7 Scenic Culinary Destinations Along California's Central Coast

Rugged coastal landscapes and farm-to-table food define California’s Monterey Peninsula, and each town has a distinct personality. Carmel-by-the-Sea is an upscale village of manicured beauty, fairytale cottages, more than 60 restaurants (the peninsula’s only two with Michelin stars included), and 80 galleries, a throwback to its bohemian art and writer colony origin. Big Sur is famous for hairpin curves on Highway 1, the dramatic Bixby Bridge, and counterculture history, while Pacific Grove is where thousands of Monarch butterflies start to descend in October (plus Victorian inns). Monterey’s long-lost sardine-canning industry and working-class history was immortalized in John Steinbeck’s Cannery Row.  

Things change. But “a whole breed of new creative couples is now here, on the super-local food and arts scenes — I call them the ‘new Bohemians.’ We have more restaurants than ever before,” says Amy Herzog, executive director of Visit Carmel. Here's where to eat and stay to experience this scenic slice of the Central California coast. 

Carmel-by-the-Sea

Aubergine

Monterey County’s only two Michelin-starred restaurant, Aubergine offers an eight-course $265 tasting menu of California coastal cuisine with global flavors, which changes daily, from 2013 F&W Best New Chef Justin Cogley, formerly at Charlie Trotter’s in Chicago. Praised by the Michelin Guide for ingredients of “spectacular quality” artistically presented, the restaurant pairs the fare with wine from its 3,500-bottle cellar, which has a Monterey and France focus.    

La Bicyclette

A longtime favorite, this cozy European-style bistro where copper pots and pans dangle from the ceiling is in the same spot where its family owners opened their first restaurant in 1974. My poisson Saint Tropez, a vertical stack of pan-seared petrale sole, leeks, spinach, and fingerling potatoes in beurre blanc, topped with salmon roe, was a standout. Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce were spotted at La Bicyclette in April.

Caraccioli Cellars

Winner for Best USA Sparkling Wine in the 2022 Champagne & Sparkling Wine World Championships, with gold medals for its Brut and Rose Vintage, Caraccioli Cellars' wines are served at Chez Noir, La Bicyclette, and Aubergine. The small, sustainable winery, which also makes Chardonnay and Pinot Noir from a Santa Lucia Highlands AVA vineyard, is one of 18 tasting rooms in town.

Chez Noir

Winning a Michelin star within a year after opening in October 2022, Chez Noir showcases local seafood-centric cuisine from chef Jonny Black, whose pedigree is from two three-Michelin-starred San Francisco restaurants: Atelier Crenn, where he was executive chef, and Quince, where he was chef de cuisine. His Monterey abalone skewers bathed in abalone liver butter on a bay laurel skewer (dubbed “swoon-worthy” by the Michelin Guide, whose inspectors called it one of their five favorite dishes in California) were so popular, they’re now an extra bite for everyone.  

“When you hike in Big Sur you often find bay laurel. What grows together goes together,” says Black, who lives in a Craftsman-style home upstairs from Chez Noir with his wife and kids. His menu is now a four-course prix fixe at $150, due to customer demand, but began a la carte. My halibut and Monterey squid in a fennel- and saffron-accented stew with green olives was fantastic, while my appetizer of bluefin tuna crudo with watermelon, tomatoes, and a touch of nuoc cham was a delightful meld of sweet and savory. A boqueron-topped chickpea puff with lemon aioli melted in my mouth, while the spicy kick from the grilled oysters was due to nduja vinaigrette. “The menu changes due to inspiration and what’s wonderful at the farmers market,” Black's wife Monique says. The wine list hails mostly from California and France.

Nicolas Cocina de Herencia

Innovative interpretations of Mexican cuisine star at this elegant restaurant with a dozen chandeliers. Its lamb chile relleno — a chile pepper stuffed with apples, pears, raisins, and ground lamb in a pomegranate seed-studded sauce concocted from white chocolate, macadamia nuts, and spices — is fabulous, an inspired riff on chiles en nogada, a specialty of Puebla state, but with chocolate and more fruit. A brownie baked with a dark chocolate mole is topped with black bean caramel for dessert. The 5,000-square-foot Nicolas Cocina de Herencia, which opened in November 2023, is the second restaurant from the Alvarez family, whose casual Villa Azteca in Salinas is a hit.   

Big Sur

Deetjen’s Restaurant

An adorable rustic cottage packed with plates, harlequin figures, bric-a-brac, and fabric streamers, warmed by fireplaces and potbelly stoves, soothed by soft classical music, Deetjen's manages to be romantic even at breakfast, for Eggs Benedict, buttermilk pancakes, or impressively sized burritos. This beloved favorite opened in 1939 in a rustic lodge built by a Norwegian immigrant amid the redwoods.     

Sierra Mar

Seemingly in the clouds, 1,200 feet high at the edge of a cliff, your view of the sunset (and ocean, if it's not foggy) from this glass-sided restaurant in the luxury Post Ranch Inn is unforgettable. The menu is dotted with Asian influences, from mushrooms and cashews two ways (roasted maitake mushrooms in XO-mushroom sauce, plus crumbled cashews in cashew cream), halibut in a green curry sauce (that uses mint, basil, cilantro, and jalapeño instead of the usual Thai ingredients) to yellowfin tuna with togarashi mayo, ponzu, and avocado. The 136-page wine list is France- and California-focused. 

Where to stay in Monterey

Post Ranch Inn

A modernist masterpiece of wood cottages with staggering ocean views and “living” roofs of plants, treehouses on stilts, and infinity pools at edges of cliffs high above Big Sur, Post Ranch Inn is a Michelin Three Key hotel (one of just 11 in the U.S. in Michelin’s first hotel ratings from April 2024). Marvel at the Milky Way from your spacious terrace, day bed, and slate-floored bathroom; snuggle next to the wood-burning fireplace in your ocean-view cottage; and walk forest trails on the steep hillsides of the former Post family ranch, where the hotel opened in 1992.

Monterey Beach Hotel

“Beachfront” is often hype, but the front-row view of the ocean, just a few feet away from the lobby through floor-to-ceiling windows, is a drop-dead stunner at the Monterey Beach Hotel. So is its restaurant, The Lantern Room, and the ocean view from many guest rooms, where the roar of crashing waves seeps inside your soul. The location in Monterey city isn’t a short walk to the historic downtown or Cannery Row, but the lure of sofas and fire pits on 600 feet of sandy beach at the county’s only beachfront hotel is tempting indeed. Taste Monterey wines in two, four, or eight-ounce pours dispensed from a self-serve station in the lobby lounge, abuzz with guests (and happy dogs) of the low-slung hotel, which just emerged from a stylish refresh. 

Tally Ho Inn

This delightful small inn in Carmel-by-the-Sea has Pacific Ocean views from room balconies and its fireplace-warmed patio. It's right off the main street, which is chock-full of chic shops, galleries, and restaurants. Carmel Beach is just a few blocks from the whitewashed Tally Ho Inn.