Brydge — Restaurant in Cambria

OUTSTANDING SERVICE ! On Monday my wife and I arrived here for our 12.30pm lunch reservation which I made with a server named Declan the previous day. It was unexpectedly quiet when we walked inside. A friendly server named Jamie welcomed us warmly and let us choose where we wanted to sit....in a nice warm dining room at the front of the cute transformed house. Jamie brought us menus and a filled glass carafe of water with 2 glasses straight off the bat. I asked him if Elaine the owner / chef was in.....no was his reply. Another server named Declan told us on Sunday ( April 28th ) that Elaine was celebrating her birthday that day. Ha ha my wife's birthday was on April 27th. MOVING ON ! I asked Jamie to bring me a Silva Brewing Hazy IPA ( from Paso Robles ) which he took care of promptly. We surveyed the very interesting menu at our corner table. My ice cold hazy IPA tasted very refreshing......a nice tall chilled glass would have been more appropriate. We decided to choose a bunch of small plates starting with Olive Oil Potatoes ( aioli, smoked pimenton with bottarga shaved tableside ), Roasted Mushrooms ( Grana Padano, truffle oil, breadcrumbs ), Grilled Bread & Butters ( grass fed Irish butter, anchovy, pecan ) and Pork Meatballs ( tomato-piquillo sauce, orange oil, Grana Padano ). It was hard to believe we were the only diners in the house....maybe dinner is the big thing ! Every now and then we could hear Jamie chatting with people enquiring at the front entrance. A couple did come in and settled at a table on the back patio. WHOO HOO ! At around 1.15pm Jamie started bringing out our lunch order.....it was all on the table within a couple of minutes. EVERYTHING LOOKED FABULOUS ! We love small plates..plenty of variety. The Olive Oil Potatoes tasted sensational....as good as it gets. We happily devoured the Roasted Mushrooms, Pork Meatballs with the scrumptious flat bread and crazy good butters. In fact we had to ask Jamie for more flatbread ( we paid for another serve of Grilled Bread & Butters ). DESSERT ! Not a huge choice but enough to satisfy. The Dark Chocolate Pudding sounded good once Jamie had explained it was not really a pudding. I asked about the Pistachio Gelato ( it would have been nice with the pudding ) but Jamie said they were out...a problem with the supplier. So we went with the Dark Chocolate Pudding ( flake salt ) which came out in a cute little bowl atop a plate. It tasted very rich and comforting...I would compare it to an Italian Budino which is very popular in many restaurants. We totally enjoyed our lunch experience here...thank you Jamie and the talented kitchen staff. If we hadn't been leaving for Santa Barbara the next morning we would have been keen to come back for dinner. A...

So often when I dine out restaurants over-promise and under-deliver, but Brydge exceeded my expectations at every turn!

A beautiful, cozy little historic house on a charming street in the lovely town of Cambria in California’s Central Coast welcomes you with soft tea lights glowing on simply set tables. Our server was warm, friendly, attentive, and knowledgeable, explaining the small plate and larger, family-size options. Most of Brydge’s offerings are organic, many locally sourced. The menu is small, but what they do offer they do beautifully.

We started with the Butter Flight, housemade flatbread accompanied by a “flight” of three housemade butters. The bread was still warm from the oven, so the butter melted into its crevices beautifully. All three were sublime. Our entree choice was the shared/family Roast Half Chicken, which came with a lovely mixed green salad in a house vinaigrette dotted with feta and some fresh herbs. We also ordered the Roast Carrots with Honey and Lavender, which were utterly perfect with the chicken.

The Chicken came on a generous platter accompanied by a divine creamy polenta, some olives, and a nice lemony jus. The honey lavender glaze on the carrots was perfection - just a subtle hint of lavender, not the perfumey bomb you so often encounter. And this is what I think Brydge and Chef Elaine really nail: simple food, BEAUTIFULLY executed. It is the way I love to cook and eat, yet so rarely find in a restaurant world that seems more concerned with pretentious theatre than good food.

Desserts at Brydge were similarly excellent, a Pistachio Gelato that was somehow simultaneously unctuous and angelic without being too sweet, and a Chocolate Seasalt Mousse thingy that had me ready to scoop out the little pot it came in with my fingers like a delighted child it was so good.

Dinner at Brydge was a delight from first taste of beautiful butter to last lingering note of chocolate and pistachio melting on my tongue.

We brought our own bottle of Pinot Noir (this is Central Coast wine country, after all!) and the restaurant’s very reasonable corkage fee was another pleasant surprise. Dinner for two with tip for an EXTRAORDINARY meal came in under $200. Highly, highly recommend that you seek out this quietly elegant, inviting, and utterly delicious spot the next time you find yourself in the...

I have already written this on Yelp and wanted to share here too.

This is a strange review to write since I'll go with the questionable stuff first and then the good parts of the restaurant later.

My friends and I went to this place on a Saturday night and after looking at the menu, we decided we would try the prime rib-eye steak. On the physical menu, the price was listed as $68 for the steak. However, we overheard a table next to us question their bill, because they too had ordered the steak thinking it was $68, but they were charged $86. When we placed our order for the steak, the staff explained to us that there was a price change in the steak, and it is not $68. The price is $86. The staff member said she wanted us to know about the price change, because 2 tables were unaware tonight when they ordered. My friends and I agreed to go ahead with our order. In hindsight now, I wonder if this was a restaurant price-gouging that night to their customers, or truly a mishap on the restaurant for not updating the menu properly to reflect the accurate price. This is questionable to me now, because the price of the steak is a significant difference, especially compared to restaurants such as Fleming's, and an almost $20 difference seems excessive and questionable. The steak was good, but not worth almost $90 in my opinion.

One of the salads that came with the steak had a very tart dressing that overpowered the salad for us, so we recommend if you get that, just be prepared. However, our meal was overall good, but I don't feel it reflects the price for what we paid. We had the beet salad, grilled prawns, and garlic bread with different flavors of butter.

As for service, we received great service. Sage, our waitress, was incredibly patient, warm, and sweet. She even brought us extra bread, which we so appreciate given the butter varieties we ordered to eat bread with. She really made the experience welcoming for us.

This place is located next to Brydge Inn, literally. The lights weren't working outside the restaurant that night, so we got lost initially. The restaurant is an old cottage-looking, charming house converted into a restaurant. The décor is...