The Ultimate Seattle for Foodies Bucket List

Since Seattle was made for food lovers, I decided to create this Seattle for foodies bucket list.

To lay out just how serious Seattle takes food, let me highlight a few facts. It’s illegal not to compost in Seattle. Plastic bags are also illegal. Sustainable agriculture is everywhere, including individual urban gardens, community pea patches, and restaurant farms. There are a ton of foodie events in Seattle every month. Farmers markets run strong here and the opportunities for people to get hands on with food are endless.

So if you are like me and have a deep love for food beyond just what you put in your mouth, you need to read this article. I outline all the foodie activities in the Seattle area perfect for Seattle foodies and visitors alike.

Seattle Foodies Bucket List

Here’s your ultimate Seattle foodies bucket list. How many can you check off?!

Go on a self-guided food tour

The most important Seattle for foodies bucket list item is getting acquainting with the city’s incredible restaurant scene. One of the easiest ways to do that is to take a self-guided Seattle food tour of some of the best foodie neighborhoods in Seattle. Or visit the iconic Seattle landmark and find the best eats your own Pike Place Market tour. This will help you hit up multiple restaurants at once on a food crawl of the city’s best restaurants.

Have longer than one day? Let me plan a custom foodie getaway for you!

Browse cookbooks or attend an author talk

One of my favorite local shops in Seattle is The Book Larder. It’s a cookbook store and community kitchen owned by local food lover, Lara Hamilton. It’s like a library for cookbook enthusiasts, with just about any chef or author you can think of represented.

But what I love is that The Book Larder doesn’t just sell you books. It invites you to learn more about the authors and cooking techniques through author talks, book tours, and cooking classes. I volunteer during author talks, and between volunteering and attending events myself I’ve met chefs like Mario Batali, Marcus Samuelsson, Michael Solomonov, and J. Kenji Lopez-Alt. If you geek out over chefs, sign up for their newsletter to be the first to know about upcoming events.

Take a cooking class

Cooking class options are endless when exploring Seattle for foodies. Besides The Book Larder, one of my favorite places to take a cooking class in the Emerald City is The Pantry in Ballard, owned by ex-pastry chef for Delancey, Brandi Henderson. You’ll learn amazing techniques like how to make pizza at home (hint, Delancey shares a kitchen and Brandi is an ex-employee, so you know it’s good!), cheese making, baking, and more.

The instructors are top notch, but what I truly love about The Pantry is the ambiance and strong sense of brand that it has. You’ll lust after the kitchen space and feel inspired by its white subway tile, open shelves, and long farmhouse table.

The other place I frequent for cooking classes is PCC, a co-op grocery store in Washington. While it doesn’t offer the same ambiance as The Pantry, both places share a lot of the same instructors.

I also find that PCC classes are more affordable and don’t sell out as quickly.

You’ll find courses for all age levels (seriously, I took a class with my 4-year-old niece) that are labeled as hands on, demo, or dinner. Some of my favorite regular courses are “How to Taste” by local cookbook author Becky Selengut, pasta making with Iole Aguero, and any Chinese cooking class with Christina Chung. Also, if you live in the area, consider becoming a PCC member. You get cheaper class rates and an awesome paper every month with recipes and agriculture news for a one-time fee of under $100.

Another option that Seattle for foodies who want to learn artisan techniques is The Works Seattle. They offer a ton of DIY classes including crafts, but they also offer foodie classes like fermenting, boba, and gardening both virtually and in person.

If you’re looking for cooking classes on the Eastside of Seattle, check out Cody Castiglia’s classes through his catering company, Della Terra, in Snohomish.

Take a foodie field trip

You can learn a ton about food beyond a cooking class by attending a food-related field trip. The Pantry hosts these every once in a while, where you can visit a farm, trail, or working space of a food artisan or evangelist in the area. For example, I took a honey-making class through The Pantry where we visit the Ballard Bee Company’s working space to learn about bees and harvesting honey.

If you’re looking for an overnight option, check out my Washington food retreats. I take small groups of food lovers to under-the-radar foodie destinations throughout Washington state, where we meet farmers and small producers, tour their operations, and taste until we bust.

If you prefer day trips, another option is The Field Trip Society, which offers DIY classes for adults. I took their truffle-hunting class with Dawn and Lidia of Truffle Feasts and absolutely loved it. We got to take home whole Washington truffles and she taught us how to make a ton of stuff with it, including truffle ice cream, almonds, butter, and more!

If truffle hunting isn’t your thing, The Field Trip Society also hosts foraging trips, off-beat cooking techniques like fermentation, and other artisan craft classes.

Visit an edible food forest

Seattle has it’s own urban food forest right in its backyard, ready for foraging. The Beacon Hill Food Forest has about 2 acres of community-run, edible urban gardens. You’ll find an edible arboretum, nut grove, berry patch, and community garden where people can rent plots of land to grow their own food. You can pick your own goodies or take part in one of their educational classes, like learning to compost.

If you’re from the area, you can also volunteer for work parties and get hands on experience in different farming techniques. There’s even a stewardship program for those who want a more consistent avenue for honing their agriculture skills.

Go foraging in Seattle parks or Washington trails

One of my favorite Seattle for foodies activities is foraging. I was introduced to local forager, Langdon Cook, through a field trip I took with The Pantry a few years ago. He partners with various organizations and businesses to educate people on foraging your own plants, berries, and mushrooms. I took his course on Tiger Mountain in Issaquah a few times, where he taught us how to forage things like stinging nettles, miner’s lettuce, fiddleheads, and berries right on the trail. He also runs foraging excursions in Seward Park right here in Seattle.

Another option is The Truffle Dog Company, which does online and in-person truffle hunting classes throughout the Seattle area as far as the tiny Lummi Island.

Try Pacific Northwest seafood

I have a whole article dedicated to the best fish restaurants in Seattle, but if you only have a chance to try a few, make sure you prioritize oysters and sushi.

For oysters, there are a few go-to restaurants in Seattle. My favorite spot in the city for oysters is The Walrus and The Carpenter in Ballard. They get fresh oysters from Hama Hama because the owner’s husband works there and they have a good oyster happy hour.

Other options for oysters include Westward right on beautiful Lake Union which has incredible water views in Seattle. Or try Taylor Shellfish Farms, which has oyster bars in Capitol Hill and Queen Anne right under the Space Needle.

In terms of sushi, the must-go place is Sushi Kashiba in Pike Place Market. This sushi restaurant is owned by the famous Shiro Kashiba who studied under Japan’s famous Jiro of Netflix’s documentary “I Love Sushi”. The omakase here will absolutely blow your mind and wonder what kind of sushi you’ve been eating your whole life!

Another great sushi option in Seattle is Mashiko in West Seattle. They were the first spot in the city to source sustainable sushi from the Pacific Northwest, so it’s a great way to get fresh fish right from our waters.

If you want to try your hand at cooking fresh fish, make sure to get it at one of the best places to buy seafood in Seattle. Hint: it isn’t at Pike Place Market!

Catch your own seafood

If you have time to explore Pacific Northwest seafood beyond restaurants, consider catching your own!

Langdon also introduce me to the world of foraging your own seafood. He runs geoducking excursions through Bainbridge Island’s Park & Rec Classes, but you can also visit shellfish farms like Hama Hama or Taylor Shellfish to pick you own oysters. You can also acquire your own permit to catch crabs at multiple locations around the Pacific Northwest.

Learn how to identify edible culinary mushroom

Did you know there’s a Puget Sound Mycological Society? I didn’t either until a few years ago, but you can join for $30/year and get access to mushroom hunting field trips and edible culinary mushroom identification classes.

U-pick your own fruit

My family has a running joke that we do a version of u-pick every season. In the winter, it’s the Christmas tree. In the fall, it’s pumpkins or apples. And in the summer, it’s all about those berries. Obviously u-pick is a must on your Seattle bucket list!

We typically go berry picking three times a summer: once for strawberries, once for raspberries, and once for blueberries. Here’s a good list of u-pick berries, organized by Washington county. We typically make the rounds to support different farms!

Note: If you are like me and love apple picking, make sure to plan a trip to central or eastern Washington and pay attention to the seasons. There’s only a few good apple orchards in western Washington and the season is super inconsistent. For example, we go on a wine trip every fall and plan apple picking around that. One of our avorite apple-picking destinations is Bill’s Berry Farm near the Walla Walla wineries.

Learn how to grow your own urban farm

There are a lot of opportunities to learn how to grow your own urban farm or garden. I mentioned the Beacon Hill Food Forest offers classes every so often. There’s also the Tilth Alliance, which runs a bunch of workshops and events aimed at agriculture education. If you’re interested in checking out neighborhood homes, Sustainable Ballard host an annual edible gardens tour.

21 Acres in Woodinville also offers farm tours and farming, gardening, and beekeeping classes to help you flex that green thumb. This campus and farm for sustainability also offers kids camps and cooking classes If you go, be sure to check out the bad-ass compostable toilets!

Go on a beer crawl

Seattle has a serious brewery scene that is perfect for Seattle foodies. While there are a ton throughout the city, my favorite area to go is to visit the best Seattle breweries in Ballard. There are about 15 breweries all within walking distance of each other, so it makes for a perfect destination to try a bunch at once. Make sure to get tasters so you can try a lot of different beer varieties!

Attend a foodie event

Seattle has so many great restaurants and bars that it can be overwhelming to try them all. One of the things I learned early on is that you can get samples from a lot of local restaurants and bars all in one go if you attend one of the many food and drink events in Seattle. I curate a calendar of all of these every month, but some of my favorites include the Seattle Wine & Food Experience in February and St. Nick’s in December.

Partake in the Washington’s wine culture

No Seattle for foodies bucket list is complete without mentioning wine. Washington is the second largest producer of wine in the United States behind California, so visiting tasting rooms is an absolute must.

You can explore one of the many Seattle Urban Wineries in Pioneer Square or SODO, or head to one of the best Seattle wine stores to do a tasting right in the city. Most wine stores offer tastings, but it’s also a big trend here to offer a wine shop/wine bar hybrid. Make sure to seek out the best Washington state wines when you go!

If you have time for a day trip, visit the wineries in Woodinville about 30 minutes outside of Seattle. There are almost a hundred tasting rooms from large and small producers very close to each other.

For a weekend trip, visit the Walla Walla wineries or Lake Chelan wineries. Both wine regions are between 3-4 hours east of Seattle and offer gorgeous wineries with views of the arid eastern Washington landscape.

More Activities for Foodies Near Seattle

Hopefully you’re ready to start knocking off some of the Seattle for foodies bucket list items mentioned above. If you’re still looking for more ideas that revolve around eating, here are some more ideas!

• Take a Road Trip to Restaurants Worth the Drive From Seattle
• Visit the Best Fine Dining Restaurants in Seattle
• Explore the Best Restaurants in Leavenworth
• Take a Road Trip to Visit Oregon Wine Country
• Visit Skagit Valley, a Huge Foodie Destination
• Go on a Food Crawl of Tacoma

Photo credits: Book Larder, The Pantry, Beacon Hill Food Forest, mushroom foraging, fiddle heads, honey harvesting, food event