Drakes Sonoma Coast (Bodega Bay)
food: 4.5/5
experience: 5/5
overall: 4.5/5
While staying at the Bodega Bay Lodge during Thanksgiving break, we had the opportunity to dine at Drakes (no apostrophe) a few times. Yes, this place is $$$$. It is inside a resort, after all.
Drakes has a fireside lounge area as well as an actual dining room. The fireside lounge is open late and it's actually a lot nicer because it's all cozy and the chairs are big. Plus they have my favorite high-top tables. And of course the bar is right there.
We started off with small salads for lunch. Simple, light. Mine just has mixed greens, almonds, goat cheese, and pears.
Then we came back for supper (dunno why I'm using that word but it's cute). Started off with the bread which is focaccia...
Decent but tastes normal. Then we go ourselves one of their cheese and charcuterie plates. Haven't had these in a while.
This is Point Reyes bleu cheese, goat cheese (hard cheese on the left) and sheep cheese (soft, on the right). All delicious but soft cheese is always my favorite. I'm not a fan of bleu at all but for bleu this was good. Still nasty to me though.
Next up was the seafood bouillabaisse (my dish).
A nice light dish with prawns, mussels, clams, tomatoes, and small potatoes in a tomato broth.
We finished off with dessert, which was a dark chocolate s'more bar.
So this was the second s'mores dessert in two days and this one definitely took the cake (pun intended?). It's served chilled and tastes like hardened mousse with graham crumbs on the bottom. I'm not a big fan of marshmallows but these are toasted just right.
Last, I had a little Thanksgiving here of their salmon special.
A perfect portion though it looks small. The salmon is fresh and flavorful and they even made mushrooms taste good which is a feat. Normally I hate mushrooms.
I got the opportunity to sample their breakfast. I just ordered some pastries. The croissant, if you can't tell, is pretty small. It's the size of a muffin. Which is ridic considering it costs like four bucks. The muffins come with two so each of those are less than one croissant even though they're more substantial?
Well, I can't honestly say the croissant is bad. It's definitely among the best croissants I've ever had, with the perfect amount of butter, even though it's flakier than it soft. The daily muffins were pineapple banana. The pineapple wasn't too noticeable but they put huge chunks of banana so those are pretty good too. They're nice and moist but don't have the typical muffin top I like. I'd give both pastries a 4/5.
Service here is just lovely. Unfortunately I did not have the opportunity to try my favorite meal of the day: brunch. They don't serve brunch here so breakfast only occurs from 7:30 until 11am (seriously guys?). Offerings include corn-flake-crusted French toast; buttermilk pancakes with blueberry, chocolate chips, or bananas; a Belgian waffle; omelets featuring their house-made chorizo, Sonoma cheese, or crab; and sides like potatoes and chicken apple sausage. Next time I'll come back just for that.
experience: 5/5
overall: 4.5/5
While staying at the Bodega Bay Lodge during Thanksgiving break, we had the opportunity to dine at Drakes (no apostrophe) a few times. Yes, this place is $$$$. It is inside a resort, after all.
Drakes has a fireside lounge area as well as an actual dining room. The fireside lounge is open late and it's actually a lot nicer because it's all cozy and the chairs are big. Plus they have my favorite high-top tables. And of course the bar is right there.
We started off with small salads for lunch. Simple, light. Mine just has mixed greens, almonds, goat cheese, and pears.
Then we came back for supper (dunno why I'm using that word but it's cute). Started off with the bread which is focaccia...
Decent but tastes normal. Then we go ourselves one of their cheese and charcuterie plates. Haven't had these in a while.
This is Point Reyes bleu cheese, goat cheese (hard cheese on the left) and sheep cheese (soft, on the right). All delicious but soft cheese is always my favorite. I'm not a fan of bleu at all but for bleu this was good. Still nasty to me though.
Next up was the seafood bouillabaisse (my dish).
A nice light dish with prawns, mussels, clams, tomatoes, and small potatoes in a tomato broth.
We finished off with dessert, which was a dark chocolate s'more bar.
So this was the second s'mores dessert in two days and this one definitely took the cake (pun intended?). It's served chilled and tastes like hardened mousse with graham crumbs on the bottom. I'm not a big fan of marshmallows but these are toasted just right.
Last, I had a little Thanksgiving here of their salmon special.
A perfect portion though it looks small. The salmon is fresh and flavorful and they even made mushrooms taste good which is a feat. Normally I hate mushrooms.
I got the opportunity to sample their breakfast. I just ordered some pastries. The croissant, if you can't tell, is pretty small. It's the size of a muffin. Which is ridic considering it costs like four bucks. The muffins come with two so each of those are less than one croissant even though they're more substantial?
Well, I can't honestly say the croissant is bad. It's definitely among the best croissants I've ever had, with the perfect amount of butter, even though it's flakier than it soft. The daily muffins were pineapple banana. The pineapple wasn't too noticeable but they put huge chunks of banana so those are pretty good too. They're nice and moist but don't have the typical muffin top I like. I'd give both pastries a 4/5.
Service here is just lovely. Unfortunately I did not have the opportunity to try my favorite meal of the day: brunch. They don't serve brunch here so breakfast only occurs from 7:30 until 11am (seriously guys?). Offerings include corn-flake-crusted French toast; buttermilk pancakes with blueberry, chocolate chips, or bananas; a Belgian waffle; omelets featuring their house-made chorizo, Sonoma cheese, or crab; and sides like potatoes and chicken apple sausage. Next time I'll come back just for that.
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