Food destinations within easy reach of Carmel-by-the-Sea, worth the early start.
Food destinations within easy reach of Carmel-by-the-Sea. worth the train, the rental car or the early start.
Famous for: Sun-warmed winery tasting rooms where the village pours grow their grapes
Carmel Valley Village is where the grapes behind Carmel's tasting rooms grow, reached by a valley road lined with winery patios such as Folktale's estate.
Famous for: Cannery Row seafood, the aquarium's sustainable-fish gospel and working wharf chowder
Monterey pairs its aquarium with a working seafood town near Carmel: chowder samples down Old Fisherman's Wharf and Cannery Row a stroll north.
Famous for: Sustainable seafood at Passionfish, a Victorian town with tide pools between courses
Pacific Grove earns Carmel's dinner drive with Passionfish, the Lighthouse Avenue room that made sustainable seafood a Peninsula institution.
Famous for: The Ambrosia burger on Nepenthe's cliff terrace above the Pacific
Big Sur turns lunch from Carmel into a pilgrimage: Nepenthe serves its Ambrosia burger on a cliff terrace, daily from 11:30 with dinner to 22:00.
Famous for: The Artichoke Center of the World, plus Phil's world-known cioppino in an 1869 schoolhouse
Castroville, the self-styled Artichoke Center of the World near Carmel, now hosts Phil's Fish Market and its Mama Nina cioppino on Merritt Street.