Abalonetti Bar and Grill
Popular dishes
Seafood Pasta
Fresh fish, prawns, scallops, clams, mussels, calamari, penne pasta, white wine sauce
4 reviews
Sand Dabs
Grilled delicate filets with lemon butter sauce, rice and vegetables
3 reviews
Lobster Ravioli with Grilled Prawns
Pesto cream sauce
1 reviews
The food was amazing and so was the service. The outdoor seating section keeps guests warm on a chilly night and an appropriate distance apart as well! To top it off everything was very reasonably priced.
My friend & I, & our dogs, enjoyed our dining experience at Abalonetti's!
The staff was excellent and the food was tasty; but the outdoor seating, which is out of there control, was not fun on a cold and windy night.
It was very cold in the patio. The food was okay.
Super friendly staff and wonderful food! Love the dog lover atmosphere here
Bread was good but the rest of the meal was a disaster. Food was delivered cold, greasy and tasteless. Food description on menu did not fit served food. Sorry to post this as I know restaurant is trying to recoup from the pandemic but cannot recommend this place.
I loved their sauteed calamari. It was tender and well seasoned.
This was a good kid & “dog friendly” restaurant on the Wharf in Monterey. They had nice menus for each! I had a delicious blacken salmon salad . The kids plates were large to share. The others had clam chowder that was served warm not hot. My husband had a shrimp cocktail that he said was horrible. My son and daughter in law’s meals were “ok” but weren’t impressive. The staff did try but with Covid, there are a lot of restrictions. The staff was very pleasant and were happy to be open to serve.
This is our favorite place when we go to Monterey. They never disappoint. We always have a good time. Food always great and so are the cocktails.
Midweek lunch on the wharf. I had my favorite entree - the crab and angel hair pasta. My husband ordered sand dabs. Both were fe. We have dined here for years. The best bread on the central coast.
We ate early! Our reservations were for 4 pm. The restaurant was not busy and we ate with most of the dinners on their outside patio. The food was great and the service was excellent! They also did an outstanding job of keeping everything clean and people seperated! This is a great place to dine!
We came here for lunch to have their abalone sandwich. Service was spectacular, and while the sandwich was good, the bacon on it was burned and a couple of pieces of our abalone were very tough. Garlic bread was very good. We’d still go back and have the sandwich again because it is good.
The best Calamari ever!
We had a great lunch outside in their patio. Good food and good service. I had a Cesar salad with fried calamari on top. It was very tasty.
Staff was very good with keeping things in compliance with state mandates during the pandemic. They were as friendly as ever and very conscientious of the safety of their staff and customers. Social Distance Dining was very enjoyable. I’m so happy we got to dine at our favorite restaurant! Thank you!
Friendly, attentive, efficient service! I went there for their famous antipasto plate. It was excellent as always. The back patio was pleasant.
We went for lunch on a Wednesday. We were driving from Carmel to San Francisco and stopped at Monterey for lunch. Nice view, touristy place.
A lovely traditional restaurant on fisherman's wharf in Monterey. You still get the feeling that this is a family owned restaurant with a caring staff. We ate there on in Monday evening after all the tourists had gone home. And still they allowed us to take our time and enjoy the food.
This is one of my favorite restaurants for seafood, Italian, and the view. It's better priced than most of the other Wharf restaurants. The service is good, and the wait minimal, especially with a reservation. I tore myself away from my favorite dish, lobster ravioli in a pesto cream sauce (which is so good that I take home the leftover sauce even if I finish the ravioli). This time I tried the seafood pasta. It was delicious, with plenty of seafood, very fresh, and just a little bit of penne, all in a great wine sauce. I brought home half of it and it was just as delicious the second day. I took the leftover bread as well, which helped me soak up every last drop of sauce.
The only disappointment was the lava cake, which was rather devoid of lava. I'm a chocoholic and just love deep, rich, dark melty chocolate. Without that core, the rest of the cake was rather dry and not particularly flavorful. My wife had the raspberry cheesecake, which she quite liked.
Great food and service would recommend family and friends.
Outstanding seafood. We had a great meal. Highly recommended and looking forward to a return visit.
Every year we go to Monterey as a Christmas gift. We have tried other restaurant on the wharf. But we always come back to Abalonetti’s. Food, drinks and service always great. This is our go to place and will continue to go there years to come.
Very accommodating of our large group, and separate check needs. Great food, service and some good happy hour deals.
Great place for casual dining. The food and prices are both outstanding!
Made reservations for Christmas Eve and was surprised at how busy the main dining room was.
I ordered the Fresh Clams & Linguini... Outstanding! My mother had the Shrimp Scampi Over Rice and was duly impressed.
A couple of noisy children in the far corner of the room knocked one star off of the ambiance rating, but that's hardly the restaurant's fault. (Either teach your kids manners or buy them a muzzle, folks!)
Not the fanciest place in Monterey, but if you want casual seafood with a harbor view and no fuss, you'd have a hard time doing better than this place.
The food was ok, but the restaurant was at the edge of a really touristy part of town (that's on me for not guessing fisherman's wharf would be crazy tourist town). Didn't seem worth the expense.
Fantastic service and a killer view. We sat on the back patio and talked forever. Nobody tried to rush us out. We had a blast.
We had 3 orders of the pesto and garlic oysters! They are delicious! Everything we had for lunch was really good. We decided to just do small plates and a bottle of Monterey white wine. Excellent food. Excellent service. We'll be back soon
Had a reservation and we were seated right away so that was good. It took 25 to 30 minutes for someone to acknowledge us for water and drinks. Because that took so long we asked or order food at the same time. Food was extremely slow to come out. Food was ok but they need to step up their game. Will not be going back to this restaurant.
Great food & Great service! Loved eating on their outdoor patio.
We had a lovely family dinner here. We had sardines, calamari, shrimp, rock cod, sand dabs and lobster tail, and all were cooked well and delicious. Fries were good, and the sauteed vegetables were tasty, not just an afterthought. Service was fast and friendly, and our server was patient with questions and indecision. Cocktails were good, and there was a decent list of wines by the glass and beer on tap. We will definitely be back.
This is one of our favorite places to celebrate birthdays and other special occasions. Everyone there is friendly and accommodating. The atmosphere is more like family than a business. The service is very good. Happy hour every day and the food value is also great. Though located at a tourist location, this place lets you feel like you escaped the crowds for a while. We will continue to enjoy dinner there in the future.
Great food, great service. The place was hopping on Saturday night.
The location is towards the end of the wharf, so quieter than other waterfront restaurants. Our appetizer (calamari) came with our meal and therefore we didn't finish it. Fish and chips were subpar but my Crab Louie was good. We went over to Cannery Row next and probably should have eaten there at a more upscale restaurant.
So hard to find Abalone on a menu now a days. It was fantastic.
Booked Abalonetti for dinner having walked past it during the day and liked the look of the menu, and we were rewarded with an excellent, simple meal with great service and very good value. Buffalo calamari as a shared starter was superb, as was 'The Captain's Platter' - deep-fried cod, squid and large shrimp in breadcrumbs with chips - and linguine Alfredo with Bay shrimp. Desserts were very good too, and not too large - a good thing as it meant we could actually have dessert, something we hadn't managed during our stay to date because of portions generally being so large! Our waitress was very friendly and professional. Like the food, the short wine list was very affordable and overall our meal was highly enjoyable. The food at Abalonetti is (deliberately) pretty simple so if you're looking for a 'gourmet' experience this might not be the place, but for excellent honest food, value and service this has to be one of the best places to eat in Monterey.
Views of Monterey Bay. Very fresh seafood well prepared. Interesting menu, we really liked the marinated calamari appetizer.
Made a reservation for 1:15 & showed up to the hostess at 1:50. Said our table was given away. Hostess said told us to walk inside to talk to a manager, we walked in, was not greeted by any one & we had no idea who the manager was. So we went back outside to ask hostess to get the manager for us since no one was in the front to help us. Manager didn’t talk to us but poked his head around the corner & said I will seat you in a minute. He was not friendly when showing us our table. Food was pretty good. Our server was super friendly & attentive. Probably won’t eat here again. We picked this place since they are dog friendly but there are other options around.
Excellent, attentive service. Nice ambiance. Moderately priced. Fresh ciabatta bread was good. Fish (halibut) was good, fresh, well cooked, and a good portion. Accompanying vegetables were not good - both past their prime, and undercooked. Gnocchi was unfortunately gummy. Accompanying sauces were okay. Since I am a vegetarian, (my husband loves fish), we are unfortunately, (as much as I enjoyed the service and the ambiance,) unlikely to return, as the gnocchi are the one and only choice on the menu for me, and I didn't care for them.
My favorite place to dine on the pier! I go out of my way to dine at Abalonetti (sometimes plan a day trip to Monterey just to have dinner there)! The food is always fresh and delicious and the staff really is the warmest, nicest team you will ever have to serve you.
FAQs
Abalonetti Bar and Grill offers takeout which you can order by calling the restaurant at (831) 373-1851.
Abalonetti Bar and Grill is rated 4.6 stars by 306 OpenTable diners.
Yes, you can generally book this restaurant by choosing the date, time and party size on OpenTable. Due to local restrictions, this restaurant may not be accepting reservations at the moment.