Cafe Gibraltar - El Granada

It's kind of funny how we discovered this place. My German friend and his family met a woman from Half Moon Bay during the trip in Arizona a few days ago. She spoke very much about Cafe Gibraltar, which, as it turned out, has served delicious Mediterranean dishes since 1998. My friend, a former colleague I met during my Executive Briefing Center Days in Oracle together with his wife and sister-in-law, agreed to meet us in this restaurant when she flew to the city yesterday. As soon as you enter this humble looking building, invite the warm tones, open kitchen and Moroccan seats to come and relax in the back. Everyone who works there is kind and covered. Even during a power failure. It was particularly guilty in the late afternoon, and when we arrived, the hostess told us that they had just lost power. The chef, however, did not fluctuate and we said that the dinner service would continue. And so it was, wonderful. We sat immediately, and during the conversation we enjoyed beer and local wines from their esteemed list, which in 2007 and 2008 earned the prize of the wine enthusiast magazine for destruction. The 2005 Abundance Zinfandel from Mecarini Vineyards (Lodi) was particularly beautiful; fruity, full-bodied and lightly spicy. We shared an appetizer and salad that were personal highlights. The Moussakaa Lubnani is a vegan, Lebanese dish made from eggplants, chickpeas, onions, tomatoes, charcoal and a garlic melange, which is slowly cooked in its wood stove. The Ahtapot Salatsi Salad is a well decorated Turkish dish of octopus and Calamari, which is then grilled with garlic, Chile flakes, lemon juice, green onions and delicate herbs and served warm on a water cresss and red onion salad. We're right because it looked so good, so my apologies, there are no photos to share. I'll try to demonstrate more self-sustaining next time. It proved to be as good as it looked, everyone had seconds and polished it out. Somewhere along the line the power was restored, but I'm not exactly sure when the service never skipped a beat. Our group has a variety of other dishes, including a few specialties. Both the framed artichoke soup and the Ahi Tuna entree filled with ingredients such as tomatoes, beans and olives were comforting. The potato gnocchi of my husband with mixed mushrooms was tasty, although several pieces of gnocchi that remained hanging on the sides of the tagine were overcooked and somewhat burnt. From the main menu, which always changes, everything was well prepared and well executed. My friend had oysters, chef's owner Jose Luis Ugaldes way: three wood-solved, decorated with Pimenton aioli and champagne mignonette; and three raw, marinated in a Gazpacho coulis, topped with avocado and baby cilantro. The wife of my friend ordered the Turkish homemade goat cheese in a wood oven with a slightly spicy tomato puree and pecan sesame seed crust. There were also vegan, Tunisian salad with orange segments, fennel, red onion, roasted cumin seed, mint, olives, avocado and a harissa-citrus vinaigrette. In addition, our table had the French inspired Joue de Boeuf, Wagyu cows with beet, onions and a giant cream garland. Today, instead of that, I see they are with Joue de Fletan, Halibut cheeks with saffron tomatoes, preserved lemon, sea salt, olive oil and house cured olives that sound just as beautiful. My daughter chose the familiar from the children's menu: Cheese Pizza! She was a happy camper. When she did not eat, she danced on the eclectic music in the background. Fortunately, none of our guests seemed to eat nearby, or at least they did so much. By the way, many of the ingredients used here are organic, meat and poultry, vegetables and flour. I was too full to have dessert, but my friend and his wife shared a lemon with passion fruit sorbet, which looked refreshing and good when you like sour things. I drank Rosé with my friend's in-laws and my husband drank coffee, while we all drank coffee over the visit of Germany one day, possibly in the Oktoberfest – but only in the small villages where it can be experienced authentically, not the big cities where the masses of the millions congregated. After dinner I looked around and noticed that we were the only ones left. The waiter sat at the bar eating her dinner. It was only 9:30. Only an hour before the place was busy with the customers. I guess the people are turning a little earlier in this coastal town. Regardless of this, this is such a great discovery, I will brave that winding, and sometimes sandy and windy road to come there and enjoy cooking Ugaldes culinary magic again. So many dishes call my name! If the woman in Half Moon Bay reads this, thank you, your recommendation was right!

We went to Cafe Gibraltar, which received excellent reviews from everywhere, so I had high expectations. These expectations were quite fulfilled... this place was excellent. The service was very friendly; we even presented a problem for the restaurant when we had a lot of flyers on the meal and had to make our reservation drastically... they were amazingly gracious about it, as we cost a lot of them a table value of business. The facility was nice, though nothing about amazing. We actually have one of the tables at the end where we sit on the floor on pillows instead of chairs, all under a beautiful canopy... nice cool. Food was excellent. A beef short ripe appetizer was very good (although it was quite large and heavy, so it seems as if it were a duck, not an appetizer), and there was a good yarn cake (like a crab cake, but with shrimps), served with a red pepper sauce. I had a corn and artichoke soup that was very tasty, and a salad that was firm for what it was. My entree was a lamb that tasted very good. I also tried some other entrees, including a seafood Cioppino and a rabbit dish that were both quite impressive. Dessert was actually perhaps the best part of the meal: the poached pear skirt was simply incredible, served with a pasty almond/pecan filling, flaky crust and vanilla gelato. Wow. Overall an excellent meal and actually not that expensive for what it is (for five courses, I spent about $80, including taxes / tip). The only grip is that Half Moon Bay is so far out in the middle of nothing. But if you're here for a day trip, that's definitely the place for dinner.