Carmel-by-the-Sea Restaurants

OK, OK, this isn’t in Carmel, but if you’re visiting the Carmel area, you should not miss this restaurant; it’s just down highway 1 in Big Sur. It will take you about 40 minutes to get to Nepenthe from Carmel, but the drive is beautiful, so you won’t even notice the time. The views remind me of the Napali Coast on Kauai – ocean, cliffs, vegetation – it’s awesome.

Make sure you leave Carmel by 11:15 AM in order to get to the restaurant by noon. You might even leave a little earlier in order to make sure you can get a table inside on the window, or (my favorite) outside on the deck looking South West. They have some great fish dishes, and definitely order the goat cheese and roasted garlic appetizer.

Gary Pisoni and Gary Fransconi are two of the best Pinot Noir producers in the world and their vineyards are located due east of the Big Sur coast, over the mountains, in an area called the “Santa Lucia Highlands” (SLH). I love the Pinots out of this area, and Nepenthe just happens to serve pretty much all of the Gary(s) offerings. Outstanding!

Bring a designated driver: The drive back to Carmel always seems a lot shorter, but it’s a curvy road, and I wouldn’t want to try and navigate it with more than a glass of wine in my system.

Bottom line, don’t miss this restaurant – it will be a place you return to on every future trip to Carmel / Big Sur.

Favorite Dish: The goat chees appetizer and the Ahi sandwich are great, but honestly, the wine, and the view is so good; I don't even know if I tasted the food.

OK, these guys really think they’re hot stuff…and pretty much, they are. On a recent trip to Carmel my parents decided that Casanova had just become too much; too cocky, too expensive, too full of themselves. My parents tried a different restaurant, and it paled in comparison to the food at Casanova. Sooooo, even though the Sommelier thinks he’s hot stuff, and the manager literally walks around the front dining room saying to whoever will listen, “It’s hard, it’s just so hard when you’re this good.” He told me and my wife, “Welcome to paradise.” I don’t think this guy owned the restaurant, but he claimed to have worked there 20 years. In the restaurant business, I believe they call that a “lifer.”

At any rate, my wife and I had lunch there on our last trip, and although the above features of this restaurant could be annoying, the food really does make up for it. I had some spinach gnocci that was the second best I’ve ever tasted (I’ve eaten a lot of gnocchi). We also had the Artichoke, goat cheese appetizer – if you like these ingredients, you’ll love this appetizer. A COOL feature of this restaurant is that its “house” wine actually is made by the owners, and they do it more than adequately.

This was the first time I ate here for lunch, and I think I like it better than the dinner. Fewer people, better service: Cheaper.

You should plan on eating here once during your trip to Carmel

Favorite Dish: Gnocchi.

Artichoke w/ goat cheese.

I eat at this restaurant at least once every time I go to Carmel. You can't eat at Casanova every night...well, maybe you can, but the Rio Grill is an excellent choice if you want to break up the decadence of some of the restaurants in downtown Carmel.

I don't know when the Rio Grill started, but it's been there as long as I can remember (maybe 10+ years). Actually, I just looked at their website...it's been there since 1983. The Rio has a great little bar - good martinis. The wine list is solid and not exorbitantly overpriced...so that's nice.

The Rio isn't as romantic as some spots downtown - it's definitely louder (but not too loud), and has a lot of energy. I like it because now that I have a young child, he can cry, and nobody really hears him. Don't worry, there aren't a bunch of screaming babies at this place. The wait staff is very friends, and the manager, Alexis, will go out of her way to make your experience great.

I highly recommend The Rio Grill. And, don't even bother getting any other dish than the House-Smoked Half Chicken. I'm serious! It's the best chicken I've ever had.

Favorite Dish: House-Smoked Half Chicken with mild smoked chile butter, baby artichokes and red potatoes..................18.95

The Ice Cream sandwhich for dessert.

The Stillwater grill is one of the restaurants at "The Lodge" at Pebble Beach. I wasn't really feeling like dishing out the $450.00 to play the golf course, but I had no problem shelling out the cash to eat at this place. Plus, I played Poppy Hills earlier in the day for $75.00, so I figured I could spend a little more money on lunch without feeling guilty.

I met my wife and a couple friends at Stillwater for lunch. We sat at a table on the window and had a spectacular view of the 18th fariway, green, and Carmel beach in the distance. I really can't do the view justice in this review because it's much better than I can describe. The only view I appreciate more is the one from Nepenthe restaurant in Big Sur...but, I'll talk about that in another review.

The food at Stillwater is suprisingly good. I say suprising because it often seems that at places this popular they just kind of stop trying as hard - they have a captive audience in a way - if you want a view of the golf course, you have to eat at this restaurant. At any rate, I had the pasta with shrimp and it was outstanding. The last time I ate here I had the abolone pasta and that was also REALLY good, but 3x as expensive and the portion of abolone is tiny.

The ambience is nice, quite; makes you feel like having a couple glasses of wine at lunch and then taking a nap...actually, Carmel and Pebble Beach make me feel like that in general. All in all, this is a great place to take your wife for lunch after you play golf all morning...after this meal, she'll forgive you for being gone half the day.

Favorite Dish: shrimp pasta - it has a nice spice to it.

abolone pasta - really good, but small portion of abolone

We stopped in here for a beer and to get off our feet after hearing it was pretty much the only "normal" bar in Carmel. By normal, I mean, we wore jeans, sweatshirts and sneakers and fit in perfectly.

On the weekends, the bar features live music and drink specials. The restaurant has a nice selection of Cajun, TexMex and some nice steaks. Entrees are reasonably priced, which is nice in this town.

We had a very nice lunch at Porta Bella while shopping on Ocean Ave. The ambiance is very nice with a warm fire glowing when the weather is cool. PortaBella is also pet-friendly out on the back patio which is nice. The food is very good and the service was attentive and friendly. There is also a small area out in front of the restaurant to dine when the weather is nice.

Favorite Dish: The innovative sandwiches and salads for lunch are freshly prepared and very good.

Katy's is a popular local place, especially for breakfast. We arrive at a peak time - 10:00 Sunday morning - and received friendly, welcoming, efficient service.
Outside seating is available.
Great service, atmosphere and food.

Favorite Dish: egg benedict - there are many creative options to choose from.

The Hog's Breath used to be owned by Clint Eastwood and people still call this "his" restaurant.

It is very nicely decorated and has a bar area on one side, some nice tables outside and a dining room (where we ate). It is mainly dark wood (very Dutch, actually :)) and pleasant.

We went for a "light" dinner and were quite pleased with the overall experience.
Peppered Seared Ahi Tuna (Fresh tuna crusted with sesame seeds and pepper served rare) and the Prime Rib steak were our choices for the evening and they were both quite good.

If you want to "make your day" (I know, it's a bad joke), you can try the "Dirty Harry Dinner" - Chopped sirloin, wild mushrooms, horseradish and whole grain mustard sauce served with smashed potatoes.

There seems to be an effort to have an original menu, so you have some interesting choices.

Service was also very friendly and effective, so we were quite pleased with the experience.