Monterey and Carmel
44 open around Around the Bay
The south end of the bay where Highway 1 meets the peninsula: Monterey and Pacific Grove around the point, Carmel over the hill, and the wine country up Carmel Valley Road.
The towns
Restaurants31
Chez Noir★
Destination · Restaurant · Carmel-By-The-Sea · $$$$
booking essential
Jonny Black ran Atelier Crenn as Dominique Crenn's first executive chef, then took a Craftsman house in Carmel and put a four-course menu of abalone, skate and dry-aged fish in the front room.
MaligneBib
Solid · Restaurant · Seaside · $$$
book ahead
Klaus Georis wraps beets in cheesecloth and smokes them two days before he slices them thin and rolls them into cigars.
Nepenthe
Temp closed · Californian · Big Sur · $$$
Bill and Lolly Fassett bought Orson Welles's cliff cabin out of his divorce from Rita Hayworth and opened a restaurant on the rock on 24 April 1949.
La Bicyclette RestaurantMichelinjust added
Solid · Restaurant · Carmel-By-The-Sea · $$$
book ahead
The Georis family opened La Boheme on this Carmel corner in 1974, one prix fixe dish a night with the month's menu taped in the window.
Passionfish
Solid · Restaurant · Pacific Grove · $$$
book ahead
Berk Guvenc bought this room in July 2024 and wanted bream on the menu. Bream is not on the fully sustainable list, so it is not on the menu.
Rio Grilljust added
Listed · Restaurant · Carmel-By-The-Sea · $$$
book ahead
The pork belly is cured, smoked and baked across three days, then flash fried to order and finished with brown sugar and a hit of jalapeño powder.
Big Sur Roadhouse
Listed · Californian · Big Sur · $$
walk-in
Breakfast and lunch daily until 2:30, in a room Glen Oaks runs, with a redwood bar top on the back patio looking over the Big Sur River.
Provisions1
Happy Girl Kitchen Co.
Listed · Provisions · Pacific Grove · $$
walk-in
Todd and Jordan Champagne spent a summer on a family fjord farm in Norway, milking the cow and putting up the garden, and came back to California to sell five pickled vegetables under the name Fearless Pickles.
Craft beer1
Alvarado Street Brewery
Listed · Brewery · Monterey · $$
walk-in
Mai Tai PA took gold at the 2015 Great American Beer Festival in the international-style pale ale category, against a field of about 6,000 beers.
Bakes & sweet3
Big Sur Bakery
Listed · Californian, wood-fired · Big Sur · $$$
booking essential
A bakery counter from 8am, lunch five days, and dinner on two nights only, all of it built around a wood oven.
Parker-Lusseau Pastries
Listed · Bakery · Monterey · $
walk-in
Anne Parker Johnson and Yann Lusseau handed the bakery to Jeanne Brooks of Bees Knees Bakery in spring 2026.
Producers8
Chesebro Wines & Art / Cedar Lane Vineyard
Listed · Producer · Carmel Valley
19 E Carmel Valley Rd. Details to come.
Massa Estate Organic Vineyards
Listed · Producer · Carmel Valley
69 W Carmel Valley Rd. Details to come.
Mercy Vineyards Tasting Room
Listed · Producer · Carmel Valley
40 W Carmel Valley Rd A. Details to come.
Elsewhere around Around the Bay