What I ate on my PNW vacation… (Part 1; Tacoma)
Last week I spent time in Seattle, Tacoma, and Portland. I feel like most people probably spend their vacations sleeping in late, bar-hopping, and hooking up with some strange. When I’m on vacation, I spend my time plotting out my next meal, poking around local shops, and reading in parks (or coffee shops depending on the weather). I like to go to bed early and get out the door first thing to soak up the day. When I was traveling, I ate out a lot. I’m a litttttle cash poor now but it was 10000% worth it. Here’s what I ate in Tacoma and how I felt about it (Stay tuned for the Seattle and Portland posts)
(not pictured – hilltop kitchen)
I had the Hosmer Hound Dog (bacon, peanut butter, and hot dog) and tasted my friend’s Heidelberg (apple cider kraut, german beef and potato sausage, locally made relish, and spicy mustard) and was loving every bite. This was the first meal of the trip and might just be one of my favorites overall.
I liked this but didn’t love it. Ice Cream Social has a great logo, a sweet but sparsely decorated space, and the usual flavors you’d expect from an ice cream shop with a few rotating flavors. I had cookies and cream in a cone and I feel like one visit to this restaurant was probably enough. The ice cream lacked in flavor and the cone was a little bland as well.
Coffeeeeee. This is a great spot to sit and crank out some work. I had an iced vanilla latte and spent a few hours working on Hoot & Holler business. The latte was fine but the real draw was the great space they have and a quiet and focused ambiance.
I popped in here for lunch and was absolutely blown away by the sandwich I chose to eat. Appropriately named “the stinker”, this gem was made with peanut butter, blackberry preserves, bacon, and blue cheese on a multi-grain bread. It sounds odd but was out-of-this-world delicious and the lavender dry soda I had with it was the icing on the cake!
I wanted to love this restaurant. The menu looks amazing and the location is next to Stadium High School which is gorgeous, but the overall experience here fell flat. I ordered the Eggs Benedict and was served a plate of eggs that were overdone, burnt potatoes, and a hollandaise that never quite emulsified. The accompanying service was spotty and slow. I will say that when we drew our servers attention to the disappointing meal she was extremely apologetic and ended up comping most of the meal. I hope they were just having an off morning because it seems like they had all the makings for success!
I love thai foooooood. LOVE IT. I LOVE IT SO MUCH. We split the pot stickers and an order of pad thai and I was not let down. It’s an excellent little spot with large plates, a great view, and quick, attentive service. I’d absolutely go back!
Yum. I’d call this the best meal of the trip and I didn’t even order food for myself. We stopped in here for a drink and ordered the duck tacos and I cannot stop thinking about them. Perfectly cooked duck served with gooseberries and a fig jam. The drinks were out of this world and I would probably live there if I called Tacoma my home.
I was craving pho in a really ugly way the first half of this trip so I snagged some pho and ate it in the park one night. It was pretty standard as far as pho goes but if you’re in the mood it’ll hit the spot for ya. The real highlight of this experience was eating it in the park.
Filed under: food, travel
