Fandango Restaurant
223 17th St., Pacific Grove
372-3456, www.fandangorestaurant.com
It seems easy enough: combine setting, service, mood, food, drink, style, identity, flavor and fun in a way that the sum is way more yum than the individual parts. OK, that doesn’t sound so easy, which is why so many restaurants famously fail after a few months. Not this juggernaut, which masters the elusive equation and thereby remains a getaway to a Euro-countryside place in the best possible ways, ready to carry diners away on a paella dreamboat of saffron rice, mussels, prawns, scallops, spicy sausages, chicken, peas, green onion, or an osso bucco odyssey via veal shank braised in Madeira, veal stock, tomato and mushrooms.