Dining

Now you can enjoy a second honeymoon in San Luis Obispo … a second Honeymoon Café, that is. Located downtown behind the county government center, the festive cafe offers everything from on-the-go coffee drinks to delectable dishes made with local ingredients.

It’s safe to say the Nibble Nook has found its niche. The aptly named restaurant is tucked in the corner of the Cookie Crock shopping area in Morro Bay, and has been serving tasty, no-nonsense fare to its patrons for more than 30 years.

As of December 2008, Giancarlo’s Ristorante Mediterraneo is back and bigger than ever.

Rotisserie chickens may be everywhere these days, but those in the know still go to Popolo, the Monterey Street cafe that essentially introduced them to local palates 19 years ago.

Some folks might shy away from opening a new restaurant on Friday the 13th, but not Kirk and Barrie Sowell, who enthusiastically opened their Frankie and Lola’s Front Street Café on that fateful day in February.

When you think of chocolate, do you also think of green tea, pineapple juice, tequila, basil, roses, curry, chipotle chili or potato chips? If not, you haven’t experienced the exotic world of Tropical Chocolate.

Soto’s Market is 92 years young, and its latest chapter is being crafted by Doug and Beth Lindsay, also owners of the adjacent Sow’s Ear restaurant.

You know those easy-access, pocket-size menus from local restaurants, the ones all neatly displayed in their own custom racks? Well, they're now available on the Web.

If you’re a steak lover in North County, you’ve likely been a fan of the Paso Robles Inn Steakhouse for a very long time.

Every day, hundreds of motorists enter southbound Highway 101 in Pismo Beach without noticing the culinary jewel that is Rosa’s Italian Restaurant.

Drive down Main Street in downtown Templeton any Sunday morning, and the streets are quiet, stores are closed and people are nowhere to be seen. Except, that is, at the corner of Seventh Street, where a small restaurant called Joe’s Place typically has a dozen or more people waiting outside for as long as 30 minutes to get a table and enjoy what owner Joe Ontiveros calls “the best breakfast in town.”

Dining Out

The reopening of The Galley restaurant on Morro Bay’s Embarcadero was a long-awaited highlight for many locals.

The little green house with the quaint picket fence on Spring Street in Paso Robles is a long way from Rome. But this is where Sicilianborn Gaetano Marsano decided to open his restaurant two years ago.

Those who miss the old Denny’s restaurant at Calle Joaquin Street and Los Osos Valley Road in San Luis Obispo can take comfort that a better diner has opened in its place.

My visit to Señor Sancho’s restaurant actually started when I was sitting in my hairdresser’s salon, musing about the Mexican food I used to eat in Southern California, and wishing I could find the same in Paso Robles. She said I didn’t have to go far—Señor Sancho’s. And I am happy I did.

I rarely try unusual and unfamiliar dishes at Japanese restaurants for a couple of reasons: the high price and uncertainty about whether or not I’ll like the unusual dish.

On a street lined with stores selling dunes paraphernalia and an old fish and chips house, a small upscale Italian restaurant has found a home.

The fact that Bella Notte — a new Italian restaurant in Paso Robles — is located next to the Food4Less might fool you, but this is not fast food or a national pasta chain. It’s the realized dream of two brothers who have worked in the food service industry for years, and who are now making Northern Italian food with authentic flavors and ultra-fresh ingredients.

Ellie Ross always noted the quaint building at 1435 W. Grand Ave. in Grover Beach when she drove past.