Unearth The Voyage
The Pacific Northwest is basically a seafood lover’s dream road trip waiting to happen. From working fishing docks in small coastal towns to buzzing urban raw bars, this region serves up some of the freshest catches in North America.
Whether you’re chasing Dungeness crab, slurping oysters, or tracking down wild salmon, there’s a city on this list with your name on it. Pack a bib and a serious appetite.
Seattle, Washington
Pike Place Market has had fishmongers throwing salmon since 1930, and yes, it’s still just as entertaining as it sounds. Seattle is the undisputed heavyweight of the Pacific Northwest food world, and seafood is its championship belt.
Wild salmon, Dungeness crab, and freshly shucked oysters are basically the holy trinity here.
I spent a Saturday morning wandering the market with no plan and left with a bag of smoked salmon and zero regrets. The waterfront stretches out from Pike Place, and the seafood options just keep coming the further you walk.
Start at the market, grab a coffee because Seattle, then follow your appetite down to the waterfront stalls. The city rewards anyone willing to eat their way through it one shellfish at a time.
Honestly, one trip is never enough.
Portland, Oregon
Portland is technically landlocked, but nobody told its chefs. This city eats like it has a fishing boat parked out back, with oysters, Dungeness crab, and fresh poke popping up across the food scene in seriously impressive ways.
Local coverage has called out Portland’s raw bar culture for years, and for good reason. You can build an entire progressive seafood night here without repeating a restaurant.
Start raw, move to chowder, finish with crab, and call it a masterpiece.
The trick is treating Portland like a seafood scavenger hunt rather than a single-destination dinner. Food carts, upscale spots, and neighborhood bistros all bring something different to the table.
Portland proves you don’t need an ocean view to serve world-class seafood. The city’s creativity with PNW ingredients is genuinely hard to beat, and the portions are never shy either.
Vancouver, British Columbia
Vancouver doesn’t just have a food scene. It has a seafood identity baked into its DNA, and Granville Island Public Market is the best proof of that claim.
Vancouver Island oysters, buttery sablefish, and wild salmon appear on menus across the city with the confidence of a place that knows exactly what it’s working with. The market is a must-do first stop before you even think about booking dinner.
Wander, taste, buy something smoked, and then figure out where to eat that evening.
The city blends Asian culinary traditions with Pacific Northwest ingredients in ways that genuinely surprise you. A salmon dish here might come with a Japanese-influenced glaze or a bold chili sauce, and it just works.
Go market-first, soak in the harbour views, then book a seafood-focused dinner somewhere with a killer wine list. Vancouver doesn’t do seafood halfway.
Richmond (Steveston), British Columbia
Steveston is the kind of fishing village that makes you feel like you’ve accidentally stumbled onto a movie set, except the seafood is very, very real. Working boats, active docks, and vendors selling straight off the catch make this place feel gloriously unfiltered.
Spot prawn season in late spring is basically a local holiday here. People line up at the docks to buy prawns that were swimming hours earlier, and the excitement is completely justified.
Fresh spot prawns need almost no preparation to be extraordinary.
Planning your visit around spot prawn season is the single best seafood move you can make in the entire Pacific Northwest. Salmon and crab round out the must-try list nicely.
Steveston rewards the traveler who does a little homework before showing up. This isn’t just a detour.
For seafood lovers, it’s the whole point of the road trip.
Victoria, British Columbia
Victoria’s Inner Harbour is practically begging you to sit down with a plate of oysters and stay a while. The waterfront dining scene here is relaxed, beautiful, and deeply committed to showcasing local seafood done right.
Ocean Wise-minded menus show up regularly in Victoria’s restaurant scene, which means the city takes sustainable sourcing seriously alongside flavor. Oyster bars with harbour views are not hard to find, and frankly, that combination should be illegal for how good it is.
My personal move here is a slow harbour stroll that ends at whatever oyster bar has the best view that evening. Seafood platters loaded with locally sourced fish and shellfish are the ideal way to sample everything at once.
Victoria has a charm that makes every meal feel slightly more special than it probably deserves. But the oysters absolutely deserve it.
Book a waterfront table before you arrive.
Newport, Oregon
Newport doesn’t hint at its seafood identity. It announces it with a registered trademark.
Self-proclaimed Dungeness Crab Capital of the World is a bold title, but the bayfront backs it up without breaking a sweat.
The commercial fishing presence here is serious and visible. Boats come in loaded, markets stay stocked, and restaurants on the bayfront serve crab in every format you could want.
Steamed, cracked, in a bisque, piled on a plate with butter, you name it and Newport has it covered.
Eating crab on the bayfront while watching working fishing boats is one of those simple, deeply satisfying travel experiences that sticks with you. There’s no pretension here, just excellent seafood in a hardworking coastal town that earned its reputation.
Newport is the spot you tell everyone about after the trip. Skip the fancy restaurants and go straight for the docks.
That’s where the good stuff lives.
Astoria, Oregon
Astoria sits right at the meeting point of the Columbia River and the Pacific Ocean, which means its menu options are pulling double duty from both directions. Crab, sturgeon, and salmon all make regular appearances, and the town’s historic waterfront adds serious atmosphere to every meal.
There’s something genuinely cool about eating locally caught fish while looking out at the river that delivered it. Astoria has that rare quality of feeling like a real working town rather than a tourist performance, and that authenticity carries into its restaurants.
The local fish specials change with the season, so asking what’s freshest is always the right move here. Dungeness crab is the star, but don’t sleep on whatever river fish the kitchen is excited about that week.
Pair your meal with the waterfront views and maybe a quick history lesson about the town. Astoria is quietly one of the most rewarding stops on any PNW seafood tour.
Tacoma, Washington
Tacoma gets overlooked on Pacific Northwest food lists far too often, and that’s honestly a gift for the people who already know about it. The waterfront near Point Defiance puts Puget Sound right in your face, and the seafood menus match the setting with confident Northwest classics.
Fish and shellfish prepared in straightforward, well-executed styles are the move here. Tacoma’s dining scene has grown considerably in recent years, bringing more creative chefs into the mix without losing the honest, ingredient-first approach the region does best.
Timing your dinner for golden-hour views over the Sound is a completely legitimate strategy and highly recommended. The light goes orange, the water glitters, and suddenly your plate of grilled fish feels like the best meal you’ve ever had.
Tacoma earns its spot on this list through sheer quality and a waterfront that gives Seattle a quiet run for its money. Don’t skip it.
Olympia, Washington
Olympia is the quiet overachiever of the PNW oyster world. The South Sound shellfish culture runs deep here, and local producers like Chelsea Farms have put Olympia’s oyster game firmly on the national radar with gems like the Chelsea Gem oyster.
The downtown oyster bar scene is small but seriously good. Raw, grilled, baked, the city serves oysters in every format and does all of them well.
An oyster-forward weekend in Olympia is one of the most underrated food trips you can take in Washington State.
What makes Olympia special is the connection between the producers and the restaurants. You can trace your oyster from the South Sound waters to your plate in a way that feels genuinely local rather than just a marketing story.
Bring someone who claims they don’t like oysters. Olympia has converted tougher critics.
The Chelsea Gem alone might change a few minds before the appetizers are finished.
Bellingham, Washington
Bellingham comes with a built-in seafood road trip attached, and Chuckanut Drive is the scenic route that makes it all worthwhile. Local travel guides practically lay out the shellfish itinerary for you, with stops along the drive and nearby Salish Sea shellfish spots filling out a genuinely excellent day.
Whatcom County’s position along the Salish Sea means oysters and other local shellfish are never far away. The drive itself is one of the prettiest stretches of road in Washington, and combining it with a shuck-heavy meal at the end is a formula that’s hard to improve on.
Bellingham has a laid-back college-town energy that makes it easy to spend more time than planned just wandering and eating. Commit to the full Chuckanut Drive experience, stop wherever looks good, and save room for a proper shellfish spread at dinner.
This is the kind of trip that gets planned again before you’ve even driven home.
Anacortes, Washington
Anacortes wears its seafood town status without any effort because it genuinely earned it. Marinas, working boats, and restaurants that lead with fresh Northwest seafood are the default setting here, not the exception.
The water views from waterfront dining spots in Anacortes are legitimately spectacular, with the San Juan Islands sitting right there in the background doing their best postcard impression. The food keeps up with the scenery, which is saying something.
The golden rule in Anacortes is always asking what just came in that day. Menus shift with the tides and the season, and whatever is freshest will always be the best order.
Crab, fish, shellfish, the options rotate based on what the local boats brought back, which is exactly how it should work. Eat on the marina, watch the waterfront activity, and let the meal go at whatever pace feels right.
Anacortes is the kind of town that earns a return visit.
Port Townsend, Washington
Port Townsend has a mood that’s hard to explain until you’re standing in it. Victorian buildings, ferry docks, salt air, and a waterfront that makes every meal feel like it belongs in a slow-travel magazine.
The seafood fits the town perfectly.
Oysters and chowder are the comfort-food backbone of Port Townsend’s seafood identity, and the seasonal fish specials keep things interesting throughout the year. This isn’t a place that needs to impress you with flash.
The quality does the work quietly and confidently.
Walking off dinner along the docks afterward is practically mandatory. The Olympic Peninsula side of Puget Sound has a stillness to it that’s genuinely restorative, and Port Townsend captures that feeling better than most towns its size.
It’s a short ferry ride from Seattle but feels like a completely different world. Plan at least one overnight stay so you can catch both dinner and a morning chowder.
You’ll thank yourself.
Hood River, Oregon
Hood River pulls off a neat trick by being completely landlocked while still making a strong case for a spot on a seafood road trip list. Sitting in the Columbia River Gorge, it serves as the ideal scenic pit stop between bigger PNW cities, and its seasonal menus often highlight Pacific Northwest fish in creative ways.
The real draw here is the combination of jaw-dropping landscape and solid food. Waterfalls, viewpoints, and a Columbia River backdrop make every meal feel like it comes with a free upgrade.
Look for salmon and other regional fish on whatever seasonal menu catches your eye.
Hood River works best as a deliberate add-on rather than a standalone destination for seafood. Build it into a road trip between Portland and the coast, stop for a scenic lunch, and leave feeling like you got the bonus level of the trip.
The gorge views alone justify the detour, and the fish makes it a no-brainer.
