Wild Goose Bakery Cafe - Carmel Valley

One of the best places I was recently, Corkscrew Cafe is out of the way, but worth the ride. The place itself is almost like a small house once used as a motel and even a beauty salon back when CA was still operated by Mexico. It is very picturesque and beautiful inside without being old-fashioned. Service was good... we had a friendly waitress who was very nice, attentive and very friendly. The great thing in this place is the fresh ingredients they receive. Being in the middle of Carmel means they get all locally grown products and fresh fish from the sea. All this up to an excellent meal. The bread served at the beginning of the meal was also good: the French bread (stone heart baked, this is the best way) was roasted in a crispy cripple and served with humus... delicious. I had a very good salad with a walnut vinaigrette and marinated pieces of fresh mozzerella cheese... what it was well done was definitely the freshness and quality of the ingredients. We had a Calamari Appetizer that was well made... a lot of Kalamar is overly wide and oily, but this one had a light fritted taste that was refreshing. My only complaint here was the garlic aioli sauce with which it was a bit too heavy. As good as the other dishes were, the ducks came out even more. A beef short rib was very good, but even better I had a seafood linguini with salmon, mussels, mussels and shrimps in a tomato sauce that was great. All flavors just came together beautifully and you could taste the freshness of everything there... Super. Dessert was a minor, probably just because the expectations for the quality of any other course were so high. A brownie with vanilla ice cream was very good and fresh, but I had a rapillieberry pipe that was a bit too tart for my pleasure. If it were not for this, I would have given the meal five stars. The best of all, the price: very reasonable for the quality of the food you get. You can definitely go to SF, spend twice the money and not get food this good. We spent about $50 a person for a whole range of food and wine (including taxes and tips), so a good offer overall. If you're ready to do the drive, or go to Carmel, then I would definitely recommend passing.