Restaurants in Mukilteo

For more than 40 years, Robert C. Mathwig has owned Family Pancake House and defended his sanctuary for the fluffy breakfast staple against the ravages of time, stringently maintaining the same wholesome business practices that set the cozy eatery apart from the competition on its very first day. The kitchens still make most of the menu from scratch, sourcing as many ingredients as possible from local suppliers to ensure that each order arrives to its table at the peak of freshness. The whole menu of breakfast treats and savory later-day meals is available all day long, with fluffy pancakes, crepes, and omelets sharing space at diners’ tables with grilled cheeses and breaded pork chops.

Family Pancake House takes its friendly moniker to its logical conclusion by acting as a supportive family for the community that has kept the eatery's doors open for nearly half a century. The company routinely sponsors youth sports teams, and employees often volunteer their leftover flour supply to sweaty-palmed gymnasts.

Fusing traditional Indian culinary traditions with modern environmental responsibility, the chefs at Vatika Indian Cuisine simmer and roast a menu of classic Indian meals from fresh, seasonal ingredients. Diners choose from meat and vegetarian-friendly meals that include tandoor-cooked lamb kebabs, creamy malai kofta, and spicy vindaloo curry. Most dishes pair easily with slivers of warm naan bread, which guests can use to scoop up morsels of food as their eyes rove over the dining-room decor, which, like the restaurant's cuisine, fuses traditional Indian style with contemporary sensibilities.

Boondocker’s Restaurant was a Snohomish County favorite for decades, thanks to its classic burgers, fries, and milk shakes. So after buying the restaurant, the Bala family made sure to continue serving juicy burgers and old-fashioned ice-cream shakes while also giving the menu a new twist—a sidebar of carefully curated Indian and Pakistani fare.

Originally from India, the Bala family flavors favorite recipes with vibrant spices, yielding savory curries, kebabs, and samosas cooked in a clay oven. Sweet and savory breakfast fare can be enjoyed with mimosas until 2 p.m., when the champagne flutes turn back into plastic sippy cups till the next morning.

Ensconced in a building dating back to the 1920s, Alexa’s Café & Catering’s dining room is flanked by brick walls and wainscoting, and is filled with pine furniture where guests cozy up to platters of guilt-free comfort fare for breakfast and lunch. The café’s hearty portions come compliments of owner Leigh Henderson’s deep-rooted love of feeding people, which is also the catalyst for the café’s ever-evolving menu. One visit might delight diners with lemon-poppy-seed buttermilk cakes; the next, a selection of 10 breakfast scramblers; and the visit after that, a chicken-curry croissant packed with grapes, almonds, and curry mayo. In the evenings, Alexa's pairs heartier fare such as burgers with wines and tap beers from local breweries such as Mac & Jack's. Alexa’s also totes its fresh fare to special events, from business luncheons to Batman-themed bat mitzvahs.

While living on Molokai, Bobby and Diane Nakihei couldn’t throw a stone without hitting a plate-lunch special. The classic Hawaiian dish—two scoops of rice, one scoop of macaroni salad, and an entree—is served at practically every fast-food restaurant and food wagon across the island. When the couple moved from Hawaii to the Pacific Northwest, they began to long for the once-ubiquitous island cuisine. So Bobby traded the stuffy shirt and tie of a bookkeeping career for the patterned, button-down shirts of his homeland and opened Bobby's Hawaiian Style Restaurant, drawing transplanted islanders and locals alike to his plate-lunch specials, which often come wrapped in taro leaves and seaweed.

His cuisine earned the restaurant a spot on the Food Network's Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives and praise from Scott Gorman of the Herald, who extols it as “prepared and presented with a good deal of authenticity and style.” Revered dishes include Kahlua pig, which Chef Bobby cures with hawaiian sea salt, covers in banana leaves, and roasts for eight hours. The meticulous preparation extends to the rest of the menu, which spotlights the leaf-steamed pork of laulau and the sushi-esque spam musubi. In addition to the cuisine, owners Bobby and Diane showcase Hawaiian culture by offering hula lessons, presenting live Hawaiian music and recycling diners' lawn clippings into grass skirts.