Where to Eat in Walla Walla: A Running List

The question we get most often isn't about wine. It's some version of "where should we eat?" — usually texted from the road, an hour out of town.

So here's the list, sorted by the meal you're trying to solve rather than by cuisine. It's a running one: places open, hours shift, and a few of our favorites keep schedules that only make sense to them. Check before you go, and ask us when you check in — we'll tell you what's good right now.

Bacon & Eggs on East Main is the one people line up for, and it's worth booking rather than waiting. Maple Counter on Alder is the family-run alternative — big menu, bigger pancakes, and enough food to carry you past lunch.

For pastry, Colville Street Patisserie is the counter to know — a classic French case with everything made in house down to the gelato. The chocolate and caramel torte is the order, and it's the easiest downtown stop when you want coffee and something sweet without committing to a sit-down breakfast.

If you don't mind a short drive, Roger's Bakery in College Place is about eight minutes out and does donuts, pastries, and breakfast sandwiches, with a mural outside that has been photographed a few thousand times.

Graze is the sandwich answer, with two locations — the Colville Street one has a patio and a mural. Get the pepper jack chicken sandwich; the soups and salads are made daily and the meats are cured in house.

Yamas on 1st is fresh, fast, and cheap for gyros, dips, and salads — in and out in twenty minutes if the afternoon is already spoken for. The Wiener & Bun, a hot dog window run by the Saffron team, is the best three dollars you'll spend downtown.

Out in College Place, The Happy Wanderer does big burritos and tacos with a long protein list and real vegetarian options — the kind of place you end up at twice in a week. And Cugini's on Wallula is an Italian deli and market worth timing a stop around, though the hours are genuinely limited.

Brasserie Four on East Main is the small French bistro that has anchored downtown for years. The oysters hold up against anything in Seattle, and the steak frites is the dish people describe in unreasonable terms.

Saffron Mediterranean Kitchen on West Main is the prettiest room in town and the most reliably excellent kitchen — seasonal Spanish and Italian plates, and mafaldine with olive-oil-cured albacore if it's on. Passatempo Taverna is the one to bring a group to: house-made pasta, rigatoni bolognese, a spicy pepperoni pizza that competes with anything in the Northwest, and gelato made in house.

Hattaway's on Alder does Southern cooking in a beautiful room — pimento cheese to start, fried chicken to follow, and a patio that's the right place to be on a warm evening. Walla Walla Steak Co. on North 2nd is the special-occasion steakhouse, with a scallop on the half shell to start and bananas foster finished tableside. And Public House 124 on Main is the unfussy one: a proper burger on local bread with 6 Ranch beef, plus craft cocktails and a good beer list.

Out Mill Creek Road, The Kitchen at Abeja serves five- and seven-course seasonal tasting menus with wine pairings, much of it built around herbs and produce from the garden outside the door. It's the meal you plan the trip around rather than the one you fit in.

Seats are limited and it books well ahead, so if it's on your list, reserve it before you reserve anything else.

Pine Cone Creamery on Colville makes small-batch ice cream with flavors that rotate monthly and vegan options in the case — honey lavender if they have it. Colville Street Patisserie covers the pastry-and-gelato end, and Passatempo's gelato is right there after dinner.

Every home in our collection has a full kitchen, and one of the better meals of a Walla Walla trip is the one you make yourself. Hit the Saturday farmers market downtown from May through October for peak-season produce and, in high summer, the sweet onions the valley is named for. Pick up provisions at Cugini's, grab a bottle from a downtown tasting room, and cook.

It's also the move on a Sunday or Monday, when a few of the best kitchens in town are closed.

Book Saturday dinner before you arrive, especially in spring and at harvest. Bacon & Eggs, Saffron, and Abeja are the three we'd reserve furthest ahead; most other places will find you a seat at the bar if you're flexible about time.

Stay downtown and nearly all of this is walkable — dinner, dessert, and a nightcap without moving the car. Book directly with our local team and we'll point you toward whatever's opened since we last updated this list.