TNT Diner’s 21 favorite dishes from Tacoma and beyond in 2021

Like its predecessor, 2021 involved plenty of eating and drinking at home and outside.

This is not a best-of list, but a chronological diary of another year of sometimes disjointed but still rewarding culinary exploration in a second strange year of pandemic life.

At first, we could not sit inside restaurants, and frankly it didn’t feel right anyway. I developed a first-in-a-lifetime appreciation for foods that can withstand sitting in a takeout box and found value in securing a sandy spot overlooking the Puget Sound, piroshki in hand.

Nonetheless, I longed for the in-the-moment hospitality that follows the phrase, “We’ll just sit at the bar,” and this year reminded me that all is not lost, neither in good food nor generous humanity.

I hope that you also found pockets of time and space to enjoy yourself, hopefully as safely as possible and with people you missed, and that these selections provide fodder for your next outing.

BLACK BEANS AT LA OVEJA NEGRA

▪ 806 72nd St. E., Tacoma, orderlaovejanegraeatery.com

Rice and beans are forgettable at most Mexican restaurants — of course beans refried with lard are satisfying. When you receive a simmering side of black beans, spicy and deep with ancho chile flavor, you realize the bean has been mistreated by all those other so-called bean makers. I think about these beans every time I encounter other beans. Pair with La Oveja’s tamales or signature lamb barbacoa, both roasted in banana leaves, available only on weekends.

THE BIRD AT SPICE LAB AT HARMON

▪ 1938 Pacific Ave., Tacoma, spicelabtacoma.com

When chef Blake Lord-Wittig swooped into Harmon with Spice Lab, an experimental dinner series that hosts occasional weekend pop-ups, I knew he would deliver on his promise of global flavors with PNW ingredients. What I most adored, though, was The Bird, his spin on pollo a la brasa, Peru’s beloved charcoal spit-roasted chicken. With a trio of sauces, including the inimitable aji, ordering this whole bird and smashed potatoes was the best $20 I (and by virtue of my job, The News Tribune) spent all year. It was also one of the best examples in town of thoughtful pandemic takeout.

LINCOLN DISTRICT BURGER BATTLE: JUBILEE VS. BURGER RANCH

▪ South 38th Street at South Thompson Avenue, Tacoma, jubileeburger.com, facebook.com

We had little to eat in the house, but the snow was falling. I said, “Wouldn’t it be fun if …,” and we hopped into the hatchback we knew would be stuck a few hours later and carefully drove 1.4 miles to the Lincoln District. My partner dropped me off at Jubilee. He took the Burger Ranch drive-thru. We both ordered double cheeseburgers; I the dark-fried onion rings, he the nubs of crinkle-cuts. At home, we tore the paper, spilled the sides directly onto the counter and pitted the patties in an unwitting head-to-head battle. I preferred his, he mine — it’s the crispy edges and sesame seed bun at Burger Ranch for me, but Jubilee’s fry sauce wins. I’ve been told that at this intersection, everyone has their allegiance.

PIZZACOA AT LOS TAMALES RESTAURANT

▪ 1018 72nd St. E., Tacoma, facebook.com/Lostamalestacoma

This humble restaurant single-handedly commandeered a Google search term: pizzacoa. Palmira Mendoza had beef barbacoa on the menu, but it wasn’t until the spring of 2020 that she embraced the quesabirria y consome sensation, which led her to purchase stacks of pizza boxes — to the bewilderment of her staff. Typically I would deem such a twist nothing more than a try-it-once gimmick, but Los Tamales’ juicy meat and mozzarella cheese stuffed and sauced between burrito-sized tortillas is hard to forget. You’ll find a similar dish at other birrierias, but Los Tamales is the OG.

SUNDAY FRIED CHICKEN AT BRIMSTONE PNW

▪ 7707 Pioneer Way, Gig Harbor, bbqbrimstone.com

I know people do it every day, but living in Tacoma, I need a day-trip excuse to visit Gig Harbor (probably because of the time I accidentally got on Route 16 westbound and had to cross the bridge and then immediately turned around and paid the toll, a mishap for which I took weeks to forgive myself). When I discovered Brimstone was frying chicken in barbecue drippings but once a week, I hatched a plan that involved strolling, beaching, beers and a 5 p.m. dinner — limited availability, and, like I hate lines, I hate missing the special. On the front patio, one of the region’s coziest with personal heaters, each crispy, perfectly seasoned bite remained as hot as the first.

GUAVA CRINKLE COOKIE AT BE-UBE-FUL

▪ pop-up/pre-order only, instagram.com/beubeful

Though pop-up bakers existed pre-pandemic, the notion of running a cottage or commercial food business via Instagram took off when social media became, for once, strangely important. There I stumbled upon Jen Cuaresma’s Be-Ube-Ful. I ordered a variety pack with four flavors: “purple crack,” a.k.a. ube; buko pandan; guava and chocolate. Though ube is the standard-bearer of the style, the dough ball tossed in powdered sugar ahead of baking to produce the signature cracks in the finished cookie, the tropical guava resonated with my pandemic-weary soul. Cloud-like, in texture and whimsy, we finished 24 cookies in — whoops! — three days.

SAI OUA AND STICKY RICE AT SWEET RICE

▪ 8425 S. Hosmer St., Tacoma + 4017 A St. SE, Auburn, sweetricewa.com

Just as I was slipping into takeout torpor, we ordered deeply funky papaya salad, spicy pad Lao and fragrant sai oua from the Tacoma outpost of Sweet Rice, a follow to the Saysana family’s restaurant in Auburn and several in Texas. The menu slithers along the border — one that didn’t exist until the 1950s — of Lao and Northern Thailand. Cracking the plastic lid off the deep-fried sausage, made in house by an aunt who won’t reveal all her secrets, we instantly recognized fresh lemongrass, makrut lime, galangal and chile. We used our hands to scoop a ball of sticky rice and a spoon to dash with jeo mak len, a mildly spicy roasted tomato sauce, and let ourselves feel alive again.

NETTLE BAGEL AT ADAM’S BAGELS

▪ pre-order only, pickup or delivery in Tacoma and Olympia; olymadebagels.com

In a land without bagels, Adam Dealan-de arrived as a beacon by way of Olympia. I ordered a dozen and a couple of schmears online and on Thursday arrived at the designated pickup point in Wright Park with cash in hand. He asked for my name and handed me a brown paper bag. At home, the nettle bagel, swirled with the native weed, stole my new Northwest heart. With East Coast chew and a crisper, Montreal-inspired exterior, this bagel — accentuated by coconut oil and honey — easily became the best in the region. Luckily for us, Dealan-de will soon restart his delivery operation from a new commissary kitchen in Tacoma. We are in the nascent stages of a South Sound bagel revolution, I tell you.

CIDER AND A VIEW AT FINNRIVER FARM & CIDERY

▪ 124 Center Road, Chimacum, 360-339-8478, finnriver.com

En route to the Olympic Peninsula, with our first visitors since we moved across the country, I naturally had us detour to Chimacum. “It’s a cidery,” I told the group, but in fact it was an utterly bucolic PNW experience — the sun shining over the working farm, old friends gathered around a picnic table, mountains in the distance, heirloom ciders in hand. We stayed longer than anticipated, swung by the lovely Chimacum Farm Stand for some local meat for tomorrow’s dinner and arrived at our rental cabin just in time to catch the sunset.

BLACK SESAME SHAKE AT KATSU BURGER

▪ multiple locations, including 1706 S. 320th St., Federal Way, 253-533-3399, katsuburger.com

After a visit to the very cool Pacific Bonsai Museum, we stopped in Federal Way to try Katsu Burger, a Seattle-based chain now with nine locations. The panko-crusted pork loin, a nest of crunchy cabbage overflowing from the bun, is worthy unto itself, but we couldn’t resist the black sesame shake. Nutty with a bitter undertone, it out-competes any ice cream flavor, especially when paired à la Wendy’s with nori fries that you didn’t need but ordered anyway. Let’s hope their next restaurant lands in Lakewood.

POPPYSEED & SOUR CHERRY PIROSHKI AT PIE STYLE BAKERY

▪ 1111 E. Main St., Auburn, 206-294-8809, facebook.com/piestyle1

I was driving to an assignment in Sumner but planned to start my morning in Auburn at this pie-sized Ukrainian bakery. Owner Oksana Lusnikova’s commitment to high-quality ingredients and shapes achieved only through handmade affection feels all the more special when you consider her proximity to one of the country’s most famous piroshky makers. I took a bite of the sour cherry in the car and exclaimed out loud, to only myself, how delightful it was. Then I turned to the poppyseed, which she says most reminds her of her childhood, and wished I had gotten two.

ROMAN BIANCA AT SIRIUS WOOD FIRED PIZZA

▪ multiple locations, including Cockrell Hard Cider in Puyallup every Thursday, siriuswoodfiredpizza.com

“The best garlic bread I’ve ever had,” declared my father-in-law this summer. Fortuitously on this very hot June day — just before the height of the heat wave — we snagged a table in the bustling yard on this working farm, where we waited not long at all for the wood-fired pies to emerge from the Sirius Pizza truck, which parks here and at nearby breweries three days a week. Alongside Bone Dry ciders, the sauceless Roman Bianca, sliced in skinny rectangles and topped, painfully simply, with roasted garlic, olive oil and salt, proved that delicious needn’t mean decadent.

RASPBERRIES FROM MY GARDEN

▪ Tacoma

Our fence is lined with raspberry bushes, which seems wonderful until you constantly discover new seedlings in your vegetable beds, their gnarly root systems spreading with abandon and their prickly stems rendering tidiness impossible. With the help of my neighbor who ferments his own fruit wines, I harvested as many berries as I could before the unprecedented heat left far too many frizzled on the branch. Though we have plenty of local farmers stocking markets throughout the season, I felt acutely grateful to have this bounty in my backyard this year, in honor of the increased affection for gardening that I and local food advocates everywhere hope sustains well past the pandemic.

CARROT CAKE AT THE CAT & RABBITT CAKE SHOP

▪ 2811 6th Ave., Tacoma, thecatandrabbitt.com

There is something electrifying about strolling away from a pickup window with a nondescript takeout box in which rest gargantuan slices of multi-layered cake. On a random weekday — better to avoid lines on weekends when their locally famous cinnamon rolls come out to play — I happened to be passing Julia Brown and Terryn Abbitt’s bakery on Sixth Avenue, and so I returned to my home office with cake. Honestly, calling it cake feels like lip service to all other cakes. We ate it tepid, we ate it cold; two slices provided several days of satisfaction.

KHAO PAD MUANG AT ERAWAN SPORTS BAR & GRILL THAI CUISINE

▪ 11620 Pacific Highway SW, Lakewood, erawanbar.com

As a rule, I don’t order fried rice from restaurants — in part because it’s inherently a leftover dish, cobbled together with day-old rice and pantry ingredients, and in part because I’d rather have other things. Chef-owner Anna Theriault suggested her mango fried rice. Sitting in her sports bar, without sports on the television but with an open kitchen that churns out excellent Thai food, I ignored my own guidebook. Tossed with mango peeled and cubed to order, sprinkled with sliced scallions and cilantro, served with cucumber and a lemon wedge, it was the right decision.

SUNDUBU-JJIGAE AT HO SOON YI

▪ 8501 South Tacoma Way, Lakewood, 253-584-4572, hosoonyirestaurant.menu11.com

What Tacoma lacks in dedicated dumpling restaurants (sigh, Harbor City, someday maybe), Lakewood compensates for in its wonderful Korean with decades of history behind each one. I eagerly awaited the right time to revisit Ho Soon Yi’s dining room, bringing a friend visiting from Queens, where there is no shortage of international eateries. Bottles of Kloud on the table, we decided on kalbi (of course), spicy tteokbokki and soft tofu soup, a specialty here with 18 choices from kimchi to seaweed, pork to roe. We accepted the egg, cracked tableside, and began spooning into the provided little bowls before saying to hell with it and took turns with the sizzling hot pot.

FALL SALAD AT SIG BREWING CO.

▪ 2534 Tacoma Ave. S., Tacoma, 253-503-6446, sigbrewingco.com

If you care about lettuce and dressing and ratio and texture, you care about everything else, and the team at Sig, led by chef Hailey Hernandez, just plain gets it. In a shallow bowl, a shareable portion of greens arrived nearly hidden underneath slices of roasted squash, pickled red onions, roasted pepitas, surprises of bacon and slices of inordinately juicy skinless chicken. With pizza and meatballs, we needed roughage, and this salad delivered to the point that I would return for it alone — though you’d be remiss to not eat (and drink) everything else.

SAUSAGE ON A ROLL, ETC. AT THE RUBY BRINK

▪ 17526 Vashon Highway SW, Vashon, 206-408-7795, therubybrink.com

The ferry to Vashon from Point Defiance is a breeze, but it’s the culinary prowess here that has officially swayed me to lust for more island time. We also don’t have a whole animal butchery on this side of the water, which The Ruby Brink does masterfully. It’s exemplified by this three-ingredient sandwich: spicy fennel chicken sausage, pickled mustard mayo, ample microgreens sourced, naturally, down the street at Gracie’s Greens. Sunlight filtering through the windows, we relaxed at the corner booth over pilsners and puttanesca pasta salad, leaving full and happy with a housemade sourdough loaf in tow.

HEIDELBERG BEER AT 7 SEAS BREWING

▪ available at select bars and 7 Seas taprooms, 2101 Jefferson Ave., Tacoma + 2905 Harborview Dr., Gig Harbor, 7seasbrewing.com

In the doldrums of early 2021, when the world felt heavy, 7 Seas co-founder Mike Runion said he and business partner Travis Guterson wanted to “do something real for the community.” No longer will Rainier rule our cheap beer fridges. Heidelberg Beer is back, and I can’t stop singing the “Hully Gully.” A crisp, clean, easy-drinking lager, the can and its contents carries you home, no matter where you’re originally from. Being present for this very cool, very Tacoma moment had me feeling so darn thankful to be part of this community.

MILK BREAD AT BON BON BAKERY

▪ 9122 South Tacoma Way, Lakewood, 253-267-1353, instagram.com/bonbonbakery2021

Brimming with rainbows of cakes, mochi doughnuts and copious other rice-flour treats, at this Japanese and Korean bakery, I was most enamored of the perfectly square loaf of shokupan, a rarity in these parts that has expanded to various corners of the globe in the past few years. With a high fat content from both milk and butter, plus the yudane method of combining flour with boiling water, Japanese milk bread is the superior relative of straightforward white bread. It’s springy and fluffy yet sturdy and flavorful, ideal for snacking with butter and salt or as the vehicle for a revitalizing WFH sandwich break.

CHICKEN LIVER MOUSSE AT FIELD BAR

▪ 2614 6th Ave., Tacoma, fieldtacoma.com

We arrived early on Saturday. The intimate environs quickly filled with fellow enthusiasts of natural wine, fine cocktails and seasonal dishes that complement one another as effortlessly as they complement whatever drink you choose — and if you can’t, you’re in dexterous hands with owner Brian Hibbard and staff. I started with a garganega and friulano Venetian blend, crisp with a wild side thanks to some skin contact that also lends a beautiful amber hue. Field is handily one of the best new restaurants in the region. Chef Ike Hippensteel instructed us to “get messy” with the chicken liver mousse — velvety, balanced, piped atop savory spiced pumpkin bread with delicata squash, sprinkled with cranberries and furikake popcorn — and so we did.

This story was originally published December 15, 2021 at 11:00 AM.