Inland Pacific Kitchen — Restaurant in Spokane

We've had brunch at IPK a few times over the years, and found the food to be good and the cocktails even better. We had dinner there as we kicked off Restaurant Week 2025 and found had a pleasant but generally underwhelming experience.

I'll start with the good. The service was excellent: attentive, kind, and engaged without being overly loquacious. We really appreciated our servers throughout the evening. The house cocktails were quite good. The third course was the highlight of the evening. Both the black pepper gelato and the olive oil cake earned top marks. The gelato is one of the most delicious and intriguing desserts I've had in a long time. We were glad to end the meal on a high note.

The atmosphere is a bit of a mixed bag. It is a very cool, hip place. The layout adds interest to the dining experience. With Restaurant Week, it was quite busy, and it felt rather cramped and loud, which is understandable with a full house, but I definitely noticed that we were having to speak much louder than we typically do to hear each other over music.

Although all of our dishes were perfectly edible, we were somewhat disappointed aside from the aforementioned highlights, especially given the $130 pre-tip bill. It did not feel like a good value for a number of reasons. We almost always have leftovers after a meal out, even in fine dining settings, but left still feeling hungry. The portions for the second course were small, even by fine-dining standards: bigger than a tapa, but definitely not quite meeting our definition of a second/main course. The pork loin was dry and slightly overcooked. The accompanying elements in the dish were well-executed, though.

Most of the local fine dining restaurants with these kinds of prices offer some transparency about the sourcing of their ingredients. I'm thinking of Wild Sage and Gander & Ryegrass in particular, but IPK's sister restaurant, Hogwash Whiskey Den, names the ranchers or farmers they source from when they can. This absolutely changes the value math for us. I am just not thrilled to pay a premium for small portions of meat when I don't know how it's sourced and it's dry, overcooked, etc. We are always happy to pay more for a smaller portion of excellently sourced and prepared ingredients from regional producers. We can do that more affordably and satisfyingly elsewhere right now.

We're eager to try brunch again, and will give dinner another try, too,...

Our brunch got off to a bit of a slow start. We had reservations, got seated quickly but waited about 15 minutes before the server came over to out table to get our drink orders

Our meals arrived in just 35 minutes, which was great! While we were there, I didn’t notice any kids or teenagers around. I asked our server if they had a kid’s menu, and she said they didn’t. However, she suggested that the pancakes or cinnamon buns would be a great option for them, as they were thick and shareable - and they definitely are shareable

Honeydew bellini. Sparkly bubble, not too sweet. I would say a mixture of sweet and tart. Loved watching the sorbet melt into the drink.

The Butterscotch latte was not too heavy on the butterscotch, so it was not sweet. First time trying warm oatmilk. Overall, it wasn’t bad.

Fried chicken and biscuit Imagine biting into a juicy piece of fried chicken with a perfectly cooked egg on top and a flaky biscuit on the side. Delish! The chicken is not dry and wasn’t microwaved. And the biscuit...oh, the biscuit! It’s so flaky, my husband couldn’t resist stealing it. The coleslaw had a delicious sesame taste that complemented the meal perfectly. This meal is the definition of comfort food.

Tallstack is the reason I came here temptation at its finest. It didn’t disappoint whatsoever the fluffiest pancakes I’ve eaten. Mike said it was too sweet for him. But he did like the pancakes by themselves. More for me, lol

Steak and eggs Ribeye, cook the way you like. Mike said he could tell the steak was not frozen, fresh meat. There’s a difference in quality.

Overall, I was very impressed with the atmosphere, the vibe and vegan-friendly items on the menu. My only regret not trying this place sooner.

We will be making reservations to try dinner.

Inland Pacific Kitchen 📍 304 W Pacific Ave Ste 160 Spokane, WA ...

Not sure how they got away with this, but…

This place really wouldn’t warrant a low review like this if not for the situation presented by the Anime Food Pop-up Event. The food wasn’t amazing, but it was mostly pretty good. I imagine their normal dishes that they make regularly might come out even better. Aside from the cardboard like cupcakes, I have no reason to complain about the food. I’ve had good vegan desserts before, but these were not an example of such. I can’t believe they were being sold for so much. I’d rather have paid half their asking price and just eaten the frosting off the top. At least that tasted like it was actually meant to be edible.

The real problem with everything was, for lack of a better term, fraud. They were charging customers different prices than what was advertised. I contacted IPK afterwards and was informed that, “the chef determined prices weren’t adequate.” I was also told that I’d receive another call after they spoke with the event coordinator, but I have yet to hear back after almost two weeks. I’ve attached our receipt along with the menu. A dollar here and there didn’t really increase the price much for what we were buying. However, if they were overcharging everyone who attended I imagine they made a lot more money overall than what they really should have. That sounds like fraud...