Best Restaurants in Tacoma
I previously wrote a post on my favorite restaurants in Olympia. Turns out, I enjoyed writing a post that wasn’t about insulation! Today, I’m going to write another similar post but for Tacoma.
Tacoma doesn’t care if you think it’s Seattle’s scrappy little brother. It’s busy doing its own thing — murals blossoming down alleyways, salty air blowing off the bay, and a food scene that feels personal, gutsy, and wild in the best way.
Here are five Tacoma restaurants that, to me, actually define the city.
1. Over the Moon Café
If you blink, you might miss Over the Moon Café tucked into a corner of Opera Alley — and honestly, that would be a crime. It’s not trying to be trendy. It’s dim, full of velvet chairs and flickering candles, the kind of place where whispered conversations and first kisses happen.
The menu leans European bistro with a Northwest backbone — think braised short ribs so tender you could eat ’em with a spoon, and goat cheese-stuffed chicken breasts swimming in marsala sauce. I took my wife here once on a whim, a cold rainy Wednesday, and it turned into the kind of night you remember five, ten years later.
2. Marzano Italian Restaurant
Down by Pacific Lutheran University, Marzano feels like the living room of a distant (but very talented) Italian aunt. Chef Elisa Marzano, born and raised in Vicenza, Italy, doesn’t cut corners. Hand-cut pastas, fire-roasted meats, and seasonal vegetables fill a small but powerful menu.
The night I ordered the bucatini all’Amatriciana, it came to the table still steaming, and that first bite — spicy, porky, perfect — hit like fireworks. It’s cozy, it’s real, and it smells so good inside you might just want to move in.
3. Indochine Asian Dining Lounge
Indochine is where Tacoma puts on something a little nicer and takes a deep breath. The interior is all dark woods, silk curtains, water features — a Southeast Asian dreamscape without tipping into parody.
The menu skips across Thailand, Vietnam, and beyond. Their coconut curry with prawns? Life-altering. I’ve eaten here after job interviews, before concerts, even just because it was a Tuesday that needed saving.
They get packed, no joke. But sitting in that dim glow, jasmine rice perfuming the air, you don’t mind waiting a while.
4. Southern Kitchen
Southern Kitchen doesn’t whisper; it hollers, and you’re glad for it. Open since 1981, this is where you go when you need fried chicken that crunches loud enough to make the next table look over.
It’s not fancy. Tables are tight. The menu’s printed simple. But good lord, the chicken and waffles, the catfish po’boys, the collard greens cooked down soft and smoky? Soul food that doesn’t play around.
The first time I had their peach cobbler, I actually sat back in my chair and laughed — big, grateful, embarrassing belly-laugh. It was that good. Maybe still is.
5. Bar Bistro
Bar Bistro deserves a seat at this table. It’s modern, but not cold — colorful paintings splashed across the walls, cocktails that feel like little adventures, and a kitchen that plays with flavors in ways that should be illegal.
Their Korean short rib tacos land sweet, spicy, sticky; the smoked duck breast with cherry reduction feels like something you’d find in a downtown Seattle hotspot — minus the pretension. One evening there, a thunderstorm cracked open the sky outside while we dug into chorizo flatbreads and laughed too loud. It’s that kind of place.
Tacoma’s restaurants don’t try to impress you with flash. They want you to lean in, roll up your sleeves, and fall into the plate. You can keep your reservations and velvet ropes — I’ll take a city that feeds you like it means it.
And trust me, Tacoma means it.