Restaurants in Moraga

Buttercup Grill & Bar serves up an extensive and eclectic menu of hearty American fare for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and breakfast for lunch or dinner. Start a day of paragliding right with a hearty order of chicken fried steak and eggs ($8.99), or opt for a fresh-fruit-topped Belgian waffle ($6.99). The mid- and late-day menu offers any and everything to satisfy palates of all preferences, including starters such as a cup of soup ($2.99) or lunch-sized salad ($4.95+), or sandwiches like the slow-roasted prime-rib French dip ($7.99). Burgers ($7.59+), pastas ($8.99+), grilled favorites (such as chicken and shrimp jambalaya, $12.99), and other meaty treats ($9.99+) round out the tasty menu. The selection of beer, wine, and frozen non-alcoholic drinks make excellent candidates to chauffer the tasty bites down the body's food chute, and eventually into the gastronomic ball pit at the bottom.

Saul's was highlighted by the New York Times for its organic, often locally sourced, deli-style comestibles catered for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Mumbling morning bellies make peace with platters of smoked salmon accompanied by bagels and cream cheese ($75 for 10 people), washed down with freshly squeezed orange juice ($2.50/person). Disseminate hors d'oeuvres such as the hummus platter, which comes with pitas, olives, and feta ($12–$35), or deal in knishes ($2.50/person) and latkes ($2.25/person). Customizable meat platters can feed between 5 and 20 hungry humans or two famished bicycles with a selection of turkey, pastrami, roast beef, or corned beef ($40–$135). Five varieties of fresh bread and a posse of condiments and sandwich vegetables chaperon the savory slices. Wet whistles and other woodwind instruments with bottles of cane-sugar sodas ($3 each), and sate sweet teeth with cookie platters ($3/person) or a whole cheesecake to toss at insubordinate bassoonists ($38).

With an emphasis on local, organic, and sustainable ingredients, FIVE takes a fanciful flight in the afternoon with its signature market business lunch, which gives diners the option of pairing a tea or soda with a two-course meal built from three-course options. Because the chefs at FIVE keep close tabs on seasonally fresh ingredients, the menu changes on a weekly basis. To paint a more palate-pleasing picture, check FIVE's website for the latest menu.

A single weathervane squeaks as it sways in the breeze atop a peaked roof. Below it, a building dating back to 1948 houses Montclair Bistro amid fieldstone and brick pathways created in french provincial style. At 7 years old, future chef and owner Henry Vortriede began his cooking career by thumbing through culinary magazines and preparing meals for his family of eight. After going on to earn diplomas in food and wine at Le Cordon Bleu and L'Académie du Vin in Paris, France, he honed his skills as a chef in several French restaurants and created chocolate art showpieces at the Hyatt Regency in San Francisco.

Today, as owner and chef at Montclair Bistro, Vortriede draws on his culinary background to create a rotating menu that includes organic chicken scaloppini sourced from Petaluma Farms, duck-and-wild-mushroom quesadillas with brown-butter chestnuts, and thick, double-cut pork chops with sweet-potato-apple pancakes. Another menu of brunch fare combines traditional favorites such as scrambled eggs with black truffle and eggs benedict with lobster cake.

Vortriede's taste is on display not only on plates but also on the restaurant’s walls, where elegant painted canvases hang. Two hundred bottles of wine stand nearby on storage racks inside walk-in glass covered with the pressed noses of oenophiles. The decor, which includes dark carpeting and dark chairs, white-linen-covered tables, and flickering candles, helped earn the restaurant OpenTable's 2012 Diners' Choice award for romantic restaurant in East Bay.

Shawn Shay grew up on the East Coast, feasting upon that region’s sandwiches, which rely heavily on meatballs, steak, and other meats. His future wife, Wendy, was enjoying California-style sandwiches, sprinkled with emerald fistfuls of veggies. In Shay’s Café, the two now combine their culinary passions beneath the eatery’s blue and gold walls, which glow in the natural light from floor-to-ceiling front windows. The light pierces the steam that rises from soups wrought from adventurous ingredients such as kaffir lime leaves, leeks, and fresh asparagus. The menu divides signature sandwiches by coast, with Eastern favorites including philly cheese and Western options laden with pesto, brie, and grilled salmon. Glasses of beer and wine form toasts, plinking occasionally like a xylophone player with only one mallet.