Now Covering Spokane's Food Scene

Foodie
Spokane

Discovering the dishes, chefs, and stories that make this city delicious.

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Find Your Next Meal

The Foodie Map

Tap “Find spots near me,” or pick a cuisine — or the kind of night you’re planning — to light up those restaurants on the map. Then scroll down for each spot’s full story: read our review, reserve a table, visit the website, or order to go.

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Best New Spot in Spokane

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Weekly Award

Dish of the Month

Every Monday we crown one dish — the plate that stopped us mid-bite and demanded a second look.

Winner
Pan-seared king salmon with crispy skin and basil pesto at Wild Sage Bistro, Spokane

August 2026

Pan-Seared King Salmon, Crispy Skin & Basil Pesto

Wild Sage Bistro

Downtown Spokane

Crackling-crisp skin over a silky pink fillet, draped in vivid basil pesto and set on garlicky greens with roasted carrots and a swipe of pan sauce. Wild Sage's farm-to-table kitchen turns one beautiful piece of fish into a quiet master class — proof you don't need fireworks to stop a table mid-conversation. One of the best dishes in Washington.

Chef Peter Froese of Gander & Ryegrass, Spokane

Chef Spotlight — August 2026

Peter Froese

Chef & Owner, Gander & Ryegrass

"My mom was one of those people who always had a bag of cookies, or a casserole in the freezer."

Peter Froese runs the most quietly ambitious kitchen in Spokane. At Gander & Ryegrass downtown, he turns Northern Italian technique and Inland Northwest ingredients into "The Marathon" — the city's only multi-course tasting menu, an unhurried evening of house-made pasta, local produce, and whatever the season is giving up. He learned the craft the hard way, interning in a Florence kitchen "peeling potatoes and mostly staying out of the way," but the warmth is pure Midwestern hospitality: a chef who cooks like your most generous friend, just with far more finesse.

Deals & Happy Hour

This Month's Best Bites & Sips

Four picks a month — the deals and standout spots we've checked ourselves. No sponsored slots, nothing we haven't confirmed.

Reader Poll

Best New Spot in Spokane

Anywhere that opened in the last year and a half — restaurants, bars, cafes, bakeries. Vote below, or write in a spot we missed.

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Follow Along

@thefoodiespokane

Fresh picks from the Spokane food scene

Rob Smith fly-fishing from a drift boat on the river
Rob Smith with a freshly caught trout on the riverbank
Rob Smith beside his raft on a mountain river

Meet the Curator

Rob Smith

Founder & Curator, Foodie Spokane

"The best meals of my life were never served in dining rooms — they were ladled out of roadside woks, pulled from clay ovens, and passed across mess-hall tables by people who cooked like it mattered. Spokane has that same heart. I'm just here to point at it."

Rob Smith's palate was forged on the move. Across a career in uniform, the military carried him from the spice souks of the Middle East to the night markets of the Pacific, from harbor-town kitchens on the Mediterranean to snow-dusted Christmas stalls in Europe. Wherever he landed, he did the same thing first: found where the locals actually ate. He learned early that the most honest cooking rarely arrives under a white tablecloth — it comes from a grandmother's back kitchen, a midnight food cart, a cook who's made the same dish ten thousand times and still tastes every batch.

That obsession became a career. For 26 years Rob ran restaurants — learning the trade from every side: the line, the books, the dining room, and the impossible Saturday-night rush. He gave back to the industry that raised him, serving on the boards of both the Montana Restaurant Association and the Greater Spokane Valley Chamber of Commerce, where he championed the independent operators who give a region its flavor. To this day, friends know not to make plans the nights he hosts — a "quick dinner" has a way of unfolding into a five-hour, multi-course negotiation with whatever's in season.

Today he brings that globe-spanning hunger home to the Inland Northwest. Rob is convinced Spokane is one of the most underrated food cities in the Pacific Northwest — full of chefs quietly doing world-class work without the spotlight they've earned. Foodie Spokane is his answer to that: an honest, chef-first love letter to the city's kitchens. And when he's not eating his way across town, you'll find him in the garden, coaxing heirloom tomatoes and unusual greens out of Spokane soil — because, he'll tell you, every great dish starts with one great ingredient.

  • 26 years running restaurants
  • Marine veteran
  • Cooked across four continents
  • Former board · Montana Restaurant Association
  • Former board · Greater Spokane Valley Chamber
  • Heirloom gardener

Our Mission

About Foodie Spokane

Spokane's food scene is having a moment — and someone needs to be paying attention.

Foodie Spokane was born from a simple belief: this city's chefs, restaurants, and food artisans deserve the same quality coverage that Portland, Seattle, and Boise are getting. Not as an afterthought in a regional publication, but as the main event.

We eat everywhere — from the white-tablecloth spots on South Hill to the taco trucks on Sprague. We profile the chefs who are quietly doing extraordinary work. We award the dishes that stop us mid-bite. And every week, we share what we've found with a growing community of people who care about eating well in Spokane.

This isn't a Yelp alternative or an advertising platform. It's food journalism — local, opinionated, and always honest.

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Chef-First

We celebrate the people behind the plates — their stories, techniques, and creative vision.

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Locally Rooted

100% Spokane and the Inland Northwest. We know these neighborhoods and these kitchens.

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Editorially Independent

No pay-to-play. No sponsored rankings. Our opinions are earned, never bought.

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Quality Obsessed

From ingredient sourcing to plating, we care about every detail — and we think you do too.

Get in Touch

Contact Foodie Spokane

Interested in advertising, want your restaurant featured, or have a tip? Drop us a note — it goes straight to Rob.