I give this spot 4.5 stars but there is no setting for that. They appear to have closed at the moment, hopefully not for good. The meals have always been extremely generous, extremely inexpensive and made with fresh herbs from their garden, freshly prepared, fresh everything. And at a pittance of a price. It is unfortunate that some of the reviewers gave such a low review to this restaurant. Half Moon Bay is a small town and this is on a small side street across from the only grammer school that is practically a historical landmark, and thus it get’s little traffic. That results in it being usually empty. It is a small home used as a french restaurant. It can happen, a very quiet place, linen table clothes but no one there, you get an opinion based on the traffic in the rest of the bay area. It’s too peaceful, a seemly one horse restaurant in a one horse town. For someone used to the traffic and hustle and bustle and high prices of San Mateo, and who like so many others, love half moon bay for it’s walkable and quiet streets, this restaurant is the quietest of the quiet and a shame that people from out of town get put off by that. They think there must be something wrong. It is quaint and quiet and beautiful. Not only is it freshly made from scratch, the portions are generous, the price is a steal. Linen table clothes, peaceful setting. The reviewers are from out of town or the city and don’t get it. They think there is something wrong. A place that is that quiet and inexpensive can hit you that way. French country restaurant setting and limens and simple music in the background! It has less production value and more simplicity than people are used to. If I am right and you have closed – PLEASEMAKEITTEMPORARY. I think more locals don’t want to write a good review just like others in Half Moon Bay don’t want to trumpet things to loudly, they are worried others will come spoil what we have! If it opens again-look at the reviewer that talked about the hamburger he had. Now figure that value and quality on the whole menu, an out of the way place par excellance. I would never post this because it used to be our secret. We went every thanksgiving. If everyone did this the place would be packed. For about $ 15 each, you received a 3 course meal including freshly made turkey, with garden herbs just picked, with all the trimmings. INCLUDINGUNLIMITEDSECONDHELPINGSOFTHETURKEYANDALLTHETRIMMINGS, SERVEDTOYOUASMANYHELPINGSASYOUWANT! $ 15 A PERSON. Now you see why we don’t try to contradict the other reviewers. Hopefully when the economy comes back, they will to. I hope I don’t regret sharing our secret.
Roberta K.
Rating des Ortes: 4 Half Moon Bay, CA
The two reviews posted are quite dated, so I thought I’d write something more recent. I live in HMB and have avoided this restaurant because of the bad reviews, but I decided to give it a try on a rainy night. I was the only one in the restaurant when I walked in — not a good sign — and I was seated in a small room at the front. The restaurant is quaint in its furnishings. It has some beautiful crystal chandeliers(clean too, which is nice — a lot of chandeliers are very dusty). Some of the furniture is dated, but the place in general is clean. The building itself looks like a converted house… and the restaurant is open only on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday nights. I decided to start with something simple: a mushroom burger. The menu stated it came with fries, but I requested a dinner salad instead. I was offered a choice of a green or Caesar, and I chose Caesar. Because of the awful reviews I didn’t know what I was going to get. The wait person brought me a large plate with a generous helping of Caesar salad and a very sizeable burger. The«Caesar» wasn’t a true Caesar. It had a creamy dressing with shredded hard boiled eggs and Romaine lettuce, with Parmesan cheese. It was quite tasty, although there was a little too much dressing on it. Now for the burger — it was GREAT! It came cut in half, on a french roll that was toasted, warm and soft; a few leaves of romaine lettuce on each half along with two slices each of tomato, some onion, and mayonnaise. It was a mushroom burger, and the mushrooms were plentiful and cooked appropriately. I had requested that the hamburger be cooked medium-rare, and it was cooked perfectly. The best part about the burger was its flavor: it tasted like it had been grilled over mesquite and it was DELICIOUS. I was only able to eat half of the burger and took the other half home with me. I wasn’t going to leave it there! The hamburger was very affordable at $ 7.00. I’d recommend giving this place another chance. Hopefully their food in general has improved since the other two reviews were posted.
Kelly G.
Rating des Ortes: 1 La Quinta, CA
Absolutely horrible! The food was a lackluster Mexican interpretation of French cuisine. It should have been a clue that we were the only ones in the place. All of our mains were overcooked, bland, and barely edible. Not only that, but my fianc was *very* ill all night after ordering the rack of lamb. Don’t eat here!