I'm wondering if the restaurant you have in mind is Duarte's in Pescadero. It's been around over 100 years and it's not real pretty, but it's got some character and we like their artichoke soup and green chile soup. It's south of Half Moon Bay, so it would actually be between Santa Cruz and HMB.
http://www.duartestavern.com/

If you're going to spend any time in Santa Cruz and you want some good fish, go to Riva out on the wharf.
http://www.metroactive.com/papers/cr...riva-0033.html

I see you answered your own question at the same time I was replying, (and I don't know Plouf's but I'm not a mussel girl), but I have one more link for you that you may find useful and then I'll be quiet:

http://www.sunset.com/sunset/travel/...638624,00.html

SC, please don't be quiet! If it wasn't for you, I'd still be vacillating between north of SF or south of SF.

I did a search using different verbiage and found several restaurant posts. Some of these are really quite funny and informative -- I know to stay away from the wharf restaurants!

Seafood place was undoubetly Sam's Chowder house just north of Half Moon Bay. It's only about 1 1/2 yrs old, georgeous views of the ocean, lots of seafood on the menu (excellent calamari - perhaps my favorite), outdoor heated terrace if the weather is nice, and lots of tables next to the windows - opens at 11:30.

If it were my anniversary, I would want to go to Farallon. Very dramatic decor - you'll probably see nothing like it elsewhere, good food - lots of seafood options. Reserve several weeks ahead & tell them it's your anniversary & you would like their best table. It's not far from Union Square.

BTW, I would not go to Plouf - it doesn't seem like an anniversary place to me. I'm a big mussel fan (cook them at home & have them when we're in France), and I was dissapointed with them at Plouf. Duarte's has no views - we had lunch there this week and it's OK - perhaps more of a novelty. My prawns were Denny's quality. Soup was great and my wife's crab sandwich was good.

Stu Dudley

Thanks for the advice Stu. We will check out Sam's Chowder House too.

Regarding Plouf, it wasn't an anniversary option, more of a lunch thingy. I love good mussels and cook them at home often, so I guess that knocks Plouf off my list. (nothing worse than bad mussels.)

I've read about Farallon and have it as one of my anniversary options. I'm thrilled you concur!

As always, thank you.

Mary

Hey Mary, we're still expecting you to do the northern redwoods loop someday. Maybe in that motorhome.

** Castanoa**

Has anyone been? I found this the other day while perusing and then read the blurb in the Sunset link SC provided.

There is a Casanova restaurant in Carmel that's quite nice. Has an outside dining section.

http://www.casanovarestaurant.com/

Stu Dudley

Stu,

Castanoa is a "lodge" of sorts by Pescadera. I should have listed the entire name -- Castanoa Coast Lodge.

The Casanova Restaurant looks so cute! Sort of like the Shadowbrook Restaurant I found that's located in Capitola.

Also, I am reading that there is a difference between trolley cars and cable cars. Is this true? If so, which are the tourist ones?

Thanks, Mary

It's Costanoa (and Pescadero). Costanoa has all sorts of accommodations from the lodge rooms to small wooden cabins, canvas tent "bungalows", and tent campsites with a wooden platform for the tent and electricity--you provide the tent.

Cable cars are the main tourist attraction as far as transportation goes. They run by grasping a cable running under the street. Trolleys are powered by electricity from overhead wires, which they connect to by a trolley on top of the vehicle. Most of the trolleys are just buses powered by electricity rather than an engine. But the F Market streetcar line is also a trolley, featuring antique cars from around the world.

The cable cars have the older wooden open cars that are iconic of SF. They run on rails and you can hear the cable running beneath a slot between the rails. There are also private tour buses with cable car bodies, but they are powered by an engine and have rubber tires--they look like cable cars, and advertise themselves as such, but they really aren't.

There are three cable car lines, two start from Powell and Market and run up over Nob Hill to Fishermans Wharf, the Powell-Hyde and Powell-Mason lines. The other runs on California Street from the Embarcadero at the Hyatt Regency up over Nob Hill to Van Ness. There is almost always a long line to get onto the Powell Street cars and there is almost never a line to get onto the California Street line.

Hey thanks Sequoia!

Just had mussels in coconut/chili broth for lunch at Plouf today--they were good as usual. Just a different viewpoint.

SAB, thanks. Both hubby and I love the little devils. I know the opinion is varied but I have a feeling we'll make a stop there for lunch.

STEAKS: I went back to 1999 on Fodors. It seems Alfred's or Harris's are the best? Any opinions?

SAB - if you ever travel to France and have the opportunity to savour the Bouchot mussels from Brittany - you'll be in mussel heaven.

http://www.edulis-distribution.fr/pr...?id=1&chglg=en

Stu Dudley