Drakes Sonoma Coast — Restaurant in Sebastopol

You can go to a restaurant for the food, the ambiance, the views. Not so often can you find all of it together in one perfect place. Drake's is one. It sits in its own building below Bodega Bay Lodge, overlooking a wide sweep of Doran Beach below, Bodega Head off in the distance, and offerings magnificent sunsets into the Pacific. The northern California coast is almost totally undeveloped. Unlike other coastal areas in America.... indeed all over the world... this coastline is preserved for wildlife, for environmental integrity, and for a few state and county beaches and parks. So the tiny number of restaurants (and hotels) with views and access to beaches and trails are most precious.

The food at Drake's is almost equal to it's rarified setting. It's not the most creative menu in Sonoma County. Go to Healdsburg or Petaluma or Glen Ellen for knock-your-socks-off creative. But this familiar food is perfectly prepared. Their daily specials kick up creativity a notch. If they offer the lamb-stuffed peppers as a starter, try them. Their crab cake is different every day, and the fresh crab is generously portioned. They specialize in local cheeses. Actually local food producers have partnered with Drake's to showcase many artisan food producers, nearby ranches and farms, and all the bounty of Sonoma County wineries, which is why the food is so special. It is FRESH and local. Try the gnocchi, made with Bellwether Farms ricotta. Or the delightful Liberty Duck Breast, a strain of Pekin duck raised by Jim Reichardt in nearby Penngrove. Order any dish with mushrooms grown nearby at a pioneer mushroom farm which grows more varieties of culinary and nutraceutical mushrooms than any farm in America. Drake's sausages and meats come from a renown local butcher. The produce is Sonoma County proud.

Then there are the wines. Four pages of wines mostly from the 18 (eighteen!) separate vitaculture areas of Sonoma County, with a couple of sparkling wines (like 2 Schramsbergs) from Napa. I LOVE the Schramsberg J Schram Rose, but Sonoma County's Domaine Carneros Le Reve Blanc de Blanc or the Iron Horse Ocean Reserve will satisfy your bubbly yearnings. Enjoy dozens of local still wines by the glass or by the bottle, with a wide range of price points. One featured is by Carol Shelton, one of a small but growing group of woman-owned wineries. Her Karma Reserve Red Blend is really good with Drake's steak or lamb.

Drake's dining room looks out onto the seascape below, and even most of the non window tables have a water view. The dining room is tasteful, quiet. The views speak.

Drake's isn't officially open for lunch. Instead they seat you in their bar, Fireside Lounge, a beautiful room with a large stone fireplace and 4 magnificent glass mosaic hanging lamps. They recently redecorated, and the copper and brass mantel is impressive, with a dramatic matching mirror hanging above. However, they decided to relocate their bar on the window wall overlooking the sea. ??? WHY? The few barseats do have a view, perhaps, but the rest of the bar does not. A major misstep. If you're hankering for a cocktail, the bar can accommodate. Try their Ring of Fire, a smokey slightly spicy upscale version of a Margarita...much better. Or The Perfect Man, a not-your- Daddy's- Manhattan that will make you smile.

A trick: You can order Drake's dinner menu in the bar. And you can order the bar's lunch menu and ask to be seated in the Drake's dining room with a view.

Drake's serves breakfast with lots of delicious choices....well loved by the guests who stay in Bodega Bay Lodge just above Drake's. Try their Christo's Running Fence Breakfast Sandwich (his art installation was nearby), with local ham, local cheese; or the Bodega Bay Dungeness Crab Eggs Benedict. They have children's menus for families with kids.

This restaurant is not VERY expensive, but it is not inexpensive. Factor in the wow setting. Wow! Dine here when you visit Sonoma County. ...

Rude, slow, average, and inconsistent.

We called ahead to let them know we'd have two fewer people, but when we arrived the table was still set for 8. When our server learned the size of our party, she shamed us, saying, "Okay, well you're my whole section, so (shrug)."

I told her we'd be ordering plenty, and that we would make things good for her. Again the shrug. Uncomfortably, we ordered cocktails and bread to start. These items came out pretty quickly, but it was a full 45 minutes before we could order the rest.

The rest ended up being 6 appetizers, 6 entrees, another round of cocktails, and a bottle of red for the table. Our middle aged server had no idea she had a table with a big budget for this dinner because we don't dress the part. It was a work retreat, and we go hard on the company card (dinner for 6 was over $1k).

The food was okay. The oysters were alright (one plate baked, one raw), and the clam chorizo appetizer had a broth that was really terrific. The bread dipped in that broth was the highlight (clams and chorizo themselves were not special). Cesar salad was whatever, watermelon salad was pretty good, beet salad was really just beets (texture was good, flavor was only the strong beet flavor with no memorable accents). The first cocktail I ordered was really terrific, but the second (same drink) was rough. I don't know what happened between orders (same bartender), but all of our second round was sub-par.

The hosts didn't clear the apps when they brought our entrees, and just kind of shoved them onto the table, forcing us to move and stack them ourselves. My $56 ribeye was over 20% gristle, and the fingerling potatoes on the side were unimaginative and mostly without flavor beyond salt.

Once the full order was placed, our server brightened up considerably and was on hand for the most part, but it really sucks that once she judged us to be working class, she chose to shame and ignore us. I was in the service industry for 16 years before going into tech, and when working class folks save up to eat at a nice restaurant, that means a lot to them. For her to treat us like that at her age tells me this wasn't her first time behaving like this.

If you're in this area and looking for a fine dining experience, try Terrapin Creek. For about $400 less, we enjoyed much better food (makes this place look like an Applebee's) with caring and attentive service. I cannot wait to write that 5 star review.

Drake's, on the other hand, clearly needs to take a look in the mirror and...

This restaurant was definitely the lowest point of my stay at Bodega Bay. How it has such a high star rating, does not make sense to me. I strongly recommend skipping this restaurant. The experience started off shaky. There is not enough parking for the amount of patrons this restaurant can service. We were seated by the window which had excellent views of the bay. Hence the three stars for atmosphere. My first dish was the soup of the day, New England Clam Chowder. It did taste pretty good, not the best one I have ever had but good. My husband outside of getting the wrong order at first, his baked clams were good. After glancing around the room we noticed that people were provided with bread. We never got bread nor asked if we wanted some. The main course…oh the main course. The positive: the sauce for the scallops was delicious. The scallops could of been cooked better but most of the plate was edible. Now the very not so positive: The ribeye steak was suppose to be cooked medium rare and it was tartare, had no flavor and I had to send it back. A manager stopped by our table and told us a round of drinks would be on the house for the inconvenience. We were grateful. The return of the steak, which took a while, was still not cooked properly. Now it was on the rare side but at least edible. So instead of sending it back I just ate most of it. The fingerling potatoes were bland, the pickled onions did not go with the meal. The fried onions were stale. I put a lot of salt on them and it did not help. This was a $56 steak!!! Not worth it. The dessert was good. I had the Pavlova. Avoid this...