CITY GUIDES | WASHINGTON
Yakima’s Best Restaurants Take Their Cue From Farm Country
Washington’s farms and orchards help shape seasonal menus, from spring asparagus tamales to dinners built around the valley’s harvests.
By Mei Chen | Oct. 11, 2026
Crafted
AUTHOR BIO: Mei Chen has worked for nearly a dozen start-ups in as many years, taking her to several West Coast cities. While she’s sure her current day job is permanent, she also has her eye on Carmel.
In Yakima, the spring asparagus harvest can end up inside a tamale with pepper jack. The farms and orchards surrounding this Washington city give its restaurants plenty to work with, whether that means a changing fresh sheet at Provisions or seasonal cooking at the farmer-owned Rooted. At WaterFire, local applewood even supplies the heat beneath the grill. These 12 restaurants include newer arrivals and contemporary favorites, with the valley’s agriculture helping set the table. These are my favorite restaurants in Yakima, where the surrounding farm country gives cooks plenty to work with.
Bánh Mì & More at Fatly
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A baguette baked that morning is a promising place to begin lunch. At this Nob Hill sandwich shop, owner Brandy Nguyen builds the traditional bánh mì with sliced pork, cucumber, cilantro, pâté, and house-made mayonnaise, assembled at the counter when you order. Opened in May 2026, it gives Yakima another reason to fit a Vietnamese sandwich into the day.
Best for: A bánh mì lunch
Brunch Bliss & Bubbles
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A pancake flight sounds like something invented to settle an argument at breakfast. Here, you choose three flavors, with lemon ricotta, tres leches, and blueberry among the options, while croissants take their turn as French toast. The two sisters behind Brunch Bliss & Bubbles also draw on their Mexican heritage, and the menu gives savory eaters smoked-feta-and-egg tacos with avocado. Add a mimosa flight if breakfast has already begun to look like the day’s main event.
Best for: Pancake flights during a champagne-spiked brunch
Cowiche Canyon Kitchen + Icehouse
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Cowiche Canyon makes it easy to begin dinner with fried goat cheese balls and hot honey, then move on to something substantial. The International Harvester burger stacks Gruyère, blue cheese, arugula, and tomato-onion-bacon jam on a house-made roll, while the prime rib dip comes with horseradish sauce and au jus. Vietnamese rice noodles with fresh herbs, crunchy vegetables, and a choice of chicken, prawns, or tofu offer a lighter route through the menu. The adjoining Icehouse Bar gives you a reason to stay for another drink.
Best for: Burgers, cocktails, and dinner downtown
Crafted
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At Crafted, the menu changes often enough that a favorite dish may require a return trip at the right time of year. Chef Dan Koommoo and his wife, Mollie, opened the restaurant in 2017, working with farmers and foragers within roughly 100 miles of Yakima. Recent dishes have included butter-curry cabbage and ricotta agnolotti with corn and cherry tomatoes, a reminder that the vegetables deserve some of the table’s attention. Order plates to share, or let the kitchen choose through its multicourse chef’s menu.
Best for: A seasonal chef’s menu
E.Z Tiger
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E.Z Tiger asks the table to share, which makes the dumpling section a sensible place to begin negotiations. Pork potstickers come with ponzu, while spicy peanut noodles combine wheat noodles, bok choy, scallions, sesame seeds, peanuts, and lime, with chicken, prawns, or tofu available to add. The downtown restaurant describes its cooking as Asian fusion, and its menu moves between bao, noodles, and rice dishes without asking dinner to stay in one country. Take a seat at the kitchen counter if you like watching the cooking, and leave space for a cocktail.
Best for: Dumplings and a dinner to share
Gatlin’s Breakfast & Cafe
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Breakfast at Gatlin’s can begin with cheddar biscuits under sausage gravy or go directly to brioche French toast with pumpkin butter, butterscotch, and mascarpone whipped cream. Either route comes with enough additions to make a quick coffee stop an unlikely outcome. The café also gives savory breakfasts some range, including an omelet with roasted butternut squash, bacon, mozzarella, and sage. If the morning gets away from you, lunch has a prime rib dip with mushrooms, onions, provolone, and horseradish au jus.
Best for: Breakfast that lasts through lunch
Los Hernández Tamales
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Los Hernández is one of my longstanding favorites, and the tamales explain why. Los Hernández began in Union Gap in 1990 and received a James Beard America’s Classics award in 2018; its West Valley branch brings the family’s tamales into Yakima. Pork and chicken are dependable starting points, while asparagus with pepper jack follows the spring harvest. Order a plate with rice and beans, then consider a few more tamales for the drive home.
Best for: Tamales to eat now and take home
O’Noodles
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The khao soi at O’Noodles has noodles doing two jobs: egg noodles below and a crisp tangle above, with chicken, coconut curry, pickled cabbage, red onion, and lime between them. This downtown newcomer concentrates on Thai noodle soups, including a clear chicken broth with rice noodles and bok choy. Begin with shrimp-and-pork dumplings in chili oil if you want something to share before the bowls arrive. Ginger-garlic rice with poached and crispy chicken offers a detour for anyone who came hungry for something else.
Best for: Khao soi and Thai noodle soups
Provisions Restaurant + Market
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Provisions gives a table several ways to settle into dinner: brick-oven pizza, a bowl of pappardelle, or fried chicken with mashed potatoes and brown gravy. Chef Lindsay Park’s Terrace Heights restaurant keeps the menu broad, with local farmers part of the supply line and a changing fresh sheet alongside the regular dishes. The pistachio-and-shiitake pasta, with Marsala cream and lemon zest, is worth a look before defaulting to the burger. Start with crispy pork belly and its pineapple chutney if dinner calls for a shared plate.
Best for: A full dinner after a day in wine country
Rooted Yakima Valley
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Rooted brings the valley’s farm culture downtown in the form of a farmer-owned social hall with seasonal food, local wine, and craft beer. Its linked seasonal menu names the growers: Pleasant Hill Farms supplies greens, while CLS Farms provides stone fruit for a flatbread with goat cheese and prosciutto. A chicken sandwich combines chopped chicken with peach, plum, or nectarine, Parmesan, and spring mix on Parmesan-toasted sourdough. Check the menu before choosing a dish, and watch the calendar for vinyl nights.
Best for: A seasonal lunch and local beer
WaterFire Restaurant & Bar
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Local applewood supplies the fire beneath WaterFire’s grilled shrimp, served with roasted tomato and pepper-garlic butter sauce, truffle-whipped potatoes, and grilled asparagus. Chef Derrin Davis builds his seasonal menus around the region’s abundance, buying from Northwest farms and ranches when possible. That leaves room for a wedge salad with Cosmic Crisp apples, blue cheese, hazelnuts, and bacon, or king salmon with Parmesan risotto and dark cherry compote. Begin with the maple-gochujang cauliflower if the table needs something to pass around before dinner.
Best for: Seasonal dinners from the applewood grill
Zesta Cucina
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Zesta Cucina has been feeding Yakima for more than 25 years, and in that time, I still haven’t found something on the menu that wasn’t excellent. The Calypso chicken puts blackened chicken over fettuccine with spinach and spicy Creole Alfredo, while capellini in vodka sauce comes with asparagus and crushed tomatoes. For a more familiar choice, there’s chicken piccata with lemon-caper beurre blanc and garlic mashed potatoes. Start with sausage-and-Asiago stuffed mushrooms, and leave a little space for warm berry cobbler with vanilla gelato.
Best for: An Italian dinner at a longtime local favorite
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