Isabellas At Wharfside

Just returned to cloudy, crappy Columbus Ohio after a five day stay in Monterey. We tried all the chowder along the wharf, and chose Isabellas. It was fantastic. We ate there 4 out of 5 nights. Their chowder is unparalleled, as was the crab sandwich, and, frankly, everything. We sat upstairs on the outside patio and had a beautiful view of the bay and the wildlife. There is a float out there where the sea lions bask, and you can watch them from your table. All in all, I would recommend this place to anyone who is heading to Monterey. The drinks are overpriced, but then again, where aren't the drinks overpriced. The food was delicious and fairly priced. If you go, promise me you'll get the chowder... I miss it already. Yum! more

just wanted to write a quick word about the rissotto I had at this place. It was mind blowing. Crab meat, Prawns, Shrimp made it taste awesome. Not very oily or raw, It was cooked to prefection and the quantity was huge for 15 bucks. The fresh bread with Olive oil is great. Great and fast service with friendly waiters and short wait time. Just loved this place and i stronly recommend to anyone who is going this way to try this place. http://montereyinfo.org/page/_70654/index.v3page;jsessionid=1fpstcfnkbsh9 more

Located on Fisherman's Wharf in Monterey, CA, Isabella's has to try hard to attract the customers among competing places with similar fresh-seafood menus, and it does a pretty good job. The menu is quite extensive, offering many fresh seafood choices, with crab and lobster at market prices. The interior of the restaurant is quite upscale for a wharf location, and overall we got a great service. The butter garlic dungeness crab was a specialty that day, and it's definitely worth trying out, if you feel like having a big meal, since the crabs served are generally pretty large. The restaurant doesn't offer a good selection of alcoholic or specialty drinks, but it's well compensated by their wine selection. Wines were generally overpriced, since they figured out that when you get great food combined with the view of Monterey Bay, you'd want to complement it with a nice bottle no matter what. The dessert selection is pretty good, with about 7 desserts brought out on a specialty tray. The helper to the waiter (not the waiter himself) turned out to have very little knowledge of the dessert names and ingredients, but the waiter made excellent recommendations. Isabella's has quite a few outside seats, that turned out to be too windy when we were there at lunch hour. However, the fast-changing weather is compensated by the view of sea lions and departing whale-watching boats. more