Dining in Des Moines, WA
Des Moines' most notable dining sits directly on the marina it's named for, with real Puget Sound and Olympic Mountain views -- a small but genuine waterfront dining scene anchored by a long-running regional restaurant group and a weekly farmers market.
Anthony's HomePort: The Marina's Anchor Restaurant
Anthony's HomePort Des Moines sits directly on the Des Moines Marina, next to the Des Moines Yacht Club, with views toward Maury Island, the Olympic Mountains, and the Sound's boating activity. It's part of Anthony's Restaurants, a Pacific Northwest regional group with multiple waterfront locations, serving fresh Pacific Northwest seafood in a setting built specifically around its marina-front location. This is the kind of destination-dining option that draws visitors from beyond Des Moines itself, given both the food and the genuinely scenic marina setting.
This page does not have confirmed current menu pricing or hours and recommends checking Anthony's own website or calling ahead before planning a visit, particularly given the marina's current construction activity (the L/M/N dock-replacement project running through early 2026), which is worth asking about if parking or marina-adjacent access is a concern for a specific visit.
Anthony's Lower Deck: The Casual Sibling
Anthony's Lower Deck, also on the Des Moines waterfront, offers a more casual counterpart to HomePort -- fresh Northwest seafood, fish and chips, burgers, and chowder, with outdoor patio seating and a happy hour described in local coverage as among the best near Seattle, featuring seafood specials, cocktails, and local beer. This is the more approachable, family-friendly option of the two Anthony's locations in Des Moines, geared toward a relaxed waterfront meal rather than a formal dining occasion.
As with HomePort, confirm current hours and menu directly with Anthony's before planning a visit, since restaurant hours and offerings can change and this page's information reflects a research snapshot rather than live, current data.
A Note on What Closed: Salty's
Worth stating directly for anyone researching Des Moines dining history: a Salty's location -- another well-known Pacific Northwest waterfront seafood restaurant group -- opened in Des Moines in 1981 but has since closed. This page includes that fact specifically so a researcher doesn't encounter an outdated reference to a Salty's Des Moines location and assume it's still operating; it is not, as of this research pass.
This kind of turnover is normal for any small waterfront dining scene over a multi-decade span, and doesn't reflect negatively on Des Moines' current dining options -- it's simply an accurate, honest note about what has changed since an earlier era of the town's waterfront.
The Des Moines Waterfront Farmers Market
The Des Moines Waterfront Farmers Market runs every Saturday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on the marina waterfront, typically from early June through the fall, offering fresh local produce, artisan foods, handmade goods, and live music, alongside a full calendar of special event days (Family Day, Senior Day, National Farmers Market Week, Dog Days, Harvest Festival, and a Holiday Bazaar, among others in a typical year's schedule). This is a genuine, recurring community food and shopping event, not a one-off festival, and a real weekly draw to the marina waterfront throughout the market season.
Confirm the current year's exact opening date and special-event calendar directly at dmfm.org, since specific dates shift year to year.
Beyond the Marina: Broader South King County Options
For a wider range of dining options beyond the marina waterfront, Des Moines sits within easy driving distance of Federal Way, Kent, Burien, and SeaTac, each offering additional restaurant variety typical of a suburban south King County commercial corridor. This page does not have a confirmed, comprehensive list of dining options throughout inland Des Moines or these neighboring communities and treats that broader dining landscape as outside its specific scope, which is the Des Moines waterfront and marina area.
For everyday grocery needs rather than dining out, general grocery and retail access in Des Moines follows a typical suburban King County pattern, covered in more detail on this site's Practical Living Guide. The new Kent Des Moines light rail station, which opened December 6, 2025 near I-5 and Highline College, also puts a much wider range of Seattle dining within a car-free trip for a resident willing to treat that as part of the local dining picture rather than strictly a Des Moines-only option.
Dining With a View: What Actually Sets the Setting Apart
What distinguishes Des Moines' handful of notable restaurants from a generic waterfront-adjacent eatery elsewhere in the Seattle area is the specific, working-marina setting itself: both Anthony's locations sit close enough to the 840-slip City of Des Moines Marina to watch real boat traffic -- fishing boats, sailboats, and cruisers moving in and out of an active public marina -- rather than a purely decorative water view. Combined with sightlines toward Maury Island and, on clear days, the Olympic Mountains, this gives Des Moines' marina-front dining a genuinely different character than a restaurant simply built near the water without that working-harbor backdrop.
That same setting means dining plans here should account for the marina's current construction activity and seasonal boat traffic patterns -- busier and more visually active in summer, quieter and grayer in the Pacific Northwest's fall-and-winter windstorm season, covered in more detail on this site's Seasonal Recreation page.
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Get a Free Agent Referral →Independent research. No ads. No sponsored listings. Data sourced from: Anthony's Restaurants' own website (anthonys.com) and OpenTable for Anthony's HomePort Des Moines' location, setting, and cuisine focus; Visit Seattle and Seattle Southside for Anthony's Lower Deck's casual dining description and happy hour; Wikipedia's Salty's entry for the former Des Moines Salty's location's 1981 opening and subsequent closure; and the Des Moines Waterfront Farmers Market's own site (dmfm.org) for its schedule and special-event calendar. Facts not independently confirmed and not invented here include: current menu pricing or hours for either Anthony's location; and a comprehensive list of dining options throughout inland Des Moines or neighboring communities. Confirm current hours, menus, and pricing directly with each restaurant before planning a visit. This page reflects independent research, not a paid or sponsored restaurant listing.