Enjoy the Best Locally Caught Seafood at These 6 Monterey Bay Restaurants
Ever since we opened our Local Seafood Tour, we’ve learned so much about local and sustainable seafood. Anything caught locally is sustainable, but anything considered sustainable is not necessarily local. Sound confusing? Fortunately, we have Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch to consult anytime we have questions, but in the meantime, we thought we’d compile a list of some of the restaurants on the peninsula that offer both local and sustainable seafood.
Sea Harvest Restaurant and Fish House
Off the bat, if you’re looking for great seafood, where better place to go than a restaurant owned by a family of fisherman? If that sounds like something you’d enjoy, you should definitely check out the Sea Harvest Restaurant and Fish House. They have a location on Cannery Row as well as in the Crossroads in Carmel, and while not everything they have is local, they still have a great selection of local and sustainable products. It is both a restaurant and a fish market, so you’re always free to purchase their harvest and take it home to cook for yourself. This is definitely one of our favorite spots for fish and chips, but every so often we splurge on a seafood kabob.
The C Restaurant
There’s so many reasons to come and visit The C Restaurant in the InterContinental Clement Monterey hotel. For one, you get an incredible view of the Monterey Bay. For another, we’ve never had a dish here that we don’t like — which is why we made sure to include them on our Local Seafood Tour. Feel free to join us for that so we can show you our favorites on the menu, but if you head there on your own, we always suggest the rock cod tacos or the Monterey-style cioppino. They only offer seafood approved by the Seafood Watch at Monterey Bay Aquarium, and with breakfast, lunch, dinner, and happy hour options, there’s never a bad excuse to enjoy a dish with a view from here.
Wild Plum Cafe
If words like “from-scratch,” “organic,” “sustainable,” “locally produced,” are words you love when choosing a place to eat, we recommend checking out the Wild Plum Cafe. They were featured on the Food Network’s Diner’s, Drive-ins, and Dives, and they refer to themselves as a “third place.” That, in essence, establishes them as something of a home away from home, and with a comfortable and inviting atmosphere, they excel in doing just that. Both a café and a bistro, they offer breakfast, lunch, and catering services. You can probably find at least one of us chowing down on a Pacific Steamer with eggs, smoked salmon, cream cheese, scallions, Parmesan cheese and tomato caponata. No wonder Guy Fieri had to include them on his show!
Passionfish
Everything on the menu at Passionfish in Pacific Grove is satiating and jam-packed with flavor. They also have one of the most comprehensive wine lists in the area, which always gives us a reason to visit again and try something new. They’re a dinner-only restaurant, but the fact that they choose their products daily from small farms, farmer’s markets, and fisheries probably has a lot to do with that. This is a great place to come together to enjoy food and wine in the presence of those you love! We think the Albacore Tuna with pepper-fennel seed, sesame crust, bacon-wilted chard, cauliflower purée, and bacon gremolata is well worth a try, but we’ll let you decide for yourself.
Sardine Factory
The Sardine Factory has been a staple on Cannery Row since 1968. It’s been in movies, most notably Clint Eastwood’s Play Misty For Me.” It has a wine cellar that’s unrivaled on the peninsula, with over 2,000 labels and 20,000 bottles to choose from. Plus, they offer a wide array of local and sustainable seafood! Some of their local seafood entrees include abalone and sand dabs, but their name wouldn’t be fitting if they didn’t have sardines on the menu, either. Whether local or not, they’ve got a list of seafood on the approved sustainable seafood guide, and we really can’t get enough of those sand dabs. Pair that with a local Sauvignon Blanc and we couldn’t be any happier!
Wild Fish
The next time you’re booking a private tour or looking for a good place to have dinner, try out Wild Fish in Pacific Grove (or, hey, if you’re out in Little River you can visit them there, too.) The pictured spicy crab dish was the winner of 2019 Best Bite in Monterey, and we can totally see why! They, too, source everything off their menu from local fisherman, farmers, and foragers, and their menu varies with the changing crops. They were also included as one of the restaurants in Get Hooked Monterey Bay week, so be sure to stop by and see what all the fuss is about. Additionally, every Tuesday is Locals night featuring locally caught rock cod fish and chips. There’s also a listing of the fisherman and fishing vessels used for every catch, so you’ll always know exactly where it came from.
BONUS: Monterey Abalone Company
It might not be a restaurant, but the Monterey Abalone Company at the end of commercial Wharf II is well worth a visit! Their primary goal is to duplicate the abalone’s natural environment of growth in the ocean. That way, they’re of the highest quality when they hit the table. You can order the freshly-harvested abalone in store, but be aware they only sell live, in-the-shell abalone. They offer cleaning and cooking tips for preparing the abalone yourself, but it’s a great place to visit for educational purposes if nothing else either way.
