Tacoma’s food scene is growing. Here are some people documenting it on your feed
You might have heard the phrase, “The phone eats first.”
For many of us, that means we want to remember our meal, send visuals of it to our friends or family, maybe even post about it on our personal social media.
It means a bit more for a select group of locals, who often have thousands of people counting on them to snap a pic of their food.
That group is made up of food influencers, or content creators. They go beyond the occasional Instagram post of a fancy cocktail or a cheese platter.
“It’s a really digestible way of getting to know the city,” said Quan Myers, who runs the Instagram account @tacomafoodieontheloose. “I think Tacoma has a lot to say from the food scene that we have here.”
Social media is how lots of people get their information nowadays, and researching restaurants is no different.
Being informative is only part of it. Lots of these accounts were born from a genuine passion to uplift local businesses.
Meesa Cobell runs @tacoma_uncovered on Instagram, which has over 37,000 followers. She was also voted best local food influencer by South Sound Magazine in 2024.
Cobell, 40, who grew up in Seattle, said the practice of trying new cuisines was ingrained in her from a young age.
“We didn’t have a lot of money, but one thing that my dad always did was to make sure that we tried foods from different cultures,” Cobell recently told The News Tribune.
After having kids, moving to Tacoma and meeting her now-fiancé, Cobell said life settled down, and she had more time to go out and explore the city she called home.
In 2022, she started posting about things to do around Tacoma and never stopped.
While Cobell occasionally posts about fun events or other local businesses, eating out became a large chunk of her content.
“I eat a lot. I mean, you have to eat every day, right?” Cobell said.
Plus, Tacoma can sometimes get a bad rap, and Cobell wanted to change the narrative.
“I don’t think people understand what a great city it is to live in … I just wanted to uncover it for everyone to see,” Cobell said. “There’s just so many cool restaurants, businesses, people in general that just don’t get any credit.”
Myers started posting for a similar reason. A Canada native, she moved to Tacoma eight years ago.
“When I first moved to Washington, Tacoma didn’t have a huge, amazing reputation,” said Myers, 39. “Just getting to know the city and the chefs that are creatively driven behind it has really changed my outlook.”
Her account @Tacomafoodieontheloose was created in 2017, but it wasn’t until a year and a half ago that Myers started putting her energy into creating videos.
Her following grew, and Myers said restaurants started reaching out to collaborate earlier this year.
She’s also recently collaborated with another popular food account, @eatingtacoma, run by Tacoma native Bryan Hansen.
Hansen, 52, started his Instagram account in 2020, and said posting came naturally to him.
“I’ve always kind of documented stuff,” he said. “Just, ‘Hey, check this out,’ or ‘Hey, look at this.’”
The inspiration to promote local restaurants also came from Hansen’s own personal experience as a business owner. He owned a Taco Del Mar franchise from 2008 to 2012 and said business suffered during the recession.
“We were on the verge of bankruptcy, and so I know what these [restaurant owners] are going through,” Hansen said. “It’s so hard. It’s like the hardest thing you’re ever going to do.”
Hansen wants his posts to help restaurants thrive.
“I can go in there and say, ‘Hey, let’s get some people in here,’” Hansen said. “Let’s put a spotlight on this, and hopefully we can get some more customers.”
Along the same lines, Myers, Cobell and Hansen don’t think of themselves as food reviewers. None of them plan on posting anything negative about a restaurant online.
“Who cares if I like it?” Hansen said. “Decide for yourself. I’m just letting you know this place exists because you’ve probably driven by 15 times.”
The business side of content creation
These creators also aren’t looking to make a huge profits from their posts.
While Hansen said restaurants reach out to him occasionally to offer him a free meal, he hasn’t made any money from his posts and would be uncomfortable asking for payment.
Myers said she gets paid for posting some of the time when restaurants reach out to her, but she never requires it.
“I’m not trying to make money off these places,” Myers said.
Cobell said she also occasionally gets paid, mostly from corporate chains, but that it doesn’t feel true to her account.
“Sometimes people make assumptions about who I am or what I do, and they assume that everything I post is paid,” Cobell said. “Most of my page is my money.”
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When working with a restaurant, creators’ rates for posting have a lot to do with account analytics. Myers said while she has around 1,700 followers, she can get close to 50,000 people viewing her account each month.
Aside from the restaurants that reach out, Myers, Cobell and Hansen said they just decide to go wherever they feel like eating, whether that’s a new burger place down the street or a cocktail bar with friends.
A quick video can tell people a lot about a restaurant’s food and ambiance, so most content creators have gotten on board.
That’s not to say everyone has the same system when it comes to managing content.
Hansen said he tries to post two reels a week to Instagram and posts to his story every day.
Myers said she likes to post three times a week, and she also has an assistant to help her film videos, communicate with restaurants and coordinate her schedule.
Cobell, on the other hand, said she doesn’t schedule much in advance, or like to hit a certain number of videos per week. Instead, she said, she always records when she’s out to eat, so she can decide whether to post about it later.
Giving love to local favorites
When it comes to the group’s top restaurants, it’s just too hard to choose. They still managed to shout out some of their recent favorites.
Myers said Woven Seafood & Chophouse is one of her go-to’s for a nice dinner, and she appreciates the restaurant’s ties to the Puyallup Tribe since she’s Native herself.
When it comes to the most underrated food scene in Tacoma, Myers said the various food trucks around town deserve more love.
“I don’t think enough people go to them,” Myers said.
She especially likes Off the Rez, a Seattle-based food truck that occasionally comes to Tacoma and offers Native dishes like bannock, which is fried bread.
Hansen said his favorites include West 122, Bar Rosa and La Isabella.
He also applauded Tacoma’s burger scene, including places that are off the beaten path, like the restaurant Canteen by Camp Colvos inside 7 Seas Brewery and Taproom.
“They have really good burgers,” Hansen said. “Me and four friends were there and were like, ‘Wow, this is so shocking, this is so good.’”
For Cobell, she said she has a “deep love” of Mexican, Korean and Vietnamese food, along with all things breakfast.
Some of her best bites include the eggs Benedict at Casa de los Chilaquiles in University Place and the cow intestine Korean barbecue at Makchang Drama in Lakewood.
Cobell also gave a shoutout to Little Jerry’s Cafe, which she said doesn’t get enough love.
“They’re not anything spectacular or crazy, but they just feel like home,” Cobell said.
Fitting in time for content
While Myers, Hansen and Cobell put a lot of time and effort into their accounts, they have lives outside social media — including regular day jobs.
Myers does data entry, Hansen is a truck driver and Cobell works 12-hour shifts at an urgent-care facility.
“A lot of times it’s hard for me to prioritize Instagram when I have such long days,” Cobell said. “And then, of course, I always prioritize my family.”
That sentiment was especially true this past year when Cobell’s sister was recovering from brain surgery.
“I had to take a huge step back so I could care for her,” Cobell said. “That definitely [had an] impact on my page growth, and that’s OK with me.”
Occasionally, these creators feel comfortable opening up about some aspects of their personal lives online, like engagements or family milestones.
But it’s always going to be hard to get a full picture of anyone from their social media profile.
“People look at you, and they think they know you, and they don’t,” Cobell said. “What you’re getting on my page is me, the places I go and the food I like to eat.”
At the end of the day, these creators love what they do. They aren’t alone.
There are several other food-focused social media accounts in the Tacoma area, like @tacoma.aroma.flavor, @erika.taste.test, @peaks_and_eats and @simssipsnsavours.
With all the negatives that social media can bring, it can also create a community.
“Food brings people together,” Cobell said.
This story was originally published January 9, 2026 at 5:00 AM.
