Lunada Garden Bistro — Restaurant in Cayucos

LUNADA GARDEN BISTRO, a unique, historic, beautiful eatery, serving California cuisine.

The bistro was created because of mountainous terrain and powerful coastal winds. Let me explain:

It took six, sometimes eight draft horses, hitched to a Concord stagecoach, averaging five miles per hour, to overcome the steep trails of central California's coast.

Traveling was uncomfortable: Concord coaches used "Throughbraces," (thick leather straps) to suspend the four foot wide, nine passenger compartment. Side-to-side sway jarred passengers. The firm, damask-leather covered benches offer little comfort, during the nearly fifty miles between "waystations."

Rest stops were greatly appreciated.

In 1876, the Cottage Hotel, a stagecoach waystation, was built by the Pedraitas family, in Cayucos California, a few hundred feet from the Pacific Ocean.

"Diablo Winds," often referred to as "Zephyrs," are brutal winds that whip off the Pacific. To protect the horses' overnight stay, a deep trough was cut behind the waystation. Inside this man-made depression, the "Devil Winds" soften.

The last stagecoach left Cayucos, May 5, 1894. Ruts cut into the rocky trail, by Concord's steel-rimmed wheels, are still visible.

A century later, "Hoppe's," a modern California restaurant, opened in the restored "Way Station." The sides of the protective trough were planted with wild flowers, attracting thousands of butterflies. The dining room's eighteenth century, decor displays the history of the structure. Period furniture provides comfortable seating in the reception area. The bar's masculine ambience is part gentlemen's club; part Western Saloon. The multi-level garden is reminiscent of an intimate, European country bistro.

Meals are served inside the original building and outside on the bricked patio and trough floor. Umbrella protected, intimate tables are scattered throughout the dense garden. Only the kitchen is modernized.

Chef, Fernando, lovingly maintained the restaurant, bar, and garden. Several years later, Chef Fernando's Sous Chef, Ishmael, took over.

Chef Ishmael's menu continues to offer conventional proteins, as well as, gluten-free, and vegan dishes. Whenever possible, meals will be prepared to fulfill a customer's dietary requirements. The wine and beer list is extensive and includes many local California selections.

For our brunch, we sat next to the "trough," flirting with butterflies.

RESERVATIONS ARE HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

STUFF: Carry-outs are available. Wheelchair accessible only from the garden at the rear of the restaurant. From Ocean Avenue, enter the North passageway, on the front of the eaterie's left side. The patio is dog friendly.

There are two bathrooms, inside the restaurant, and a difficult to find, restroom on the north side of the patio. All are modernized, and wheelchair accessible.

Free street parking.

MORE STUFF: Stagecoach travel in the 1800s costs about 3.5 cents per mile. Considering inflation, a stagecoach trip will run, in today's dollars, well over $1 per mile. Commercial jet travel, in today's dollars, about 7 cents per mile.

Hank and Maryellen Eiseman renamed The Cottage Hotel as The Way Station and planted the beautiful...

Very disappointing. We ate there on Wednesday night at about 6pm. The place was almost empty (not a good sign). We went there on the recommendation of the hotel across the street and because of the dog-friendly patio. We hoped to celebrate our anniversary with a nice meal. I ordered the ribeye, medium rare and got a piece of well-done marbly meat that was no more than a half-inch thick and smothered with a thin lemony sauce. In my opinion, there's no way that meat was a ribeye cut, but more like a flank steak with lots of fat in it. I told the server and he offered to bring another one and it's replacement was also half inch thick and not much improved at all (the thinness of the cut would have been hard to cook medium rare). Ordering a ribeye, I never expected to get meat that thin. Why didn't they tell us in advance that they were all out of ribeye instead of substituting a cheaper cut for the same price? My spouse ordered a New York steak and we don't believe it was a New York steak either. It looked more like a filet mignon but tasted grainy. Two steaks at about $30 each, a shared salad and two coffees came to (with tip) $100 all total for a huge disappointment. On a positive note, the server was nice albeit apparently inexperienced and patio atmosphere was pleasant. Bottom line: If food had been good, we'd likely have eaten there several times during our stay at Shoreline Inn (where we love to stay) across the street because the location is so convenient. Considering that we felt deceived by the menu descriptions and such bad food, we will never go there again and we are compelled to tell others because $100 for two mediocre (at best) meals is unacceptable and they never offered to comp either one of the meals. So..we just paid it and left rather than make a fuss, resolving to never go back and to spread the word so others will know that this place is, in our opinion, NOT at all worthy of the great...

This place absolutely ruined my wedding day. They couldn’t handle a party of about 30 people. I booked this restaurant a month in advance, so they knew I was coming with a big group. They called me an hour before my reservation time to confirm my reservation and to tell me they couldn’t accommodate my party in the place they originally said they would put us. Mind you, I had called them two days prior to confirm that everything was good. The whole back garden area is nice, so I wasn’t worried about seating location too much. When I got there, they immediately started hassling me about how many checks there would be and whether or not they would need to pull waiters from other tables to help serve us. Ultimately they decided one server was enough. This was a mistake, however, as that one waiter took over an hour just to take anyone’s order. Our reservation was for 6:30, and it was nearly 9 before anyone got to eat. Instead of enjoying a beautiful evening with my family and friends at the end of my wedding day, all I got were comments about how terrible the service was and whether or not we should all just leave. Imagine a table of 30 just leaving because no one is serving them. We had to have our food brought out to us in boxes so we could eat at home after we got our down to sleep. When we did finally get to eat, the food was just ok. It definitely did not match up to its price point, particularly the steak. We will never be...