Tacoma, more than a truck
Think the west side is only Seattle and Portland? Swallow your pride and give Tacoma a chance; you might be surprised.
Downtown Tacoma is strange. While the city is the size of Spokane, the core feels more urban, buildings wise. This can possibly be attributed to the lack of surface level parking lots, which I am just OK with.
On the flip side, the town feels deserted. Empty. Abandoned. Give Spokane this; you rarely feel alone there anymore, which you couldn’t say was the case just five years ago. I attribute the relatively good selection of restaurants we have downtown to this influx of people. Yes, many prefer to go to The Melting Pot, but to have spots like Mizuna, the .com, and even Neato after the less than stellar years Spokane has seen… Hey, knock on wood, good stuff.
That’s not to say Tacoma is a complete culinary wasteland. Take Pacific Grill for example, a place very much like Mizuna, both inside and out, and not a million miles away in terms of food quality either. I got a perfectly cooked sliced lamb flank in red wine sauce with a goat cheese mash. Awesome. My dining companion, meanwhile, had a filet mignon that looked equally nice.
The only issue with Pacific Grill was the prices. I mean, had Tacoma been New York, then fine, but come on… It’s Tacoma. Go outside of downtown or Old Town, and you’re borderline having bullets whizzing over your head. (Some might call that hyperbole.) For two meals with an appetizer and half a bottle of wine, I would have expected to pay $20-$30 less at a comparable restaurant in Spokane.
Still, you only live once, and you know what they say. “When in Tacoma…”
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