First penned in 2016 from notes back into 2003, THE RESTAURANT LIST has suffered the past few years from neglect and general malaise in ne AND the industry. Last edited in 2022, it had a PLETHORA of errors, redactions and additions. SOOOOOOOO many restaurants gone. So many new ones. Covid has come and gone, changing the dining landscape forever. FOREVER. Nothing will ever be the same. Covid did to restaurants what 9/11 did to travel. You will be happy to know guilt finally got the best of me and I have gone through THE RESTAURANT LIST gutting and scrubbing and have gotten all the way through SLO and into Pismo and SM.
Here’s the funny thing though: My ratings. Ten years ago I was all concerned with the food. Now? In the kind words of Bob Dylan: “I used to care, but times have changed.”
People be like, “You used to go to all the nicest restaurants all the time and post fabulous dinners constantly, not it’s just all tacos and burgers.” Well, that tells you a lot about how I feel about fine dining. Sure there’s a few places I love. Then there’s tacos and burgers. And this whole huge area in the middle where I just find it hard to be enthusiastic anymore.
Now it is about how a restaurant makes me feel. I want to be warm and welcome and treated with intelligence and respect. I want to feel good about dining there. Does the food matter? Somewhat. Notwithstanding the fact I am now spending $250 on a decent dinner and $80 on a basic lunch where a decade ago lunch at a nice resty was 40 bucks and a fabulous dinner was 120. So, yeah… a few things have changed. Millennial and Covid have varnished the landscape forever. Nothing will ever be the same. Some have rebounded nicely, some have not.
Ask yourself this question: What restaurant do I eat at where I want to go back as soon as I finish?
That’s a serious question. Harder to answer than you think. See? Things have changed.
EDIT 1.2.2026: Finished all the way down through Pismo and Grover and Arroyo Grande, Nipomo and Santa Maria.
eatdrink101 