A few years ago I made it my mission to find the best restaurants in Leavenworth, Washington. I ended up in this Bavarian-themed town multiple times and each time I was completely underwhelmed by the food scene. I’m just going to say it: There’s a lot of shitty food.
But I couldn’t believe it was all bad. So I just kept rotating where I ate and Yelping restaurants like mad. And slowly, I started finding the best places to eat in Leavenworth.
Route 2 — one of the only roads you can use to get to eastern Washington — runs right through Leavenworth, so if you ski or hike, you’ll find yourself here at some point. And if you like Christmas, you’ll definitely end up here to see the Christmas lights and snowy charm that take over downtown Leavenworth.
Don’t resign to eating mediocre food. Here are the best restaurants in Leavenworth, WA.
The Best Restaurants in Leavenworth, Washington
Mana
website | 1033 Commercial St | cuisine: PNW farm-to-table | dinner only | best for: a multi-course meal from a Top Chef contestant
When anyone asks me about Leavenworth restaurants, Mana is the first place I think of because I think it’s one of the best restaurants worth the drive from Seattle. It’s owned by Colin Patterson, one of the previous owners of the now defunct Sutra in Seattle (which is now Harvest Beat and one of my favorite vegan restaurants in Seattle).
Colin did a short stint on Top Chef Texas while still working at Sutra. Later he shared that he was going through a hard time, but after finding yoga he and his wife decided to move to a more remote part of Washington and open up a restaurant and yoga space.
Enter Mana. The concept of this restaurant is very similar to Sutra and Harvest Beat. It’s a multi-course meal celebrating locally sourced, quality ingredients. From the open-air kitchen, Colin prepares a gorgeous meal. And before it begins, he’ll talk about the farms he sourced from and the concept behind each dish.
Unlike Sutra and Harvest Beat, this place isn’t vegetarian or vegan.
But it definitely is veg-forward. Colin does the most interesting things, such as the time I had a play on a pastrami meat board made of beets.
My favorite part was when Colin came out with a plate of ingredients and asked us to guess what they are. We nailed all of them, obvi. It made my day when Colin looked at us impressed and said we were the only ones who got all of them right. What can I say, it’s that #emeraldpalate.