40 Best Restaurants in The North Coast, California

Nearly every seat in this urbane bistro has a view of its most important feature—a wood-fired brick oven used to prepare everything from local Kumamoto oysters and creatively topped pizzas to wild-mushroom cobbler. Soups, several well-constructed salads, grilled meats, and seafood round out the menu.

In a weather-beaten shack that doesn't look like much but whose outdoor tables perch over the Russian River Estuary near the Pacific, this order-at-the-counter health-oriented café attracts meandering tourists, serious cyclists tackling curvy Highway 1, and West County residents soaking up the views and countercultural vibe. Sandwiches and salads, many incorporating locally caught fish and seafood, are the lunch mainstays, with avocado toast, eggs cooked various ways, and yogurt-granola parfait among the breakfast selections.

An oasis of low-key sophistication in downtown Ukiah, Cultivo is known for inventive wood-fired pizzas (try the braised-pork or wild-boar-sausage pie, or go meatless with one starring trumpet mushrooms) but also plates up oysters on the half shell, fish tacos, a gem salad with bacon and buttermilk–blue cheese dressing, and entrées like grilled salmon and a hefty porterhouse. Meals are served on thick wooden tables in the downstairs bar area and mezzanine; there's also sidewalk dining out front.

Ask Bodega Bay residents where they go for superfresh, reasonably priced seafood in a casual setting, and many will suggest this unassuming order-at-the-counter shack. Boston clam chowder, seafood tacos and sandwiches, and fish (or calamari, crab cakes, or prawns) and chips are the hands-down favorites, along with raw or cooked oysters.

The chef at this colorfully lighted, contemporary, Old Town restaurant applies Western European techniques to mostly locally sourced ingredients in dishes that might include a wood-fired steak slathered in sauce au poivre, fish with saffron rice, or a mushroom-laden meatless cassoulet. Many patrons start with a classic or specialty cocktail or one of the clever mocktails.

Aided by her mother, Barbara, a former pastry chef at famed Chez Panisse in Berkeley, Franny, turns out sophisticated and inventive baked goods. Morning favorites include scones and sweet and savory pastries; there are fruit tarts and strawberry-apricot crisps, plus a mouthwatering assortment of cookies, candy, jams, and jellies for indulging anytime.

Japanese gastropubs known as izakaya inspired the menu and ambience of this sedate wood-paneled restaurant serving pickle, sashimi, gyoza, miso soup, and karaage (fried chicken) appetizers and slightly larger skewered items that might include mushrooms, pork belly, various chicken parts, and Wagyu beef. The husband and wife owners contributed to top Northern California restaurants before embarking on this well-received venture.

At the Sacred Rock Inn's fine-dining restaurant, meals are served in intimate room with an open-truss ceiling, hardwood floors, and tables inlaid with abalone-shell fragments. The chef prepares seasonal California coastal cuisine based on garden-grown and foraged produce sourced from impeccable purveyors, and the menu usually includes duck, fish, beef, and vegetarian dishes.

The chef at this ocean-bluff inn's redwood-paneled dining room describes the Mendocino Coast's most intricate meal—an 8- to 12-course, prix-fixe extravaganza—as "hyperlocal" seasonal cuisine revolving around seafood and vegetables (many of the latter grown on-site). The artistry displayed in every dish lives up to the raves the restaurant has received from local and national food writers.

Set in a two-story house on a quiet country road north of town, this casually sophisticated restaurant—one of the North Coast's best places to eat—is often packed with people enjoying mesquite-grilled fresh seafood, beef brisket, St. Louis–style ribs, and vegetarian dishes. The garden setting and candlelight stir thoughts of romance.

Straightforward seafood preparations and seasonal cocktails best sipped from the ocean-view Whale Watch Bar rank high among the pleasures of a visit to the Little River Inn resort, opened in 1939 and still run by members of the same family. Start with clam chowder, flash-fried calamari, or Dungeness crab cakes before settling into cioppino, the day's catch, or a steak.

Captain Heather Sears leads her all-woman crew of "girls gone wild for wild-caught seafood" that heads oceanward on the Princess troller, returning with some of the seafood served at their harbor-view restaurant under the Noyo River Bridge. Chowder, crab or lobster bisque, crab rolls, shrimp po'boys, raw or barbecued oysters, and seasonal wild seafood plates that might include sablefish, salmon, rock cod, or prawns count among the stars here.

This stylishly funky restaurant's chef, Perry Hoffman, got his start (at age five) working in the kitchen of Napa Valley's The French Laundry, which his grandmother founded and later sold to Thomas Keller. As an adult, Hoffman made a name for himself at three highly praised Napa and Sonoma spots before returning to Boonville in 2019 to prepare prix-fixe, California farm-to-table cuisine (including a few original French Laundry dishes) at his extended family's hotel.

Before a day of hiking and exploring, fuel up on organic espresso and coffee drinks, freshly baked breads and pastries, house-made granola, frittatas, and bagels with lox, chèvre, local jams, poached eggs, and other toppings. The lunch lineup includes soups, salads, and panini. This cozy and art-filled place is great for people-watching and mingling with locals.

A garden of heirloom and exotic plantings surrounds this popular restaurant inside a yellow Victorian cottage. Local ingredients find their way into dishes that might include Oaxacan-style ceviche, smash burgers, pizzas from a wood-fired brick oven, fish and prawn tacos, beef bourguignon, and oven-roasted cauliflower with house-made mole verde.

Amid Old Town's vibrant dining district, this rollicking spot in a former saloon and brothel turns out consistently fresh locally caught seafood—steamed clams, grilled snapper, oyster burgers, homemade chowder, and quite a bit more. Soups, salads, steaks, and burgers are on the menu, too, and breakfast, served only on weekends, is popular. After your meal, stroll a short way to Living the Dream Ice Cream for a gelato by the harbor.

Candy-cap mushroom (tastes like maple syrup) and black raspberry chocolate chunk are among this fun ice-cream shop's top-selling flavors. Chocolate, mocha almond fudge, and ginger appear year-round, supplemented by blackberry-cheesecake, pumpkin, eggnog, and other seasonal offerings.

In a rough-hewn structure that, for years, housed a beloved coffee haunt called the Horn of Zeese—the local "Boontling" lingo for a cup (horn) of coffee (zeese)—international wine expert Wendy Lamer operates this combination wine bar and gourmet mini-mart. Well versed in the local wine scene and generous with advice, she pours wines by the glass or bottle and serves up sliders and other "disco snacks."

Conversation softens around sunset at this ocean-view restaurant whose chefs pride themselves on preparing meals from mostly local ingredients, as diners' eyes drift westward to often spectacular light shows. With such fresh source materials—seafood from the day's Bodega Bay catch, cheeses crafted as near as 5 miles east, and some vegetables grown even closer—the house culinary philosophy mirrors that of many a Sonoma Coast winery: minimal but wise intervention to bring out the best in them.

You'll often see cyclists sitting on benches outside Elk's general store, wolfing down well-made salads and deli sandwiches after scaling the coastal highway's hills. The staffers at this modest pit stop for all travelers are consistently welcoming, and the ocean views is a bonus.

Brave the lines at this seafood shack that doubles as a bait-and-tackle store to feast on crab sandwiches on sourdough, catch-of-the-day fish tacos, and fresh Tomales Bay oysters raw or barbecued (the latter with sauces that include piquant chorizo butter). The family owners place a premium on quality and sustainably produced ingredients.

The culinary influences are Deep South and Californian at this vegetarian (mostly vegan) restaurant with salmon-color walls, teal tables, and white trim. The chefs' flair for the dramatic might exhibit itself in carrot-cake waffles at Sunday brunch, hush puppies and beet-dyed deviled eggs as happy-hour nibbles, and dinnertime fried-green-tomato biscuit sliders and Mississippi Delta–style hot tamales.

Grass-fed-beef burgers, pulled-pork and pork-schnitzel sandwiches, and cod ceviche are among the popular items this hip-casual restaurant serves all day, with heritage pork chop, rotisserie chicken, and similar plates appearing for dinner. Well-selected breads and buns, crispy fries with the burgers, perfect pickles with the sandwiches, and slivers of fresh ginger in the ceviche elevate the farm-to-table comfort fare, much of it showcasing ingredients from local purveyors.

A plaque out front hints at the layers of history that have unfolded in this hangout's redbrick 1880s structure. The mood's invariably upbeat in the bar, even more so in the courtyard beer garden, where patrons chow down on burgers, sandwiches, chicken wings, and other pub grub.

The chef at this small downtown restaurant with a clean but no-nonsense decor serves fresh-off-the-boat seafood, some caught locally but never too far afield. The emphasis on letting the main ingredient speak for itself extends to the meats and produce, which come from respected area purveyors.

Boonville locals and frequent visitors love Lauren's for its down-home vibe and well-sourced comfort food—vegetarian and ground-beef burgers, hand-cut fries, chicken tostadas, fish-and-chips, and Thai-curry bowls. Chocolate brownies and (seasonally) apple tarts and honey-baked pears are among the desserts worth a trip on their own.