Food in San Carlos

San Carlos, California — known by the often scoffed but amazingly appropriate moniker of the “City of Good Living” — is both a place adored by its residents and a growingly popular place for new families to move. This popularity is rightly credited for its mild climate, great location (roughly half way between San Francisco and San Jose and within 30 minutes of three international airports), a strong school system, and a lively downtown scene. This downtown, along with other parts of the city, have evolved tremendously over the past decade to include an amazing number of superior eating and drinking establishments. For many years a sleepy bedroom community, San Carlos has transformed itself into a culinary destination on the Peninsula. An inside joke among San Carlans is that every few years we’ll see an antique shop of Laurel Street close to inevitably be replaced by a restaurant or wine bar. 

The Master List

It is more difficult than it may appear to come up with a master list of all restaurants and bars in San Carlos. Do we include food trucks? Catering businesses? Supermarkets that have salad bars? For now, the City of Good Eating has limited its list to eating and drinking establishments based on the following criteria:

• Selling food and/or drink
• Primarily retail, open to public w/regular hours
• Fixed location
• Primarily for meals (not groceries)
• Primary part of operation (not hospital, hotel, entertainment business)

Admittedly, there are some gray areas, but for now this site has excluded catering businesses, food trucks, supermarkets, convenience stores, liquor stores, hospital cafeterias, corporate cafeterias, home businesses, hotel cafes/restaurants, farmers markets, and cafes inside entertainment businesses. However, we have included retail bakeries, breweries, and wineries.

Who are We?

We have no special talent or culinary training. Not native to California, we moved to San Carlos in 1997, raised a family here, and have enjoyed watching the evolution of the city and particularly the establishments of some great places to eat and drink. We’re just enthusiasts who have started this site for fun.

The Rules of the Road

The City of Good Eating is meant to be a fun, playful celebration of the San Carlos food and drink scene and a way to keep track of the new places to eat, great dishes, and fun places to spend time with friends and family. Although we accept comments on many posts, the City of Good Eating retains total and absolute discretion to include, exclude, or edit any posts by any person for any reason. The City of Good Eating will attempt to maintain a dialog that it believes is consistent with the purpose and tone of the site. If you want to be a troll, feel free to use Twitter or Nextdoor.