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The Infatuation
The Best Restaurants In Walla Walla
By Aimee Rizzo,
5 days ago
Walla Walla, Washington is more than just a “funny place name” featured on The Simpsons. It’s also a small, community-driven town located smack in the middle of a wine region. And this little blip on the map is worth the four-and-a-half-hour drive from Seattle—even if you’re not a viticulture nerd or a Whitman College student. It shouldn’t be surprising that a city mostly known for sweet onions and cabernet franc has plenty of great restaurants. The best food in the area includes phenomenal fish tacos, make-at-home dumplings, and some of the state’s greatest pizza and pasta.
The chef and owner of now-closed Seattle pasta legend Il Corvo moved a few hours east to open Bar Bacetto, and it’s mandatory to plan a dinner here. See the chalkboard menu on the wall? Just order the whole damn lot. There’s focaccia so dense and moist it could stand in for birthday cake, paper-thin mortadella dolloped with quince mostarda, and quilted ravioli filled with feta and doused in jammy sungold pulp. It’s not easy to get into this 18-seat stunner, but the hassle becomes worth it when you’re sucked into a happy vortex caused by overconsumption of semolina. Let the amaro flow and have the most memorable two hours of your trip.
If you only have time for one nice dinner in town, plan it at this upscale southern restaurant that feels like a classy Savannah bistro dropped 360 miles from the Washington coastline. They have pimento cheese slathered on crostini, blue cheese-dusted chicken wings, and refreshing salads that make shaved celery the protagonist. Then, focus on any entree that comes with creamy grits, whether that’s chicken schnitzel with tangy white BBQ sauce or braised halibut cheeks. When celebrating something—even if it’s the fact that you resisted the urge to blow your money at Thorp Fruit on the drive out east, make sure to ask for the private wine cellar table, which is essentially a big glass box that feels very special.
This diner’s name leaves absolutely nothing to the imagination—they do bacon and eggs, and they do it well. But the menu spans a wide variety of morning foods that work for whatever kind of day you’re about to have. You could fuel up with green chile-kicked migas and crispy hash browns before swirling around pours of semillon. Or maybe your only prerogative is to get into some orange cinnamon-battered brioche french toast after perusing ceramic home goods at the Walla Walla General Store and/or at records at Hot Poop. Note that Bacon & Eggs serves the best sit-down breakfast in town and everyone knows it, so it gets crowded in here—especially at the wall of hot sauces that you can snatch and take back to your table.
The best pizza in Walla Walla isn’t in Walla Walla at all, but rather a half-hour drive away in Waitsburg—a town whose thoroughfare is approximately two blocks long. American 35 excels at chewy, blistered Neapolitan pies that compete with the ones back in Seattle, and you’ll see topping combinations like sausage and spicy peppers, or pecorino romano with red onion, rosemary, and crushed pistachio. If you’re doing Waitsburg the correct way, the evening will start by sharing hot honey-drizzled cup and char pepperoni slices with friends as a prelude to dinner at Bar Bacetto across the street.
This excellent Italian spot is a Walla Walla staple, and the patio in particular is a big reason why. It’s very serene in the summertime, with an abundance of bamboo and fancy outdoor furniture that makes other restaurants’ sidewalk sets look dinky. Split everything, including margherita pies, eggy carbonara, rigatoni bolognese, and mandatory rounds of fluffy focaccia saturated in olive oil. Afterward, head a few blocks down to Karaoke Palace, where you can drink hard seltzers and belt pop songs among the bachelorette parties and off-duty winemaker hangs.
This frozen dumpling operation is the brainchild of two married winemakers, available for pickup at Smak Wines. And while each drop only happens once per month (check out their website for details), these juicy dough packages are worth bumping a bottle of roussanne from your cooler to make space for the drive home. Every variety is a surprise, but you can expect fillings like chicken brightened by zingy shiso leaf, beef bulgogi with grated pear, french onion-y sausage by Butcher Butcher, and our favorite Wallala creation of all time: smoky bacon cheeseburger. Ready a skillet for pan-frying or a pot of boiling water, and that lazy post-vacation dinner is set.
This place has the French restaurant formula down to a science, from silky vichyssoise to a dining room interior so dark that it’d be nearly impossible to detect flecks of herbes de provence in your date’s teeth. But the food at Brasserie Four does heavy lifting, too—and while the steak frites is endlessly recommendable, we’re pleased to report that the poulet frites is Brasserie’s best dish. The perfectly roasted chicken comes with a rich mushroom jus that clings to each sliver of peanut-fried potato.
For a wine town whose primary activity is drinking for hours at a time, not many tasting rooms serve food beyond small bites. But even if you had no plans to partake in tempranillo, slot in some lunch at this Spanish winery that serves dishes like tuna belly-stuffed piquillo peppers, gooey croquetas de jamón, and patatas bravas that don’t have a lick of grease on them. The tapas are so excellent that it’s easy to ignore the babbling water features and museum-like architecture. Palate-cleansing oyster crackers can’t do that.
Sure, there’s plenty of Mexican food centrally located in Downtown Walla Walla—but the best in town is behind the counter at Dora’s Deli. This mini-mart in the middle of a residential neighborhood doesn’t have much in terms of ambiance or seating, but it’s a place you should prioritize for tortilla-swaddled stuff. Tacos de birria come with a comforting consomme, and baja fish tacos are nearly the size of a hoagie, coated in a breading that retains its brittle crisp. But don’t leave without an order of quesadillas, made with puffy fried corn shells and queso fresco.
If you’re looking to yoink stale california rolls as they glide past at glacial speeds, by all means, do so at this conveyor belt sushi spot. But that’d be ignoring Asian Fusion’s finest contribution to the planet: their small but mighty “Chinese-Style” section of the menu devoted to Szechuan dishes. Direct your attention there, and there only—salt and pepper prawns have an airy crackle, ma po tofu is just as tangy as it is sweat-inducing, and the twice-cooked pork belly slices are tender with fat that melts like a Walla Walla tourist in August.
This Mexican restaurant in College Place is not a strictly vegetarian restaurant by any means, and yet the meatless options stretch far beyond pinto beans and grilled mushrooms. (Let it be known that those are great here, too.) Grab an order of nachos topped with rich simmered zucchini that tastes worlds better than squash has any right to. For carnivores, chicken tacos drenched in michoacan mole are a no-brainer. Best part is that they deliver, so use The Happy Wanderer for a post-wine-tasting dinner if you no longer wish to be seen in public anymore.
You may be tempted by the ketchup- and mustard-tinged allure and the centralized location of Counter Side Burgers, but it’s better to go out of your way and mess with Ice-Burg instead. There’s not much to this long-standing drive-in other than classic burgers and their expected accomplices. Swing by for char-broiled patties, breadcrumb-dredged onion rings, crunchy fries so fresh they’ll burn your fingers, and around 40 different milkshake flavors to mix and match. (Oreo and raspberry? Give it a whirl.) Send the designated driver here between tastings instead of popping cubes of cheese for lunch.
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