Café Rustica
10 Delfino Place, Carmel Valley
659-4444
Look for the rooster weather vane atop a rustic home, then cockadoodledoo over a menu of uncomplicated classics enhanced by the restaurant’s warm charm—dishes like the smoked salmon egg salad sandwich, marinated lamb filets, oven-baked rigatoni, Hungarian beef goulash and nearly a dozen choices of specialty pizza baked in a wood-burning oven. The stone walls provide a feeling of time-worn trattoria, while the patio seating-garden scene is heavensent for sun-kissed Carmel Valley.