Not Seattle

Sections

* popup/delivery/farmer's market

Things to eat outside the greater Seattle area.

North America

Vashon Island, WA

Everett, WA

San Juan Island, WA

Portland, OR

Eugene, OR

Boulder, CO

  • Boulder Dushanbe Teahouse
    • Very unique space donated by Boulder's sister city of Dushanbe, Tajikistan
    • Afternoon tea is good value for money

Vancouver, B.C and surroundings

  • Beta5 Chocolates
  • Medina (breakfast/brunch)
  • Nelson the Seagull (breakfast/brunch)
    • Really good sourdough
  • Purebread
  • Small Victory
  • Saku
    • The Zenbu Katsu set has a little bit of everything and is plenty for two
  • Elephant Garden Creamery
    • Fun Asian inspired flavors. Well executed, though flavors could be turned up a notch
  • The Lunch Lady
    • Solid option if you snag a reservation, not really worth waiting for
  • SUYO Modern Peruvain
    • Delicious, worth it
    • Some dishes kind of lost their Peruvian flavor profile, but still tasted great
  • Bonus Bakery
    • I've only had a single item: vegan chocolate chip walnut cookie at Turks Coffee Bar. It was incredible, though. If you're familiar with Monorail Espresso's chubbie, this was basically a chocolate chip walnut chubby
    • TODO: make a trip to their storefront
  • Oh Sweet Day! Bakeshop
    • Tried ube cheesecake and sampler pack of shortbreads. High quality, but the flavors could be stronger

Decent

  • Beaucoup Bakery
    • Had a few good items and not great ones, including some breads that felt stale despite us arriving within 30 minutes of opening
  • Angus T (croissants)
    • Interesting flavors, but croissants themselves not super fresh (maybe would be better earlier in the day)
  • Notch8 (afternoon tea)
    • Seems like they switch up the theme regularly. Solid option overall
  • Nero Waffle Bar
    • Simply lackluster and just makes me miss Off The Waffle when it had a Portland location
  • Neverland Tea Salon
    • Scones were decent. Savories were okay. Sweets were mediocre

Victoria, B.C

Decent

  • Crust Bakery
  • Fernwood Coffee
  • Hide + Seek Coffee
  • Saveur
  • Hazel's Ice Cream
  • Parachute Ice Cream
  • Pendray Inn Afternoon Tea
  • The Empress Hotel Afternoon Tea
  • Aura Afternoon Tea

Afternoon Tea - to try

  • Butchart Gardens
  • Abkhazi Teahouse

NYC

Houston

To Try/ retry

Austin, TX

Orange County-ish, CA

  • Banh Mi Che Cali
    • Nice baguettes
  • Baking Room
    • Asian-French pastries
    • Check opening hours! They're quite limited
  • Bakers & Baristas
    • Solid option for snacks (have yet to try brunch)
    • Make sure to make time to check out their little corner store in the same plaza, B&B Superette
  • Coffee &
    • I don't know where they source their cookies from, but they are top notch
    • Don't think I've actually had an espresso drink yet (: next time!

Decent

Big Island, Hawaii

Asia

Japan

  • Train station bento boxes
  • Bread
  • Manneken Waffles (liege waffles, chain)
  • Ichiran (ramen, chain)

Tokyo

  • Bepocah
    • The seco with wagyu was divine
  • Fuglen (coffee)
  • Nanaya (intense matcha ice cream)
  • Tonkatsu Maisen

Kyoto

  • Rakusho (traditional sweets, koi pond)
  • Walden Woods (coffee)
  • Yume Wo Katare (ramen)
    • Has a sibling restaurant in Boston
  • Musubi (some tiny place with amazing beef, small plates)

Uji

  • Green tea infused savory foods
  • Taihoan (city-run teahouse with tea ceremonies)
  • Tokichi (tea, desserts)
  • Tsuji Rihei (tea, desserts)
  • Masuda Chaho (matcha soft serve)

Singapore

  • Chicken rice
  • Roti prata
  • Nasi lemak
  • Kopi/ teh
  • Kaya toast breakfast set
  • Chili/salted egg/ black pepper crab
  • Durian

Taiwan

Taipei

Food

Cafe/Bakery/Dessert

  • Mama Inca ("Peruvian")

Chiayi

Food

Tainan

Cafe/Bakery/Dessert

  • 太陽牌冰品 (cubed ice desserts)
    • a childhood favorite
    • may even have been around since my dad's childhood?!
  • 吐司喵烘焙坊
    • bakery run by my cousin & aunt!
    • my favorite pineapple cakes ever (they might only make these on special order now, though)

South America

Peru

Lima

Restaurants

  • Quipas (2025)
    • Second best meal of the trip
    • Get all the desserts!
  • Maido (2025)
    • Best meal of the trip
    • Best non alcoholic beverage pairing I've ever had; delicious on their own and chosen to complement the dishes well
  • Merito (2025)
    • Not bad, but somewhat overrated, IMO. Non alcoholic pairing felt haphazardy thrown together. Many of the beverages didn't taste great, and none of them paired particularly well with the food. The servers also didn't provide much explanation of dishes unless prompted
  • Central (2017)
  • Isolina (2017)
    • 2025: there were lines out the door, so presumably it's still good
  • Kio (2025) (pan de chicharron) (chain)
  • El Chinito (2025) (pan de chicharron) (chain)
  • La Lucha (2025) (pan de chicharron) (chain)
    • pretty good fries too
  • Los Portales de Lima (Centro; not really a tourist area)
  • Tio Mario
    • Good option if Isolina is too busy, it's next door
    • Good anticuchos and picarones
  • Madame Tusan (2025) (chifa)
    • Like a Din Tai Fung for chifa
  • Tomoya Izakaya (2025) (nikkei)
    • Very nice rolls
  • Pardo's (2025) (pollo a la brasa) (chain)
  • El Aguajal (2025)
    • Inspired by food from the selva

Dessert/cafe

Coffee

Crema Volteada (flan) ranked list

  • Quipas (2025)
    • Super tasty
  • Los Reyes by Isolina (2025) (airport)
  • Cosme (2025)
    • Condensed milk flavor too strong
  • Merito (2025)
    • No egg white, so it was overly creamy/rich for me. But Reddit raves about it, so maybe it's just a matter of taste
  • Manolo (2025)
    • Just meh overall

Europe

France

Paris

England

London

Oxford

Moreton-in-Marsh, Cotswolds

The Netherlands

  • Fries
  • Fresh stroopwafels
  • Cheese

Amsterdam

Rotterdam

Spain

All the places we went to with varying levels of approval

Granada

  • La Autentica Carmela
    • Sit down restaurant, pretty good
  • Bañuelo Teteria
    • Tea and Middle Eastern pastries
  • Cafe Futbol
    • pretty good churros, mediocre hot chocolate
  • Bar Aliatar
    • bocadillos
  • Los Diamantes
    • local bar chain
  • Taberna La Tana
  • Casa Enrique (bar)
  • El Huerto San Anton (cafe)
  • Cafeteria Nueva Estacion (cafe)
  • Misc foods tried: jamon serrano/iberico, salmorejo, vermut, butifarra

Madrid

  • Pez Tortilla
  • Taberna Almeria
  • San Gines
    • good churros, mediocre hot chocolate
  • Bar La Campana
    • calamari sandwich
  • Cafe Pum Pum
    • super cute brunch spot
  • El Ñeru
    • Asturian restaurant, good cheesecake too. Tried: cachopo, fabada
  • La Mallorquina
    • Cafe on Plaza Mayor, pretty good. Don't get violet-flavored candies
  • Puerto Rico (actually a Spanish restaurant)
    • some really good tripe dish, squid with rice
  • Acid (cafe)
  • Pisco y Lima (Peruvian)
  • La Barra Dulce
    • palmeras, torrija
  • Restaurante Manolo 1934
    • cocido, rabo de toro, patatas bravas
  • Boconó

Valencia

  • La Marcelina
    • seafood by the beach, great paellasg
  • Misc food tried: bottled agua de Valencia, chufa nuts, horchata/orxata, farton, buñuelos

Barcelona

  • Cinc Sentits
    • Catalan focused tasting menu with local ingredients, 10/10 would recommend
  • Satan's Coffee Corner
  • Nomad Coffee
  • JonCake
  • La Cansaladeria (inside Mercat de Santa Caterina)
    • butchery with, oddly, really good cheesecake
  • Pincho J
    • don't get their cheesecake
  • Conesa Entrepans
  • Chök (chocolate/ dessert shop)
    • only got a truffle, but other stuff looked good
  • Brew Coffee
    • good cheesecake
  • Pepa Tomate
    • great value menu del dia; tried fideua
  • Tincset i mes