5 Best Restaurants in Long Beach, The Olympic Peninsula and Washington Coast

Since the early '90s, this cheerful art-filled spot has been a go-to on the peninsula for celebrating special occasions and simply enjoying stellar comfort food with locally sourced ingredients. Consider kicking off your meal with goat cheese fondue or a half pound of Willapa Bay clams steamed in white wine, before graduating to flash-fried razor clams with seasonal vegetables, or ravioli stuffed with wild mushrooms and topped with tomato sauce. Rich chocolate rum truffle cheesecake is a popular dessert.

A tiny gem set in a weathered-shingle cottage within walking distance of the beach, MyCovio's is one of the few dining options on the upper portion of the Long Beach Peninsula, and it's well worth the drive for sublime pastas and other Italian-inspired fare. The cioppino swimming with local seafood is stellar, as is spaghetti with matsutake mushrooms and slow-roasted seasonal vegetables. Next door, the owners run a cute waffle shack that's open for breakfast and lunch.

The dark-wood-paneled walls, floor-to-ceiling stained-glass windows, and marble café tables inside this venerable spot attest to its history of feeding locals and visitors for more than a century. Although it calls itself a pub, the Shelburne has a casually sophisticated look and vibe, and stellar yet reasonably priced Pacific Northwest fare to go with it—consider the miso-cured sablefish with bok choy and pickled shiitakes, or crispy braised pork with polenta and a blackberry gastrique (a sauce that's sweet and sour). Brunch is a popular affair on weekends. The restaurant is inside a small boutique hotel with comfy rooms.

Set inside a whimsically decorated 1905 railroad station with plenty of vintage train memorabilia and historic photos, this romantic yet unpretentious bistro serves up sophisticated Northwestern fare with international influences. Sustainably sourced seafood figures in a number of dishes, from wild-caught calamari tossed with a Thai-style cilantro peanut sauce to razor clams sautéed in garlic and white wine and served with bucatini pasta. You'll also find some hearty grills on the "land food" section of the menu.

Most of the seats in this third-floor restaurant at the Adrift Hotel offer panoramic views of the dunes and the ocean beyond, making this a popular—though sometimes a bit crowded—place for breakfast, lunch, and dinner in summer and on weekends. It's worth persevering for a reservation, though, as the creative renditions of classic beach fare are consistently excellent, from roasted mushroom-and-chèvre crepes and sticky salted-caramel buns in the morning to roasted half chicken with smoked-honey jus and charred-broccoli pizzas with roasted squash and smoked provolone later in the day.