Fandango Restaurant
223 17th St., Pacific Grove (831) 372-3456, fandangorestaurant.com
The Mediterranean credentials are right there in the signature Paella Fandango, with saffron rice, super-fresh seafood, spicy sausages, tender chicken, tasty peas, crisp green onion and colorful bell peppers in a sizzling skillet simmered long enough for a continental-shifting marriage of mythic proportions. But let’s be geo – and space-savvy about this: Fandango could win for Best French Restaurant (just try the escargot), Best Server (Tony Cain is his name), Best Euro-Cali (note the sauteed calamari and surreal sand dabs) and Best Scallops (OK that’s not a category either, but it’s up to someone else to tell Houston we have a problem).