Drakes Fireside Lounge - BODEGA BAY

Excellent views and atmosphere at this well situated restaurant right on Bodega Harbor. I like the food but I'd love it more if they were a little less creative/exotic with it. Very well cooked food though and attentive service. Price per person: $30–50 Food: 3 Service: 4 Atmosphere: 5

Everything about Drakes was superlative; service was great, good food prepared well, clean and neat Food: 5 Service: 5 Atmosphere: 5

Best evening ever!! Cane here for our friend's birthday. The staff was on point, welcoming, warm, and anticipated all our needs. We started with the Aguachili and the Tomales Bay clams. The aguachili was so refreshing! The cucumber and jalapeño offset each other perfectly. I was the one one that had had class before and I wasn't sure how they would go over, but surprisingly, everyone loved them!! We split the ribeye and halibut. I cut the ribeye with a butter knife, do buttery and flavorful. The pickled onions and potatoes paired wonderfully. The halibut was prepared perfectly and the sauce was so good, we asked for a spoon to finish it. Jose and Hallie made our night. They made sure all of our needs were taken cate of. I can't say enough good things about our evening. Thank you!!

Food was prepared nicely. Very mindful of food allergies Food: 5 Service: 5 Atmosphere: 5

Look, I knew when reading the reviews that this place was going to be expensive. There aren 't many fine dining restaurants in the area, so it makes sense and we expected to pay a premium. What surprised me was how often this place was recommended as having amazing food. I found it while looking for places to stay and things to do in Bodega Bay, our Inn had it top of their list of restaurants in the area and the front desk person checking us in even said we should go. Ok so for our one fancy dinner for the weekend, this seemed like the place! We get there at 7 and it is DARK. It was hard to find exactly where we were supposed to park and where the entrance was. There 's one sign that 's very softly lit up in yellow. This place is in a resort, so ok, I get people don 't want to be disturbed with big lights but I couldn 't see a thing. Same with walking to the restaurant itself, all the pathways and the outside lighting at the lounge itself was yellow. It felt like somewhat of a ghost town. Once we got inside there were plenty of people. We walk through the lounge door since we didn 't get a reservation in the main restaurant and no one made eye contact or said anything. So after standing there awkwardly, we made our way to a clear high top table and sat down, hoping this was ok. It was. The server came over pretty quickly after that and was such a kind and warm gentleman. He truly was the best part of this dining experience and I wish him nothing but restful sleeps and happy days. We ordered the cheese plate. It was $27 I think and that seems reasonable for the amount of food we got. I loved the honeycomb included. The thing that bugged me about the cheese plate was the person who dropped it off at our table (not our main server) didn 't tell us what any of the cheese or meat was. It rotates, so it wasn 't on the menu. And we were just left to try it out. The choices themselves were ok. Didn 't seem to pair well together and all three cheeses were on the softer or crumbly side. No hard or sharp cheeses (I don 't count blue cheese as sharp , it 's a very specific taste on its own that can 't be lumped in with a sharp manchego, for example). So good but not great start. Then, we split the baby gem Caesar salad and the halibut. The baby gem leaves were so bitter. I get that 's it was a deliberate choice to make this Caesar salad different, but i did not like the choice. The halibut on the other hand was pretty tasty. I love halibut, I also love cherry tomatoes, so these little bursts of flavor were great. And still, this dish was relatively plain in flavor. It did not highlight the halibut flavor, but seemed kind of muddled together. Overall, I was very surprised that this restaurant which everyone recommended and has awards, ultimately fell flat and felt like a waste of an expensive night out. Our server was amazing though! And the fires outside looked cozy! I 'd probably come back only for those and a hot toddy.