I’ve been pleasantly surprised by the food in Monterey. It doesn’t have the *range* of San Francisco but in some key areas it hits hard.
Great pizza (Pizza My Heart). Fantastic clam chowder (Vivolo’s). Excellent Mediterranean (Petra). Good homey Japanese (Ocean Sushi Deli). Good and simple fresh seafood (Sea Harvest). Vegan baklava (Paprika). Good bakeries (Ad Adstra and Alta).
I haven’t even branched out to Seaside and Carmel yet
Artichokes at every restaurant! Fried, grilled, on pizza, in naans.
For Mexican I’ll probably go to Salinas (Tacos Pacheco)
and for Indian, Korean, Vietnamese, Chinese I’ll likely leave those for on my commute back to the city (San Jose has better restaurants in all of those cuisines than the city) but for a few key things there are some good spots here
All in I think I met my life, career and food goals. I wanted a job that got me out of San Francisco occasionally but not too much. That would let me eat the Asian foods of San Jose more. And let me spend time in nature. Win!
There’s even a ‘all you can play’ arcade here!!!
@skinnylatte If you ever go, take some pictures of the machines...
@skinnylatte I loooove artichokes and always try to get some when I'm in that area.
@skinnylatte hm, anything interesting?
@skinnylatte "Life, career, and food goals" is 100% you.
@skinnylatte randomly, there's a Taiwanese restaurant called Red Hot Wok near San Jose that has two locations (Palo Alto and Cupertino). I really love it. I think it's the closest thing I've experienced to a zi char place in the US. All Taiwanese dishes but the flavors are just very reminiscent of SG zi char somehow? IDK how to explain lol. In particular their moon-shaped shrimp cake and the kiam chye that comes with their lu rou fan is top notch. Also their mango shaved ice.
@skinnylatte have you checked out Revival Ice Cream or Parker-Lusseau Pastries yet?
alejandro's on Alvarado is a surprising good Mexican food place with a number of regional cuisines represented
Cella Restaurant & Bar and Stokes Adobe Restaurant are a bit higher end
Loulou's Griddle In the Middle, The Breakfast Club, and The Butter House are all good breakfast spots. First Awakenings is decent
Taqueria Zarape is pretty legit although not as inexpensive as Salinas
Captain+Stoker for coffee
@douglasvb yep I’ve been to revival and Parker-Lusseau but not the rest. Thanks for the tips!
@skinnylatte @douglasvb I second Doug's suggestions. Zarape is my go to for burritos.
@douglasvb I have been to revival. As in right now. Yum
@skinnylatte Artichoke naan? Sounds awesome! ^_^
@saadazim yep with cheese
@skinnylatte Even better! :D
Taqueria Hidalgo, Chualar
Do they offer artichoke toast? Because that really should be a thing.
@skinnylatte If you end up in the vicinity of Capitola, Gayle’s Bakery is worth the stop. The pastries
@lemay thank you!!
@skinnylatte I’m saving this for next time I go
@Bronwyn Carmel has a bunch of really nice restaurants and Seaside has some nice mid range ones so I’ll post about them when I go
@skinnylatte oh yay! You tried Petra and Pizza My Heart!
@rednikki I’ve made a lot of progress on your list (also my work always orders pizza my heart)
@skinnylatte CAN YOU BLAME THEM
@skinnylatte when you get to Carmel, try the Hog's Breath Inn (good chili) and Mulligan Public House (maybe the best shepherd's pie I've ever had, so comforting on those cold foggy/wet evenings)
@skinnylatte we moved away 20+ years ago, but our absolute favorite place was Peppers in Pacific Grove
@number9 thank you!