2 new Bainbridge Island restaurants (and a bakery) to try this spring

It's tough to break away from old favorites on Bainbridge Island - heavenly bagels at Briny, fish and chips at Proper Fish - but there are three newish spots open now that might tempt you.

At these new restaurants, you'll find excellent coffee and croissants, delectably spicy shrimp and truly terrific wood-fired chicken (among other things).

Here's where you should go once you're off the ferry.

Kingfisher

133 Winslow Way E., Suite 100, Bainbridge Island; 206-201-3789, kingfisher.restaurant

Kingfisher is the latest iteration of this Winslow Way space from longtime Bainbridge and Seattle chef Brendan McGill. Farm-to-table Hitchcock, launched in 2010, made way for the fine-dining seafood restaurant Seabird in 2022; when Seabird closed last year and Kingfisher opened in November, it held the bones of something that makes McGill restaurants special: Sunday evenings are "Supper Club" nights, when $150 gets diners multicourse specialized menus celebrating the best of what's in season - much like the OG Hitchcock did.

But there's also a market and a somewhat more approachably priced dinner menu at Kingfisher.

There are no reservations available, but it was easy to snag a table for two around 6 p.m. on a recent Saturday.

We were wowed by the witloof chicories salad ($16), tossed with a hero's portion of Valdeón blue cheese plus fresh dill, walnuts and a red wine vinaigrette; also great was the wood-fired half-chicken ($32), served crispy and perfectly salted atop a puddle of green goddess dressing. That dressing is so good that you should ask for a serving of the focaccia ($12) to scoop up every last drop. The beer-battered lingcod ($26), meanwhile, features two large pieces of crackle-crisp fish, excellently fried and dusted with malt vinegar powder. (The celeriac rémoulade on the side wasn't my favorite.)

There's also plenty that I'll remember for future visits, like pasta and tapas-adjacent snacks including oysters, almonds and olives, ceviche and cheese plates.

Sweetwater Tavern

150 Madrone Lane N., Bainbridge Island; 206-842-1633; sweetwater-tavern.com

Chef/owner Pete Osborne opened Sweetwater Tavern in the former Marché space last month. The menu is seafood-heavy; think shrimp Louie, Dungeness crab rolls, oysters, razor clam dip and scallops (plus a burger and a couple of steaks). Pricing is a tad expensive but competitive for the island, and based on portion size, I'd argue Sweetwater Tavern has real value.

For example, the spicy chili garlic shrimp appetizer is $20. Served with a hunk of baguette, there was at least a half-pound of prawns in the bowl, gorgeously plump and slathered in a bright, punchy and spicy sauce. There was more than enough to share and I ended up taking home the rest of the prawns.

We were also bested by the littleneck clams ($22), served in a fragrant white wine and garlic sauce with tangy gigante beans and chorizo; as well as the iceberg wedge salad ($17), half a head of iceberg adorned with plenty of blue cheese, thick-cut bacon and tomatoes. The table next to us ordered the wild bay shrimp Louie salad ($24), and I swear the shrimp portion could've filled an 8-ounce deli container.

Now, portions mean little if the food is tiresome. I didn't love the tuna melt we ordered (which came with housemade potato chips), but I see it has already exited the menu. The rest of our meal sang - especially the spicy chili garlic shrimp dish.

Chez Lolo Pâtisserie

403 Madison Ave. N., Bainbridge Island; chezlolobakery.com

Ling Ling Chai moved to Bainbridge Island in late 2022, hoping to find a space for the croissants and cruffins she had been making for farmers markets around Berlin, Md. Chai finally opened Chez Lolo in November in an old storage space on the second floor of the Pavilion building on Madison Avenue, which also houses the movie theater Bainbridge Cinemas just off the main drag.

Chai jokes that opening Chez Lolo is her "selfish reason to eat good croissants every day," but if I could make a croissant this good, I wouldn't keep them to myself either.

The menu here is brief for now: pain au chocolat, plain croissants, a sugar-dusted cruffin piped with a delectable mango/passion fruit curd, chocolate chip cookies … and coffee from Olympia Coffee Roasting. The bakery is open 8 a.m.-1 p.m. Wednesday-Sunday, but Chai says she's hoping to extend hours to 3 p.m. soon while also expanding the menu to include sandwiches and other desserts.

"We have a French group and some reading groups that come in and I think they would enjoy having afternoon tea with dessert," Chai said.

Keep an eye on the bakery's Instagram page for more.

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This story was originally published April 29, 2026 at 6:42 AM.