Terrapin Creek

Andrew Truong will not serve fish and chips in a fishing town, and people have walked out over it. What he does serve is a Mediterranean fish stew with salmon, rock cod, calamari, mussels and potatoes in a tomato-fennel broth.1

Why go

The kitchen asks first-timers to read the menu before they sit down, because what is on it depends on what Truong could buy that week.1 California has cancelled the commercial Chinook salmon season three years in a row, and the state keeps delaying Dungeness to keep humpbacks out of the crab pots.1 So Truong buys sardines, hamachi, octopus, rock cod and swordfish from Monterey, from Japan, from Puget Sound, and from the docks below when the docks have something.1 He and Liya Lin both came out of Michael Mina and Ame in San Francisco, and they have run this dining room above the marina together.1

They took over a going concern, the old Seaweed Cafe, in 2008, painted it and opened. Three years later they had a Michelin star, one of three in the whole county alongside Madrona Manor and the Farmhouse Inn, out of a thirty-five-seat room in a weatherworn shopping center where the only clue is the window into the kitchen.2 Guillaume Pruniaux, out of the French Laundry, runs the floor now.1

Order this / avoid

Order: the Mediterranean fish stew, $36 in June 2025. Salmon, rock cod, calamari, mussels, potatoes, tomato and fennel broth.1
Order: the pan-roasted Hokkaido scallops, $22 in June 2025, on sunchoke purée with pickled shiitakes.1 3
Think twice about the hamachi crudo. The MICHELIN inspector opens the menu with it; Heather Irwin found the basil and sesame oil had buried the fish and called the fix an easy one.3 1
Order: the campanelle with lamb sausage, English peas, mint, spinach and feta. They make the pasta here.3

What locals & experts say

Michael Bauer, the Chronicle's restaurant critic, in 2014, on a starred kitchen doing unstarry food: While there weren't any surprises, the execution was exceptional. Truong told him what he thought he was cooking: For us, it's more like comfort food, simple food that's good and approachable to a wide variety of people.2
Heather Irwin, in The Press Democrat (9 June 2025), on why the menu goes out first: They expect fish and chips, and (if we don't have it), they just get up and leave. We got tired of resetting the tables. On sourcing: But the locals realize that we're not necessarily sourcing from the docks. And on how he buys: I just find whatever is out there that is good.1
New York Magazine's Grub Street, quoting an anonymous Bay Area MICHELIN inspector in 2012, as the Press Democrat carried it: what's on the plate is definitely one-star food, time and again.1
The MICHELIN inspector, today: House-made pasta remains a strong suit.3

Good to know

Dinner only, Thursday through Monday, early evening on. Book through the form on the site or call 707.875.2700.4
Entrées ran $36 to $48 in June 2025, and Irwin's note is that a coastal room charges for the setting as well as the plate.1
Ask for a table by the hearth in cold months. The open kitchen sits in the middle of the room.1
The star ran 2012 to 2018 and is gone. Truong on living with it: It was always hard to deal with. People asked him the same two questions, over and over: how did you get it, and why did you lose it.1
Dessert is the classic end: crème fraîche cheesecake, or sourdough bread pudding with roasted pears and caramel.3

Verdict

must-visit — Andrew Truong and Liya Lin have cooked here since 2008 and held a Michelin star every year from 2012 to 2018. They hired staff, stopped running the kitchen as a two-person operation, and kept refusing to serve fish and chips in a fishing town. Truong buys sardines, hamachi, octopus and swordfish from Monterey, Japan or Puget Sound because California has cancelled the commercial Chinook season three years running and keeps delaying Dungeness over whale entanglement. The star is gone and the cooking behind it is not.

Terrapin Creek.