Bert and I celebrated our 25th Anniversary this year and took a family road trip to the Central Coast.
Instead of doing sad ass takeout and eating it in our room out of styrofoam containers...
we decided to try this place I saw online and also a place we had scoped out earlier. A place with a beautiful garden patio, hence their name, Lunada Garden Bistro.
As you already know, many restaurants recently reopened for in-door dining with social distancing, mask wearing, etc. However, this place had the option of dining in their garden, which we much preferred. Lunada shares patio space with the Way Station and Luna Coffee Bar (the owner is also a co-owner of Lunada) who also have their own parts of the patio sectioned off for their patrons. True to its name, there is indeed a garden and a lovely garden it is...There are flowers of every color in here...planted, potted, vines, trees. Everywhere you look, there is something to delight your eyes. I saw earlier that morning, a "secluded" hidden garden area, not realizing that would be the scene of our dinner. For larger parties, there was even a "sunken garden" area, which was also really pretty.
I don't have too many photos of the gardens but trust me when I say it was gorgeous! Above was the garden niche where we enjoyed our dinner. The service at the restaurant was top notch. We had two servers (wearing masks) who were both awesome, so knowledgeable and attentive.
Our bread with whipped butter. Loved our cobalt water goblets.
I had a Pinot Grigio from Paso Robles while Bert had a Kir Royale garnished with blueberries and a twist of lemon peel.
Very nice!
Our shared appetizer was the lobster avocado rolls with creamy cilantro sauce. These were so delicious with thick pieces of lobster within. I was wishing we had more of this, but no, we wanted to save room for the main courses (see menu here)
Carrots, apparently, were the seasonal vegetables, so it was a bit monotonous seeing carrots on all of the plates. All kidding aside, we enjoyed our dinner here so much. The ambiance, the freshness of the food, the presentation. Everything.
Bert's Surf and Turf - Surf and turf with baseball sirloin, shrimp scampi sauce, on a bed of mashed potatoes and his choice of scallops. This meat so was tender and the sauce was so light with the thick scallops. TC remembered this line, "This is Top Chef, not Top Scallop!" from super old episode of Top Chef where Fabio, one of the contestants complained about another chef's overuse of succulent bivalve. I believe it was from late 2009. In this case, scallops for both me and my husband were welcomed.
TC's Seafood medley in a lemon cream sauce with artichoke hearts and capers and rice pilaf. The seafood included shrimp, scallop, scored squid, mussels, and fish. This was really delicious (she let me have a taste)!
This was my dish - the Bacon wrapped scallops with rice pilaf and Cajun tomato cream sauce. We could really taste the freshness of each ingredient in here. The carrots were not as tender as I would have preferred, but still, garden fresh! (In the online menu, it's described as being served on grits but I'm not complaining - I prefer rice!)
So tender, this scallop and even better wrapped with bacon.
There were three dessert choices - we chose these two, the cheesecake with raspberry coulis and fresh berries and the creme brulee. One of the desserts happened to be comped, which was a pleasant surprise when we were notified by our server. Very generous!
After our dinner (we had started early), there was still time to stroll on the beach. No sun out, but still nice enough to walk south of the pier. TC kept busy on her own at the local skate park.
A tad chilly yes, but time well spent walking with my husband.
Article
"New Cayucos restaurant..." San Luis Obispo Reporter, Aug. 29, 2017
It was nice knowing that this was family owned. I hope they continue their success!
Lunada Garden Bistro
80 North Ocean Ave
Cayucos, CA 93430
(805) 900-5444
www.lunadabardenbistro.com
If you are ever in the Cayucos, this place would be worth the stop!
4 comments:
A Kir Royale, how "posh"; makes me miss Paris CC! One of my favorite aperitifs! A lovely anniversary dinner!
He wanted to try one because I've had them before (but they never looked that fancy!). It was really a nice dinner - everything was perfect, thank you.
so you guys took a mini trip which is nice! how pretty of a place to dine! all that food looked so yummy! i like how it's an anniversary dinner but includes daughter too. :)
Thanks Lynn - it was really such a special place and yes, our daughter was part of our family trip. :)
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