9 Incredible Restaurants To Try In Morro Bay

Ocean-to-table delicacies is greater than a slogan in Morro Bay, California. The fishing boats that line the docks alongside the downtown Embarcadero of the small California Central Coast metropolis provide a picturesque tip-off of what’s in retailer within the many seaside eating places.

Diners can count on catch-of-the-day selections that includes halibut, rockfish, and lingcod that’s widespread within the bay. Recent seafood is usually served up in dishes starting from grilled fish to fish and chips to entrees sautéed in butter. Add within the area’s well-known clam chowder and calamari served deep-fried or as steaks, and you’ve got a veritable seafood wonderland.

Morro Bay sits alongside the Pacific Coast about midway between Los Angeles and San Francisco. Together with its energetic fishing scene, the city is thought for its distinctive 576-foot-high volcanic plug that rises from the bay.

At many of the eating places that line the Embarcadero alongside the bay, diners can get pleasure from excellent views of Morro Rock together with the artistic seafood choices.

Listed below are 9 unimaginable eating places to strive in Morro Bay.

1. Dorn’s Breakers Café

Perched alongside Market Avenue overlooking Morro Rock, Dorn’s Breakers Café has been an establishment in Morro Bay for the reason that Nineteen Forties. Immediately, the third-generation household café affords a beautiful number of seafood and different dishes.

For an opportunity to observe the morning daylight because it illuminates Morro Rock, take into account stopping by Dorn’s for breakfast and ask to be seated on the heated patio. That’s what I did on my latest journey to the Central Coast group. I additionally took my server’s suggestion to strive Dorn’s pancakes, which she stated are legendary. I’ve to agree. The stack of fluffy pancakes fulfilled all of my expectations of what a decadent breakfast must be. I ordered the pancakes with an apple topping, and the nice and cozy, spicy apple slices and melting dollops of whipped butter had been the right accompaniment to the beneficiant pancake stack.

Dorn’s is maybe much more well-known for its seafood choices. For lunch and dinner, the restaurant options favorites like its award-winning clam chowder, calamari steak sautéed in butter and white wine, linguine and clams, and fish and chips.

2. Home Of JuJu By The Bay

For gourmand burgers, artistic flatbreads, and delectable seafood selections, it’s exhausting to beat the House of JuJu by the Bay alongside Morro Bay’s Embarcadero. Because the title implies, you additionally get a wonderful view of the bay and Morro Rock thrown in.

My go to to JuJu’s was primarily based on one other suggestion I obtained from a neighborhood — this time from the front-desk clerk at my lodge, who instructed me JuJu’s was her favourite restaurant on the town. The tip turned out to be spot-on. I beloved the placement of JuJu’s, proper beside the Anchor Memorial Park, which is a superb spot to observe a sundown.

The burgers gave the impression to be the go-to menu merchandise at JuJu’s. Among the many six scrumptious burger varieties, there’s the standout JuJu Bleu, a burger served with creamy and crumbled bleu cheese, caramelized onions, and bacon. Diners get a alternative of burger meats, together with Angus beef, bison, rooster breast, floor turkey, and a portabella mushroom — all served up on a grilled brioche bun.

I opted for the build-your-own flatbread, additionally an important alternative that includes a crispy crust and an enormous assortment of sauce selections like kalamata olive, chipotle, spicy garlic, and barbecue, and topping selections that vary from caramelized onions to bacon to artichoke hearts.

Professional Tip: JuJu’s has indoor and outside seating in addition to an enclosed patio with massive home windows overlooking the bay. I visited on a cool winter night, so I requested for a desk within the enclosed patio, and the sundown views had been nice. Throughout hotter climate, the outside tables could be even higher.

3. Hofbrau

For an additional Morro Bay mainstay, take a look at Hofbrau, a seaside restaurant that has been serving hand-carved roast beef sandwiches since 1971. The menu additionally features a collection of burgers, salads, and seafood, together with draft beers and native wines.

Hofbrau’s specialty is its beef, and the menu has loads of choices for making an attempt it. The French dip sandwich part contains selections reminiscent of roast beef, corned beef, pastrami, turkey breast, ham, sausage, and corned beef. In fact, there are additionally seafood selections, from fish and chips to clam chowder.

And, owing to its nice location proper alongside the waterfront, Hofbrau’s views are nice. The restaurant’s web site urges clients to “watch the sailboats drift by” whereas having fun with a glass of wine.

4. Tognazzini’s Dockside Restaurant

That includes two eating places, every with its personal distinctive ambiance, Tognazzini’s Dockside eating places on the historic Morro Bay Embarcadero have been favorites of locals and guests for years. Dockside got here first in 2004 with an indoor eating room overlooking the water and serving up the freshest of seafood selections.

Then in 2009, Dockside Too Fish Market and Patio Eating was added straight behind the Dockside Restaurant. Dockside Too affords all-outdoor eating and permits clients to position their orders on the counter and wait for his or her title to be referred to as. Native musicians are sometimes readily available so as to add to the enjoyable ambiance.

Menu gadgets at Dockside vary from favorites like crab melts and steamer clams to grilled salmon and Central Coast surf and turf (boneless lamb loin, scallops, and shrimp served with polenta and seasonal greens). Dockside Too makes a speciality of selections like fish and chips, barbecued oysters, and fish tacos.

5. Home windows On The Water

The title says all of it: Windows on the Water on Morro Bay’s waterfront affords splendid views of the bay in a fine-dining ambiance. The restaurant is perched on the second ground of its Embarcadero location to higher seize a full view of the harbor.

Home windows on the Water is greatest identified for its native halibut served with heat herb heirloom tomato salsa, however the menu additionally contains all the things from artistic cocktails just like the Blackberry Bramble made from gin, muddled blackberries, and blackberry liqueur, to a starter of gingered Dungeness crab cake with wasabi aioli and pickled ginger and a essential course of cioppino with snow crab, shrimp, mussels, clams, sea bass, and calamari served in a tomato sauce with garlic toast.

6. Blue Sky Bistro

Waterfront eating at its most interesting awaits at Blue Sky Bistro, a calming spot that’s identified to supply stunning views of Morro Rock and the Estero Bay from nearly each desk.

That includes regionally sourced and seasonal seafood and greens, the bistro’s menu is thought for its stellar Mexican shrimp cocktail that mixes shrimp in a spicy cocktail sauce with avocado, cucumber, jalapeño, purple onion, tomato, and cilantro and is served with heat flour tortillas. Entrees embrace alternatives like seafood linguine tossed with prawns, salmon, clams, and mahi-mahi and a tomato, wine, and butter sauce.

7. The Galley Seafood Grill & Bar

A enjoyable ambiance that provides seafood from the native waters and greens direct from the top chef’s household farm in close by Los Osos is the specialty of the Galley Seafood Grill and Bar positioned alongside Morro Bay’s Embarcadero.

The restaurant describes its menu as “Recent from the ocean. Recent from the farm,” and it features a vary of native favorites like Dungeness crab truffles, steamed clams, and blackened Pacific rockfish. The Galley additionally has a full bar and a world-class collection of wines, together with native selections from close by Edna Valley, Paso Robles, and Napa Valley.

8. Taco Temple

If tacos with a twist sound intriguing, Morro Bay’s enjoyable Taco Temple is the place to go. After beginning out with a menu of Cajun-seasoned fish with contemporary greens served on a tortilla with Caribbean black beans, Taco Temple’s menu advanced to function “California fusion,” with a non-traditional tackle Mexican meals.

The menu contains standouts like a calamari taco, a crab cake taco, a veggie burrito, and candy potato enchiladas that includes corn tortillas stuffed with caramelized candy onions, roasted poblano chiles, and cotija cheese lined with heat tomatillo sauce and roasted pumpkin seeds.

9. Giovanni’s Fish Market & Galley

For 3 a long time, Giovanni’s Fish Market and Galley has not solely served up among the greatest clam chowder round however has additionally served as a purveyor of an enormous number of seafood merchandise.

On my latest go to to Morro Bay, I joined the group lined up on the walk-up counter to pattern the chowder that has been a constant winner within the Morro Bay Annual Chowder Prepare dinner-Off. After sampling my cup of creamy chowder that was chock stuffed with clam and potatoes, I used to be offered as effectively. With a cool outside patio overlooking Morro Rock, Giovanni’s is the right spot for an off-the-cuff lunch or dinner. It is usually a perfect place to soak up a Morro Bay sundown.

Professional Tip: Together with its Galley overlooking the water, Giovanni’s options Gio’s Take-Out Express, a handy place to choose up a fast poke bowl or an order of fish and chips.