Ratings are on a scale of 0 to 24.
The scale used to be 0 to 10, so restaurants written about
before 2012 may have only had their ratings adjusted by formula and
not by hand (hence all the 2s, 5s, 8s, etc.)
The scale works as follows:
An asymmetrical 0 to 24 scale may not be intuitive, I
realize.
But as a rule of thumb: a double-digit score means I liked it, while a
single-digit score… less so.
Also, as you might expect, scores from many years ago may not be very
reliable, so do check the dates.
Name |
Cuisine |
Address |
Last update |
Score | |
Giant Artichoke | Artichokes | Merritt btw Salinas/Pajaro, Castroville | 2006-08-28 | 2 |
I'd heard about the
deep fried artichokes here, so when I randomly passed the place, I figured I'd stop in
and try half an order. There was no real artichoke flavor left; it tasted like the food
I ate at the Regal Lanes bowling alley back in junior high. |
Carmel Bakery | Bakery | Ocean btw Lincoln/Dolores, Carmel | 2007-05-04 | 11 |
This place has some pretty good
stuff! Big pretzels, excellent rugelach, all sorts of cookies and coconut haystacks and things. |
Peninsula Pastries | Bakery | Acacia & Park Row, Salinas | 2006-10-01 | 8 |
Blackberry-cheese danish: very
good! Chocolatine: enh. Weird flat moist almond "croissant": awful. |
Central Avenue Bakery | Bakery | Central btw David/Dewey, Pacific Grove | 2006-09-02 | 5 |
The in-store hype
said the banana nut bar was not to be missed. For free, I would have nodded politely.
For $3.50 I was disappointed. |
First Awakenings | Breakfast | Main & Gabilan, Salinas | 2006-08-12 | 11 |
Decent breakfast place. On my first
trip I had a crepe with cheese and avocado and mushrooms and whipped eggs and alfalfa
sprouts. That was pretty good. On later trips I had alarmingly large pancakes and
gringo huevos rancheros. |
Bagel Corner | Breakfast | Acacia & Park Row, Salinas | 2006-08-07 | 2 |
More like Salty Hamburger Bun Corner. |
Tiki Hut | Carnival food | Boardwalk, Santa Cruz | 2022-06-19 | 8 |
This place has Dole Whip floats like the ones at Disneyland. Take that as a recommendation or not according to your preference. I should point out that this place does not have the animatronic parrot, so, again, add or subtract a point depending on your preference. |
the Crepe Place | Crepes | Soquel btw Cayuga/Seabright, Santa Cruz | 2006-08-26 | 11 |
The crepes here are a
much bigger production than those at Crepes a-Go-Go on University in Berkeley, but
they're not as good. |
Pacific Cookie Company | Dessert (cookies) | Pacific btw Lincoln/Walnut, Santa Cruz | 2006-03-04 | 11 |
Pretty good cookies. I
recommend the "Almond Joe," with chocolate chips, almonds and coconut. |
Saturn Cafe | Diner | Laurel & Pacific, Santa Cruz | 2006-03-04 | 8 |
When I was 17 I came here
(at its old location) and got the Chocolate Madness, two brownies topped with dark
chocolate ice cream, hot fudge, chocolate mousse, whipped cream and chocolate chips.
I tried it again at age 32. It seemed like a much, much better idea when I was 17. |
India's Clay Oven | Indian | Del Monte btw Alvarado/Tyler, Monterey | 2006-09-02 | 14 |
This place has a lunch
buffet, a brunch buffet and a dinner buffet; I showed up at the end of the brunch buffet
when things had been sitting out for hours and were fairly picked-over... so I can only
imagine how good it must be when it's fresh, because even in this state it was still
pretty darn good! Lots more variety than your typical Indian buffet, with roasted
Chinese melons and sauteed local eggplant and a sweet saffron rice dish called "zarda"
that I could not get enough of. |
Little Napoli | Italian | Dolores btw Ocean/Seventh, Carmel | 2007-05-11 | 11 |
I very rarely get pasta at a
restaurant because I figure I can generally make it better at home, but I had a coupon
for this (expensive) place and there was a mushroom tagliatelle with truffle oil on the
menu and I don't have truffle oil at home. The mushrooms were a little plumper than I
prefer (I like a cooked-down mushroom) but the truffle oil was delicious. Note to self:
buy truffle oil. |
El Cantaro | Mexican | Foam & Irving, Monterey | 2022-06-19 | 8 |
Stopped at this vegan place, knowing nothing about it, because the girl was hungry and this was right next to the aquarium. I scanned the menu looking for something that didn’t contain fake meat or fake cheese: if I wanted to eat either of those two things I would have the real version. A burrito with zucchini and roasted pineapple seemed to fit the bill. It was okay, especially for an unscouted spot. Ellie gave it an even stronger recommendation. |
La Fogata | Mexican | Main btw Gabilan/Alisal, Salinas | 2006-07-29 | 8 |
A throwback, pretty similar to
Taqueria Los Pericos in San Leandro. |
Tepa-Sahuayo | Mexican | First & Main, Watsonville | 2007-06-01 | 5 |
This rundown restaurant is in a
strip mall in a rundown agribusiness town, but has gained a following for its
astonishing handwritten menu full of esoteric dishes that it proudly proclaims are
"hard to find even in Mexico." I decided to go for the vegetarian sopes, but it
turned out that the vegetarian filling was just a pile of lettuce with a few slices
of avocado. Disappointing. |
Turtle Bay Taqueria | Mexican (taqueria) | Tyler & Bonifacio, Monterey | 2007-02-11 | 2 |
This place just sort of rubbed
me the wrong way. Since I got a table flag, I initially assumed meals were brought to
one's table, but my order sat on a counter for several minutes, so I began to wonder
whether I was supposed to come collect it. When I tried, though, one of the guys behind
the counter snapped that my order would be coming up soon, so I thought maybe it
wasn't mine... but then, sure enough, someone eventually collected it and brought it
to my table. Bah. Anyway, weird flavors, too seafood-centric, and just plain old bad
vibes. |
Malabar | Pan-Asian | Front btw Soquel/Cathcart, Santa Cruz | 2007-02-23 | 5 |
This vegetarian restaurant
features dishes from all over southern and southeastern Asia, with particular emphasis
on Sri Lanka. I gave it a 5 after going there in '06; since then, it has moved across
town and down three notches. Service was ludicrously slow — we were stuck there for
two hours! — and the food was generally undercooked and tasted primarily of scovilles. |
Allegro Pizza | Pizza | The Barnyard & Carmel Rancho, Carmel | 2006-10-01 | 5 |
Huge slabs of cheese
and underprepared toppings on an underdone crust. Many pizzas on offer: I tried a
weird one at first and didn't like it, so in the name of fairness I came back and
tried a more traditional one. Still bad. |
Papa Riva's | Pizza | Main btw Gabilan/Central, Salinas | 2006-08-21 | 2 |
This pizza's about as good
as Bagel Corner's bagels. That is to say, laughably bad. |
Loose Caboose | Sandwiches | Acacia & Park Row, Salinas | 2006-08-16 | 5 |
Not so much bad sandwiches as "this
thing is how much?" sandwiches. But Salinas doesn't have a Togo's, so. |
Passionfish | Seafood | Lighthouse & Congress, Pacific Grove | 2006-08-21 | 8 |
I don't eat seafood,
so finding a restaurant on the Monterey Peninsula is basically a matter of finding
the best of the lone vegetarian options. Passionfish is purported to be the best
restaurant in the area; I had a braised artichoke (which was mostly inedible leaves
topped with shredded asiago) and a plate of corn ravioli (which was underdone, with
a sauce that was too sharp somehow... too much salt? still pretty good!). Dessert
was one of those molten chocolate cakes that are de rigueur at places like this. |
Stokes | Upscale | Hartnell & Polk, Monterey | 2007-01-26 | 8 |
Upscale places rarely are big on
vegetarian options, and so here I had basically one option: crepes with root vegetables.
Fortunately they were pretty good. I had a side of cauliflower gratin that was pretty
bland — I need to stop ordering that. I keep thinking it'll be like the cauliflower
at Delfina, only with cheese. I also got free dessert! |