Across the Salish Sea, while you inform people you’re headed to Lilliwaup, they know what it means. With a inhabitants of simply over 200 folks, this tiny seaside village on Hood Canal is house to a pet meals retailer, a mixture common retailer/motel, and Hama Hama.
The 124-year-old Hama Hama Oyster Firm provides bivalves to big-name seafood homes in Seattle and eating places throughout the state. From its rural oasis alongside Freeway 101 (really a couple of miles north of Lilliwaup correct), Hama Hama additionally serves anybody who pulls over to the Oyster Saloon. Though oyster farms abound within the Salish Sea’s feathery inlets and canals, few others promote ready oysters on-site, and even fewer provide dine-in providers.
Don’t anticipate white tablecloths, although. The Oyster Saloon is definitely sort of the other of a saloon, in that it has no roof or partitions — though it does have beer. The eating room is a collection of A-frame plywood huts set on the seaside amongst transport trailers and oyster-harvesting gear, flanked by low, white hills of spent oyster shells on one facet and oyster beds on the opposite the place farmers pluck your meal from the water. It’s all a part of the intense farm-to-table expertise.
“It’s air, it’s the wooden smoke,” head chef Dillon Pennell instructed Eater in 2025. “I don’t assume we’d ever be very focused on sterilizing it to the purpose of shoehorning it into the underside of a apartment in Seattle. It could lose among the spirit.”
The principle constructing homes the restaurant kitchen and the lovely, flower-filled farm retailer, the place you’ll discover stay mollusks by the pound, house-made mignonette, and grab-and-go ready meals. Out again are the eating shelters, farm operations, and — climate allowing — the seasonal Stump Bar, which serves numerous ready drinks like mulled wine, sangria, and micheladas. The Stump Shack meals truck can also pop up, promoting objects like Buffalo fried oysters or Kiwi-style crumbed rockfish and chips.
The picket shelters, which seat two to 6 folks, are geared up with picnic tables, jam jars of flowers, and bottles of sizzling sauce. Heaters make them cozy, however there’s nonetheless some direct publicity to the salt air. Lilliwaup is basically cloaked by the Olympic rainforest on three sides, so off-summer visitors ought to deliver a coat. When it’s not pissing rain, discover a seat by the great large fireplace pit on the seaside, the place visitors chat over beers earlier than and after meals.
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Oysters, naturally. An ordinary fee of $75 per desk will get you a dozen uncooked oysters and a dozen roasted (though it’s also possible to ask the restaurant to modify that up). Alongside melony Kumamotos and mineral-forward native Olympias, the home Hama Hama and Blue Pool varietials are clear and cucumbery, with the previous leaning creamy and vegetal and the latter leaning vibrant and briny. The menu additionally highlights seasonal seafood, and you may reliably discover native Dungeness claw clusters, clam and shrimp chowder, and creamy smoked salmon brandade, served with a baguette for dippin’. An inventory of specials would possibly embrace San Francisco-style Viet garlic noodles with a complete roasted Dungeness crab or perhaps steamed Manila clams with chorizo, chickpeas, inexperienced chile, and roasted tomato. There are additionally grilled cheese sandwiches for the children (and adults).
In your approach out, purchase your self a Hama Hama rosewood shucking knife to proceed the seafood feast at house, together with a branded flannel. Très grunge.
The half-sheltered oyster shanties do nothing to discourage the crowds from Hama Hama’s pristinely recent shellfish, so reserving a desk prematurely is strongly beneficial. Reservations open on Tock at 9 a.m. on Mondays. Stroll-ins are typically obtainable, if you wish to press your luck. When you strike out, you may all the time get takeout from the overall retailer. The saloon is closed Monday by means of Thursday.
Hama Hama is open all 12 months. Washington state’s oysters are at peak taste and plumpness within the winter. However if you wish to go to seasonal sights in different cities, the tourism season begins round Might, when the rain begins to let up. Hama Hama additionally provides dig-your-own-shellfish Farm Days within the spring: Your pay as you go ticket buys you admission for 2 adults, a 5-gallon bucket to hold your haul, and assist from specialists who can train you methods to correctly harvest clams and oysters. No canines allowed, however youngsters are welcome.
There are two most important methods to Lilliwaup from Seattle: You’ll be able to drive or take the ferry. Inside these choices, you may select your individual journey amongst numerous branching routes.
When you favor to drive, head south to Tacoma, whereupon you should make your resolution: The primary approach is to cross the Tacoma Narrows Bridge ($4.50–$5.50 toll for many automobiles). On the opposite facet, take a slight southwestern detour to rural Fox Island, the place you may search the quiet seashores for “clay child” formations, or take a look at the gathering of folks artwork, Native American artifacts, and WWII memorabilia on the Fox Island Historic Society. When you’re not consuming at Hama Hama the identical day, head to the fabulous Zog’s Pub, hidden inside a Shell gasoline station, which provides pizza, burgers, deli sandwiches, and a wonderful beer backyard. Then head north to Port Orchard, zag southwest to Union, and observe the western Hood Canal shoreline to Lilliwaup. The drive takes about two hours from Seattle.
Alternatively, you may keep on I-5 by means of Tacoma and head southwest to Olympia, the place you’ll connect with 101 and observe because it curves north alongside the Hood Canal coast to Lilliwaup. Simply west of Olympia, the Capitol State Forest provides a scrumptious smorgasbord of climbing trails; McLane Creek Nature Pond Path, a 4-mile loop, is very nice for youths, who can spot newts, beavers, birds, and migrating chum salmon. A Uncover Move is required for parking. This route takes about an hour and 45 minutes from Seattle.
Find out how to get there by ferry
It’s value baking in additional time to take a ferry to benefit from the ocean views and lower off some driving time. Fares fluctuate relying in your automobile’s size, weight, and variety of passengers. Delays occur, but it surely ought to take about 45 minutes (by way of Southworth or Kingston) and two hours (by way of Bremerton).
The primary possibility is to sail to Bremerton from the Colman Dock in Downtown Seattle. Till 2023, most ferry passengers disembarking right here proceeded on to the beautiful Kitsap Peninsula, however then Restaurant Lola gave guests a purpose to linger. Chef/proprietor John Corridor and associate Anna Bressi cut up the distinction between Black soul meals and Italian classics by means of luxurious dishes like brief rib risotto, mushroom agnolotti made by hand, and shrimp and grits with tasso and andouille.
Alternatively, you may ferry to Southworth from the Fauntleroy Dock in West Seattle. Simply north of the dock, Port Orchard provides surprisingly good antiquing on a nondescript waterfront, together with good choices for caffeine like Espresso Oasis and Gingerbread Home.
Lastly, you possibly can sail to Kingston from Edmonds. Within the summertime, don’t skip Brinnon ShrimpFest (previously FjordFest), which began in 1993; for 2 weeks in late June, the bash celebrates the harvest of the Alaskan spot prawn. All kinds of native seafood are on provide, together with paella, clam strips, calamari, and oysters, alongside mountains of prawns served some ways.
South of Lilliwaup, simply off Freeway 101, the reasonably priced Glen Resor in Hoodsport provides earthy ’70s vibes, entry to forest trails, a sizzling tub, a personal dock for harbor seal-spotting, and occasional stay leisure. Some rooms have water views, RV parking with hookups can be found, and the Mannequin T Pub throughout the road is open year-round. A little bit additional south, the three-star resort on the Little Creek On line casino, operated by the Squaxin Island Tribe, provides some glitz with spa providers, a pool, and on-site golf.
When you plan to e-book an Airbnb within the space in a single day through the winter, it’s not a nasty thought to deliver some groceries alongside, since eating places, supermarkets, and common shops generally is a crapshoot by way of hours.
What else to do, see, and eat round Hood Canal
The jap coast of the peninsula is a good place to catch seafood. Whilst you would possibly wish to follow salmon fishing prematurely, all you want is a lure or a clam gun to load up on Dungeness crabs, clams, and geoduck. You can even hunt down Washington’s native sign crawfish (in season Might to October), that are elusive in eating places however plentiful in western Washington’s waterways. Lease gear at native sporting items shops, and examine license charges and every day limits with the Washington State Division of Fish and Wildlife.
For a little bit of assist getting began, join a curated crabbing/kayaking tour with an organization like marine biologist-owned Hood Canal Adventures, which provides boats and crab pots. The outfit additionally does a mushroom foraging tour.
When you strike out with the fishing, the get together’s all the time hoppin’ on the Geoduck Restaurant and Lounge in tiny Brinnon, the place burgers and beers (not geoduck, mockingly) are the order of the day. The lounge is an actual dive, however the view is spectacular. Like many rural bars, the Geoduck doubles as Brinnon’s group heart, and also you’ll discover stay music some weekends, together with karaoke. Say hello to George the seagull, who recurrently visits the balcony looking for fries.
Or head to Hoodsport, 12 miles south of Lilliwaup, for correct jojos. The Mannequin T Pub does them old-school: dredging russet spears and pressure-frying (not deep-frying) them in a Broaster, in the identical schmaltzy oil used for rooster. The result’s a craggy jojo exoskeleton with a steamy baked-potato inside. Get a chilly one from the dozen-odd faucets, and stick round on recreation day.For one thing barely finer in tone, strive the Fjord Oyster Financial institution. Designed by (now-retired) native superstar chef Xinh Dwelley, the menu options prawn curry, sweet-chile crab truffles loaded with floor pork, lemongrassy steamer clams, and basic oysters on the half, all harvested domestically. In your approach out, purchase your self considered one of Dwelley’s stunning, self-published cookbooks.
