Downtown Monterey restaurants
 

My husband and I will be going to Monterey this weekend, primarily to go to the beer festival on Saturday. I am looking for some breakfast and dinner recommendations. We are staying at Casa Munras and I am looking for restaurants within walking distance (1 mile or closer) of the hotel. We like all types of food except sushi.

Last time we stayed downtown, we went to Ambrosia Indian Bistro, Santa Lucia Cafe, and Rosine's. We liked them all and would happily return, but want to explore other downtown restaurants as well. For breakfast, we are definitely looking for a full-breakfast to keep us going for awhile, esspecially the day of the beer festival - don't want to show up on an empty stomach :)

I see that there are a few taquerias in the area - any favorites there? Some good Mexican food might just hit the spot after the festival.

Thanks in advance!

Topping to the Monterey folks will see this.

Paris Bakery on Bonifacio Place (practically around the corner from your hotel) for a light breakfast. For the big eater, actually Denny's is right across the street.

When you say "downtown" there's not a whole lot of places, so there's not a whole lot of places that I haven't tried. Nothing that I'd really say is not to be missed. Although at the hotel itself, Esteban's is pretty up there, in my opinion. We tried their signature paella, and it was pretty tasty. Liked the atmosphere there as well.

If you weren't going to a beer festival (tell me more about it -- my husband went to the one in Sacramento earlier this year!), I won't recommend going to Bistro Moulin, which is my new favorite place -- only because it being a French bistro, you'll have to imbibe in wine. And if you do that after a day of beer drinking -- well we all know that certain food doesn't taste as good coming back up as it does going down.

We haven't tried it yet, but I heard the Turtle Bay (close to hotel) is pretty darned good, and it being part of the Fishwife family, you can't go wrong!

http://www.turtlebay.tv/

I should have mentioned that Turtle Bay is a tacqueria.

Thanks for the recommendations. I saw Turtle Bay last time we were in the area, and it looked promising. We might have to check it out.

We used to LOVE Montrio, but it's been at least 10 years since we've been there, so I can't honestly recommend it at this point. But I'm curious as to whether it's still good...

Yes, it's better than ever! We dined at Montrio for the first time this past Sat. Yummy small plates, we had 2,the Artichoke Frittata and Prawns. Loved the Braised Short Rib entree and the White Chocolate Bread Pudding was amazing. A new fave in Monterey! ***kim*** ((#))