Restaurants in Half Moon Bay

Sink into soft cushions beneath honeycomb chandeliers as you slip into the Sunday morning feastival. Menu selections include a prawn salad with chicories and tangerines ($15) or house-made brioche french toast with spiced apples and maple syrup fraiche ($11). Well past noon, gingerly ease into the day as you would with a too-warm hot tub with a sparkling pinot noir ($5) and goat cheese semifreddo with melon granite and peppercorn meringue ($9). Nectar Wine Lounge carries more than 600 bottles of wine, along with standard brunch sips such as mimosas ($7). Eating, sipping, and socializing all take place within a cozy, coolly lit lounge atmosphere with a drizzling of natural light from an overhead skylight.

Diners at Barolo are surrounded by Italian influences in the wooden floors and tables as well as the menu, which features seasonal ingredients and local specialties. Start with an antipasti of fritto misto, made with Monterey calamari, local artichokes, lemon, and caper aioli ($10). Then move on to secondi such as the cornish game hen marinated in lemon and rosemary and served with polenta cake ($17), or the linguini and clams, with Italian sausage, garlic, basil, parsley, and white wine ($10 small plate, $18 large). Have a side such as the truffle fries ($5) and a signature Pax Basilicus cocktail (rum, lime, agave nectar, basil, $10); then, finish with a classic tiramisu for dessert ($7). Reservations are required, so call ahead.

The Van's has earned the admiration of diners and drinkers since 1947, though its historic teahouse structure dates even farther back—to 1915 when constructed to house a portion of the Japanese Exhibition at the Panama Pacific International Exposition. Perched atop a picturesque hillock, the restaurant's second-story dining room offers panoramic views of the San Francisco Bay and close-ups of crisp white linens, complemented by rich, Italian-inspired eats and select wines. The restaurant's bar area boasts the original wallpaper from 1915, as well as historic photographs in which the Peninsula's water incidentally looks the same.

Once a bootleggers' haven frequented by the sister of Al Capone, today Cameron's Inn & Restaurant celebrates its 100-year history with old-fashioned hospitality and eclectic vintage décor. The restaurant harks back to English pub traditions with Inglenook-style seating crafted from old church pews and a menu that includes bangers and mash, shepherd's pie, and burgers flame-grilled over fragments of Big Ben. Near the bar, which touts 18 beers on tap and more than 60 bottled ales, walls are stacked to the ceiling with more than 2,000 beer cans, which owner Cameron Palmer began collecting at age 10. A functioning fireplace and five big-screen TVs cast a warm glow across the dining room, whose stage hosts occasional live music, karaoke contests, and shadow-puppet beauty pageants. Overnight guests snooze soundly within the rustic timber-lined walls of the inn’s three rooms, or at an RV park and campground near scenic ocean cliffs.

Though it’s been around for 36 years, Piccadilly Catering and Restaurant crafts its mouthwatering cuisine using recipes more than twice its age. Their Cajun dishes include Gulf Coast–original jambalaya and old-fashioned cornbread, and international entrees appear on the menu in the form of chicken fettuccine and prawn stir-fry. In addition to serving guests inside their comfy eatery, Piccadilly’s culinary staff whisk morsels off to a variety of off-site events, such as corporate meetings and noncorporate weddings.

At La Costanera, Peruvian-born Chef Carlos Altamirano adds contemporary twists to traditional South American dishes that earned the restaurant a 2012 Michelin Star. A variety of ceviches whet appetites amidst a dining room that the San Francisco Chronicle called "breathtaking by day and almost mystical at night," filled with the soft sound of the surf. Free-range chicken and slow-cooked pork shoulder thrive beneath what a reviewer for the Pacifica Tribune applauds as "dramatic presentation.” Imported Peruvian beers and pisco cocktails clink to toast potatoes reclaiming exoticness by arriving in shades of purple and green, and even simple favorites take on the gleeful elegance of a solid-teak waterslide with the aid of truffle oil or saffron. La Costanera’s 10,000-square-foot space opens onto an open-air patio and glass-enclosed rooms. Windowpanes soaring from floor to ceiling arch high overhead, admitting cascades of sunlight as diners gaze out and give each rolling wave a name and backstory.