434 Alvarado Street
Monterey, CA 93940
It was the wedding weekend for my brother-in-law Jimmy and my soon-to-be sister-in-law Rachel. This long-overdue event was 13 years in the making. They are high school sweethearts who have had their wedding postponed at least twice by the pandemic. They surprised us in July with an invitation to their destination wedding in Big Sur. I'm always up for a destination wedding, as it gives me a chance to get a few days off of work and of course, try some new restaurants.
We flew into San Jose at noon and took the hour-long drive south to Monterey, where we were going to be staying for this quick weekend getaway. I had done a little research on places to eat in Monterey and decided Rosine's would be a good place to meet up with Katie's parents, get some nourishment, and wait for our hotel room to be ready.
Rosine's is pretty much a Monterey institution at this point. They have been in business for 41 years, been voted best family restaurant, having the best desserts, and many other accolades by the local press, and been featured on Guy Fieri's Diner's Drive-ins and Dives. They have a very respectable 4-star Yelp rating with over 2,000 reviews posted. Very impressive stuff for a family-run business that is now on its third generation of the family helping to run the restaurant.
Rosine's serves breakfast, lunch, and dinner seven days a week. Their menu can best be described as coffee shop classics with a more elegant twist. No matter who you are dining with at Rosine's, they will find something on this menu which will get them excited. The lunch menu that we were presented with was full of starters, salads, sandwiches, burgers, pasta dishes, and bigger entrees, Prices were pretty modest, with most items under the $20 price point. Let's see if Rosine's was a great pick or should have been skipped.
We started things off at Rosine's with these Stuffed Potato Skins ($8.99). These potato skins came filled with jack and cheddar cheese, nicely fried bacon, green onion, and sour cream on the side. A classic presentation, and definitely one of the better versions that I've had in a long while. These reminded me of the ones that you used to be able to get at Claim Jumper back in the day before they were bought out and everything went downhill there. These skins were fried nicely, had plenty of bacon, and were the perfect starter for four hungry travelers.
Since I had my potatoes in the form of potato skins, I made the executive decision to forgo the fries with my upcoming entree, and take the two-dollar upcharge and get this Caesar Salad ($1.99) instead. I reasoned that this was a healthy decision, even though I know I was kidding myself. Rosine's Caesar is pretty traditional with romaine lettuce, a tasty anchovy-based dressing, romano and asiago cheeses, and large croutons. The greens were fresh and crisp, there was plenty of cheese included, and the croutons contributed a nice textural element. I only had wished that there was a bit more dressing, but this ended up being a very solid Caesar.
My father-in-law Dennis is a big fan of Boston Clam Chowder ($7.99). Just as he did this afternoon, he will forgo an entree and just have a bowl as his meal. From my vantage point across the table, this appeared to be a very chunky version of chowder, which is only served on Fridays at Rosine's. Dennis seemed pretty pleased with his selection, calling it very flavorful, and with plenty of clams included.
Compared with Dennis, it's always a crapshoot as to what my fantastic mother-in-law Lynn will order when dining out. She's always so full of surprises, like when she ordered this Hot and Hearty Turkey ($14.99). This Thanksgiving-Esque plate came with sliced roasted turkey smothered in gravy and mashed potatoes on top of two slices of bread buried deep below this mountain of food. As if all of that was not enough, this also was served with cranberry sauce and the daily veggie of the day, which was carrots when we were here. As I could have predicted when I saw how much food this actually was, most of this went to waste because she had zero chance to finish it. She did enjoy what she did eat though, and would probably get something a little less hefty next time she visited Rosine's.
Katie got something a little more manageable, with this Roasted Turkey Reuben ($14.49). Some nicely toasted marble rye was piled high with thinly sliced turkey, coleslaw, melted Swiss cheese, and Russian dressing. She loved the freshness of the turkey, which was not processed lunch meat like other restaurants would use. She felt they could have gone a little heavier on the Russian dressing, but that allowed the Swiss and turkey to be the star of the show. The marbled rye was nicely toasted for an extra textural component. Katie ended up being very happy with her selection at Rosine's.
Just like the candy bars that line the supermarket checkout lane, it's hard to resist the giant cakes and other baked goods that dominate the front entrance at Rosine's. I had just eaten a salad and that huge burger but had to try a piece of cake. We went with the Caramel Cake ($8.49). This five-layer cake slice was huge and easily fed the four of us. Yellowcake with white frosting and caramel is not really a combination you see all too often, but it really worked. The cake portion of the slice was nice and moist, while the icing and the caramel provided the right amount of sweetness. If I lived in the area I would definitely attempt to eat as many varieties of their cakes as possible.
I've had some hits and misses with restaurants that have been featured on Guy Fieri's shows, but Rosine's was a pretty solid spot and better than a lot of the Triple D restaurants we have visited. Everything was very well made, the portion sizes were very generous, and prices were not too outrageous, especially when you consider the area. Rosine's is definitely a family-friendly spot, and the service was on par with that. Everyone we encountered was very cordial, and it was evident that they were excited to share their restaurant with us. Before eating here we had thought we were going to go out to dinner as well, but because we ate so much here, that did not materialize. It's just as well, as Rosine's made a nice introduction to the restaurant scene in Monterey.
Out of five paperback books, (because the city of Monterey is the site of the very first library in California, way back in 1849), five being best to zero being worst, Rosine's gets 3.5 paperback books.
For more information, head to Rosine's website by clicking here: https://www.rosinesmonterey.com/
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