes: ordering farmed Atlantic salmon at a Pacific Northwest restaurant (the wild Pacific salmon, especially king and sockeye, is the point; off-season, the high-quality menu will pause or shift), under-trying the oyster varietals (the differences are real and worth exploring), missing the food cart culture in Portland (some of the best meals in the city are from a tin-roofed truck), and skipping the smoked salmon (it is the regional pantry's signature).

What to drink with it

Pacific Northwest wine is exceptional: Willamette Valley Pinot Noir (Domaine Drouhin, Beaux Freres, Eyrie Vineyards), Walla Walla Cabernet and Syrah, Yakima Valley Riesling and Chardonnay, and the rising sparkling-wine scene. Craft beer is genuinely world-class (Russian River, Logsdon, Cascade, Pfriem, Boneyard, Breakside, Modern Times). Coffee culture is its own thing (Stumptown, Heart, Coava, Caffe Vita as the third-wave touchstones). With oysters, sparkling wine or a dry Riesling; with salmon, a Willamette Pinot Noir; with crab, a buttery Chardonnay or a IPA; with wild mushrooms, a Pinot Noir or a Walla Walla red blend.

Where to eat it

Seattle: Canlis (the institution-grade fine dining), Walrus and the Carpenter, Sitka & Spruce (closed but seminal), the Tom Douglas restaurants, Wild Ginger, Cafe Juanita, Eden Hill. Portland: Le Pigeon, Expatriate, Castagna, Nostrana, Coquine, Olympia Provisions, the food cart pods. Vancouver: Hawksworth, St. Lawrence, Kissa Tanto, Phnom Penh, Anh and Chi. The coastal Oregon-Washington-BC stretch for fishing-village restaurants and oyster shacks. Outside the region, Pacific Northwest cuisine has limited explicit export; the influence is felt through the alumni of major PNW restaurants who have moved to other cities.

A short history

Pacific Northwest cuisine descends from the indigenous foodways of the Coast Salish, Chinook, Tlingit, Haida, and other Pacific Northwest peoples (salmon, shellfish, berries, roots, cedar-cooking techniques), layered with the agricultural traditions of European settlers in the late 19th century, Asian immigration (particularly Chinese, Japanese, and Vietnamese), and the modern chef-driven restaurant culture that emerged in the 1980s and 1990s. The region's natural larder (one of the richest in North America) and the wine industry's emergence in Oregon's Willamette Valley (Eyrie planted Pinot Noir in 1965; the modern industry consolidated in the 1980s) shaped the contemporary cuisine.

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