North Spokane is a big, eclectic place. Sure, it's mostly suburbs, but there's a lot of variety to the suburbs. There's everything from the porch-front community of Garland, to the working-class 'burbs of Hillyard, to the cul-de-sacs of Five Mile Prairie.
So there's just as much diversity in its eateries. You have pizza places like ADELO's and McCLAIN'S, barbecue joints like DOGTOWN TAPHOUSE, Mexican restaurants like DE LEON'S and RINCON TAPATIO, and neighborhood bars like the LOGAN TAVERN and POOLE'S PUBLIC HOUSE.
Sure, when you drive down Division Street you see a lot of fast food chains, but you also see Italian restaurants like FERRARO'S and Thai restaurants like THAI BAMBOO.
In fact, normally, this would be about the time that Division Street's PHO VAN would be winning the Best Pho category in the Inlander's Best Of reader's poll. While the paper delayed this year's Best Of issue due to that whole pandemic thing, you can still take advantage of Pho Van's award-winning meals.
Go for the Pho Tai Nam Bo Vien ($12) — eye of round steak, meatballs and rice noodles all swimming in a beef broth.
Similarly, a lot of locals consider Audubon neighborhood staple the FLYING GOAT the G.O.A.T of pizza places. Their Kiernan pizza ($17) tops creamy, cheesy pizza slices with Italian sausage, an over-medium egg, and truffle-oil-tossed arugula.
What if your kids can't stand arugula, preferring to eschew gourmet creations for a trusty box of Kraft mac and cheese? Teach your children that you reject the false dialectic between fine dining and comfort food, and prefer to seek out the Hegelian dialectical synthesis between "restaurant dining" and "mac and cheese." Order MACDADDY'S buffalo chicken mac and cheese ($14.) It features a whopping eight cheeses, and includes bacon, marinated buffalo chicken and blue cheese crumbles.
Heck, make it into a Top Chef-style taste-test competition by pitting MacDaddy's best macaroni against the DOWNRIVER GRILL'S pork belly mac & cheese ($20). Theirs features bacon too, but with a smoky Gouda cream sauce, Parmesan and a citrus-maple glaze.
The PROHIBITION pub survived a season of Monroe Street construction in 2018 only to be hit with a year of pandemic-related lockdown restrictions in 2020. But they're still here, kept alive by their indefatigable quest to serve you plates of their candy-coated jalapeño poppers ($9). If it wasn't enough to stuff jalapeños with a medley of cheeses and roasted garlic and wrap them in candied bacon, the appetizers also come with a side of huckleberry jam.
Beloved by northside dads everywhere, the MAPLE STREET BISTRO will let you capture the pre-pandemic lazy-Saturday-at-the-cafe nostalgia of a simpler time. Grab their signature "Breakfast Club" ($7) sandwich, which takes your personal homemade bagel selection and piles on ham and bacon, before topping it with an egg, cheddar cheese, Swiss cheese, cream cheese and a honey mustard dressing. Then have a side of applesauce, why don't you?
Meanwhile, KINJA KOREAN & JAPANESE + SUSHI RESTAURANT, a local family-owned Korean and Japanese restaurant, encourages you to consider their most popular sushi offering, the "Jane Roll" ($13). Picture deep-fried shrimp and spicy crab in a sushi roll with spicy tuna and crunchy flakes piled on top, and the whole thing drizzled with a sweet-and-spicy sauce.
