The 9 Best Restaurants on Bainbridge Island, Washington

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Bainbridge Island is located on Kitsap Peninsula in Washington. It’s just a 30-minute ferry ride from Seattle, but when you step off the ferry, it’s another world.

What you don’t have are lots of red lights, parking problems, and traffic. What you do have as you see all the sights the island has to offer is fantastic food and drink choices.

The Nine Best Restaurants on Bainbridge Island, Washington

Streamliner Diner

397 Winslow Way E. //  206-842-8595

Streamliner Diner is a good starting point among the restaurants on Bainbridge Island. They’ve been serving locals and visitors for over 22 years, so you know they must be good.

It’s next to the Chamber of Commerce and has brochures about places to see out front. Inside, you get a fantastic breakfast or lunch.

Their biscuits are legendary on the island. Most of their food is organic and/or locally sourced.

You can get fresh fruit if you are looking light or their Eggs Benedict with toasted English muffins, Canadian bacon, poached eggs, and homemade hollandaise served with hash browns if you have a big appetite. They have a light lunch menu, but breakfast is where they reign supreme.

Marketplace

 4738 Lynwood Center Rd. NE // 206-866-6122

The Marketplace sits on the village square at Pleasant Beach Village. The village is part local and part visitor’s resort. The heart of this village within a town is the Marketplace.

It is one of the best restaurants on Bainbridge Island, and it’s also a coffeehouse, bottle house, delicatessen, and taproom rolled into one pleasant meeting spot. The cafe in the Marketplace is open daily from 8 am to 3 pm. 

When I dined there, I had the Fort Ward Tuna sandwich. It was so big and tasty that I ended up sharing some scraps with a friendly doggie at the next table. Yes, you can bring your furry friend here and be welcomed.

We sat inside but the side opens to the square where there are tables with umbrellas for sun protection.

All around the square, there are sculptures, many of cats. Some guests sitting near one of the splash fountains were enjoying their lunch while the children played in the fountain where water sprang from a group of mice and a watching kitty. 

The Tap Room takes over from 3 pm to 8 pm on Sunday and Monday and to 9 Tuesday through Saturday. Wednesday is Trivia Time at The Marketplace Bar and Taproom from 7 to 9 pm. 

Earth & Vine is the wine bar at The Marketplace. It offers live music some evenings and Half-Price Bottle Night every Tuesday, so you can try a new vintage at a good price.

Hammy’s Burgers

4688 Lynwood Center Rd. NE // 206-201-3561

Those of us of a certain age remember cruising around town in our big-finned gas guzzlers and stopping at a burger shack for a burger and shake.

You youngsters missed those fun days, but you can still find them at Hammy’s Burgers just a few doors down from the Marketplace on the Square. At least the burgers and shakes. No one can afford the gas nowadays that those big eight-cylinder cars ate up then.

Hammy’s specializes in 100% Angus beef 1/4 lb. burgers, hand-pressed in-house daily and cooked to order. Just like in the old days, they come with French fries, tots, and onion rings. You can wash them down with a shake or malt.

They have the real thing like the John Wayne Burger, a 1/4 lb. patty, peppered bacon, grilled onions, your choice of cheese, bbq sauce, and a crispy onion ring, but they are keeping up with trends and serve Impossible Burgers for Vegans. 

The decor takes you back to the ’50s. It’s done up like a diner with a black and white tile floor, a Coke clock and posters, bikes of all different kinds on the walls, and a front view of one of the old gas guzzlers behind one of the booths.

Since they won “BEST BURGER ON BAINBRIDGE ISLAND” six years in a row, no wonder it’s one of the best restaurants on Bainbridge Island.

Bruciato

236 Winslow Way E. // 206-201-3462

Bruciato is at the opposite end of the spectrum. It’s an upscale Italian restaurant on Bainbridge Island with delicious pizzas so thin you cut them with scissors.

Plus, lots of other goodies. The pizza is cooked in a super-hot wood-fired oven and is so thin they are served with scissors instead of a knife to cut it. Their pizza is prepared the Napolitano way. They are meticulous in sourcing authentic meats and vegetables.

I watched one of the chefs hand-stretching the dough. This is authentic and carried to an extreme to give you a perfect pizza every time. 

We sampled several of the appetizers, including Olives e Focaccia, which is a pairing of marinated olives and wood-fired flatbread.

Our Caesar Salad was so fresh. The Polpettine, pork and beef meatballs, were the best I ever tasted.

We shared three pizzas.

One was with Proscuitto, another a seasonal basil pesto one. My favorite was the Soppressata e Asiago, topped with pomodoro, soppressata, mozzarella, asiago, basil, Mama Lil’s peppers, red onion, and grana Padano. 

Their desserts live up to the pizza standards.

Tiramisu with mascarpone, ladyfingers, Caffe Vita espresso, marsala, or Mezzaluna, a scrumptious giant hazelnut-chocolate calzone that melts in your mouth.

This is like a trip to Italy without the airfare. Definitely worth visiting this Italian gem among the restaurants on Bainbridge Island.

L’Atelier TR

8893 Three Tree Lane, Unit 7 // 360-649-5420

At L’Atelier TR, chocolate and waffles are their specialties. They do cakes and European pastries and even offer cooking classes, but their candy is a real treat. This is one of the sweetest restaurants on Bainbridge Island.

Chef Tamas Ronyai honed his chocolate craft working around the world as a chef. He creates a chocolate that makes you believe you are in heaven. Our special treat here was a Hazelnut Praline made with hazelnut caramel praline paste and milk chocolate combined, served in a little dark chocolate square.

Chef Tae Tran fell in love with waffles on a trip to Belgium. Liege and Brussels style share a place here.

Hey Day Farm

4370 Old Mill Road NE // 206-201-1770

Hey Day Farm’s main building is the turn-of-the-century Pederson farmhouse. The farmhouse and another early house were almost destroyed to build a development but were saved and now offer a dining and event place as well as a 25-acre sustainable family farm. It’s a unique find among the restaurants on Bainbridge Island.

Current owners Tifanie and Tadao Mitsui serve Community Dinners on most Thursday and Friday nights.

They’re small events accommodating less than 100 people, so if you want to go be sure to make a reservation.

Tad is the executive chef and is versatile. Our chicken drumstick, served atop an unusual Italian pasta, was fantastic.

Dessert was a hard choice between Cream Brulé and chocolate brownie cake à la mode with raspberry coulis.

Tifanie is the Farm House Beverage Director. Naturally, they serve a large selection of local wines.

The rustic barn serves as a farmhouse bakery.

There are flowers growing wherever you look.

I visited in September and the riot of colorful blooming flowers was unbelievable. They are a working farm with some vegetables growing in greenhouses and farm animals farther down the road from the farmhouse.

Pegasus Coffee Roasters.

131 Parfitt Way // 206-317-6914

Pegasus is a treasure for coffee connoisseurs. It began when David Dessinger moved to Bainbridge Island and was not happy with the coffee found locally.

In December 1979, he bought a roaster and equipment and began roasting his own beans on his boat. The popularity grew, and he moved his operation to a building. In the spring of 1980, he expanded and opened up the front of the building where he had been roasting the beans to become Pegasus Coffee House.

We visited the actual roasting area and learned all the things I never knew about coffee. David Adler and Matt Grady gave us a demonstration, including tasting several different kinds, from light to dark roast.

David explained Bainbridge Island is a sister city with Ometepe, an island in the middle of Lake Nicaragua. He told how purchasing the beans by Direct Trade protects farmers. Both islands have benefited from the sisterhood. 

Eagle Harbor Wine Company

8897 Three Tree Ln. NE // 206-842-4669

At Eagle Harbor, you have choices. Not only in the wine you drink, but how you enjoy their products.

You can sip a glass of the fruit of the vine sitting on the patio in front of the winery accompanied by the realistic bronze sculpture of a man lounging on a bench.

You can do a tour of the winery and can witness the complete winemaking process. If you visit in the fall, you can take part in the crushing.

On summer weekends, they offer music at the winery. There’s a downtown tasting room on Winslow Way for just a tasting and many local places serve their wines.

I loved their 2017 Reserve Merlot, but you have a choice of over 20 varieties. Since they age in French oak barrels and avoid plastic, many of the choices are well-aged wines. 

Highside Distillery

8895 Three Tree Lane NE // 206-708-2474

Highside Distillery is a family tradition. It grew out of a family trip to Jeff Glenn’s ancestral country. Jeff and his wife, Helen, and their son, Matt, took a trip to the Highlands and Speyside regions of Scotland.

The trip inspired this dream to become a reality. After a few years of preparation, in November 2018, they began producing gin and then amaro.

They will be releasing their first batch of sour mash whiskey in a few weeks, in late September or October 2022. Taking the tour was informative and fun.

Tasting even more so. We sampled several products. The sour mash whiskey tasted lovely. Just enough burn and a mellow taste.

My favorite was the Barrel Aged Gin that has been barrel rested in a combination of American Oak whiskey casks. It has juniper, orange, rose, bay leaf, cubeb berry, and vanilla flavors and is 164 proof.

The aging in bourbon barrels gives it an almost whisky-like taste. Smooth with a nice burn.

Restaurants on Bainbridge Island: Wrap Up

Remember when visiting Bainbridge Island, you are on Island Time, so relax and enjoy the tastes and flavors.

Visiting other destinations in Washington State? Check out our other guide:

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