Best Mendocino Restaurants + What to Do

Sunset - Mendocino Headlands - Things To Do In Mendocino County

Between Christmas and the New Year, we traipsed off to the California Coast with my mom to spend some time, safely, away. Wondering about things to do in Mendocino County, including Fort Bragg and the town of Mendocino – beyond the Skunk Train in Fort Bragg, obviously? Here is our list of fun, safe, and kid-friendly excursions and great Mendocino restaurants! Let’s get to it…

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Things To Do In Mendocino County

Because of the time of year, it wasn’t crowded during our visit, but these are such small towns that it can feel crowded easily. I’d recommend reservations at all restaurants just to be on the safe side.

North of Fort Bragg

Just north of Fort Bragg is MacKerricher State Park. You’ll see throughout this list of things to do in Mendocino County that there are a number of California State Parks in this region and that each of them represents a wide variety of options from beaches, bluffs, and headlands to rainforests, hiking trails, and forest. MacKerricher State Park is no different!

And even if you’re just driving down Highway 1 in Northern California and need to stretch your legs, Glass Beach in Fort Bragg is an absolute must. I’d forgotten how beautiful and fun it was as a kid, but our visit reminded me in an instant.

There’s a nicely paved parking lot with a restroom building and then a wide, clearly marked path. Then you can follow trails to find your own little place along the coast there. Collect small pieces of colored, smooth glass, play in the sand, look for shells, or make footprints!

As you can see, the coastline is gorgeous and very easily accessible – a combination difficult to find along the coast here. Fort Bragg is about 9 miles north of Mendocino on highway 1. You’ll likely find yourself between the two twos.

Mendocino Coast Botanical Gardens

I never thought Botanical Gardens sounded interesting. And then I was kindly and beautifully corrected in my errant ways!

I think it started with the Butchart Gardens (probably the most iconic things to do in Victoria, B.C. Then probably a visit to St. Louis’ Forest Park and my belated visit to the Huntington Library Gardens in Southern California. Even the Dallas Botanical Gardens in the middle of winter was a fun experience!

So, obviously, a visit to the Mendocino Coast Botanical Gardens was a must when we planned the trip! The Gardens are a lovely size. Wander through areas of local trees and bushes out through the curated pathway to a gorgeous ocean view with benches (even indoors) to look out on the sea and spot whales!

There are restrooms out here as well, so it’s perfect for the whole family to make the trek. On the way back to the entrance, wander through the vegetable garden and don’t miss the small cemetery with a bit of history!

Now I have so many gardens on my travel wishlist including those on this Vienna itinerary!!! Swoon.

Jug Handle State Natural Reserve

Further on HWY 1 is Jug Handle State Natural Reserve, which is a beautiful beach where you can see layers of ecological succession in the “staircase” where you can see how different areas have been weathered differently. You can see how to sea has changed these massive piecs of rock, how the earth’s tectonic plates have moved. It’s rare to see this outside of deserts, so this is a really unique experience!!

Lighthouse - Mendocino Headlands - Things To Do In Mendocino County — Point Cabrillo Lighthouse

Point Cabrillo Lighthouse

Also not far off the highway is the parking lot to walk to the Point Cabrillo Lighthouse! Park your car and wander down the slight descent to the lighthouse (about 0.5 miles).

You’ll come to the lighthouse, the keepers’ homes and a set of small homes YOU CAN SPEND THE NIGHT IN! After visiting lighthouses in Cape Town, South Africa, I’ve been itching to stay at lighthouses around the world!

There are plenty of wide of spaces, great picnic tables, and gorgeous views of the Pacific Ocean. If you’re handicapped and unable to do the walk, you can drive down the path to a parking lot. This is only allowed for guests and handicapped visitors.

Check out these sustainable travel tips.

Russian Gulch State Park

And further down HWY 1, but not far, is Russian Gulch State Park! One of the most famous outlets to the Pacific Ocean in Mendocino County, Russian Gulch is a beautiful spot to behold, but beware of the weather in this area.

There are bike trails, hiking trails, horse camping and riding, fishing, and kayaks and canoes. There are many warning about only being in or near the water when it is calm, however, so plan accordingly on your trip!

Mendocino Headlands

The Mendocino Headlands State Park is also close to Highway 1. Enjoy a walk out onto the elevated land over the coast, and wander to have lunch or grab coffee before getting back on the road.

Here you can watch waves crash from above, wonder at the ocean currents swirling through caves and tunnels in the rocks; and get windblown away!

What to do in Mendocino

Mendocino California

Speaking of Mendocino. I didn’t realize how small the town of Mendocino is. Fort Bragg is certainly the more major city, but there are quite a few fun spots in Mendocino, so don’t let its small size deter you from planning to spend some time here. And there are SO many tasty food spots as well (more below).

Main Street and Lansing Street are dotted with small shops to happily pass the time. Everything from a beautiful local artisan jewelry shop to a chocolate shop and a cute bookstore (with a resident kitty that we had to check out).

And if you need a bit of fresh air, just turn around and look out of the headlands!

If quaint town travel is your thing, and I get it, check out these small california beach towns!

Big River Beach & Hiking Trail

Just south of Mendocino (on the north side of the bridge on Highway 1) is the road down to Big River Beach. There’s a large parking lot. You can easily walk along the beach, under the bridge, and out to the coast. It a great spot to play in the sand and watch the tide come and go. It’s also the parking lot for Big River hiking trail, which wanders 10 miles up river. We haven’t done the hike, but I’m sure it’s beautiful!!

Van Damme State Park & Fern Canyon

About 3 miles south on Hwy 1, you’ll find Van Damme State Park, which also has a hiking trail up into Fern Canyon. This state park is also great for hiking, walking along the beach, camping, and even some boat rentals. You can kayak around this area too. Check out Kayak Mendocino for availability and details!

Where to Stay

We stayed at The Stanford Inn just across the inlet from Mendocino. It was a sublimely beautiful property covered in gardens and dotted with some farm animals. The gardens provide food for the property’s restaurant. In addition to lovely rooms was their concern for sustainability tourism (yay for eco-travel)!

If you wanted to just enjoy your room and wander the property daily (or throughout the day), you could easily just enjoy your stay at the hotel without going much of anywhere.

They also offered electric car charging, including two Tesla chargers, which made our visit that much better!

UPDATE: We enjoyed our stay at The Stanford Inn, but since have found a new favorite spot. See why we think the SCP Inn & Farm is the best hotel in Mendocino!!

Where to Eat in Mendocino – Fort Bragg

So not that I was surprised, but I was certainly pleased with the tasty food options among Fort Bragg and Mendocino restaurants – and how many of them featured seasonal, local produce and ingredients.

Our stay at The Stanford Inn included a full breakfast, which was convenient and lovely. Because the hotel is plant-based, however, we had some difficulty eating there too many days in a row (my husband’s low fodmap diet and my sensitivity to soy).

Breakfast & Lunch

A few options here. First, the best coffee we had in Mendocino and Fort Bragg was at Good Life Cafe. They serve Black Oak Coffee (roasted in Mendocino county). Black Oak features organic, fair trade beans that are shade grown on woman-owned farms! So many of my favorite things and I quite enjoyed their espresso drinks!

They also offer a big selection for breakfast and lunch – a wide array of baked goods, breakfast burritos, breakfast plates, and so much more! We enjoyed one morning on their porch and returned to get breakfast for the road (the scones were drool-worthy)!

In Fort Bragg, check out Mendocino Cookie Company and Zappa’s Coffee. It’s inside of a larger building, but you can see it from the street. Order your beverage of choice and make sure to try some of their cookies – they’re gone when they’re gone each day. And they were quite tasty!

Finally, you can hit up Headlands Coffeehouse in Fort Bragg. We snuck in moments before they were closing so didn’t get to try any morsels and I didn’t want to take their time to take photos!

For lunch, I can’t recommend Mendocino Cafe enough. We went twice for lunch and enjoyed it both times. The menu offers an array of cuisines and typical American fare as well. And apparently their veggie and bean burrito is amazing because C ate his way through almost the entire thing and it was a hefty serving!!

Our visit was just after a parenting debacle that I’ll spare you from. Crying after C and I spilled water all over the table to top off the moment, they poured me a large glass of wine and I demolished the clams & mussels.

While nothing will beat the best mussels of my life in Fort William, these were pretty tasty (helped out because it is indeed the season to harvest both from the California coast these days)!

I also got a number of recommendations for Princess Seafood Market on Instagram from my followers, but they were sadly closed for the whole of our visit.

Thankfully just next door was Noyo Fish Company, which was delicious and easily made for takeout! You can see we certainly tried to try it all with fish tacos, shrimp po boy, fish & chips, and clam chowder! We were sublimely stuffed after this lunch!

Dinner in Mendocino

As I mentioned, the food was good on our trip! After eating so happily at lunch, we were always ready for a large dinner, but we always managed to have one and enjoy every bit of it!

Trillium Cafe

We were lucky enough to get reservations to Trillium Cafe about 40 minutes before the 5 o’clock seating. Because of this we sat outdoors by the opening in the tent and were quite cold. Even with this, however, Trillium was still the most delicious meal we had on our trip! The best Mendocino restaurant in our opinion.

C found out he loves scallops and he enjoyed his mushroom risotto as I knew he would. Cold from the weather, my mom and I each ordered the braised short ribs. Y’all they were AMAZING!!!! I sopped up the juices with bread and have been dreaming about the hearty meal since having it!

Cucina Verona

Cucina Verona was a delicious Italian restaurant in Fort Bragg. They have two dining rooms and a market/outdoor space for daytime eating. They offer large Italian plates. We enjoyed pasta, fish, and bread! Sadly we were stuck with a long waiting time here as well, but I think that’s a seasonal thing, not the norm.

Again, I’d recommend making reservations, but we made them mere hours before dinner time!

Little River Inn

Just down the road from our hotel was another property with a lovely restaurant – Little River Inn.

We headed down here our last night in Mendocino and ended our time there with a tasty meals.

I enjoyed this beautiful squash salad and a bowl of mushroom soup. My husband had pan-fried chicken and potatoes dish, while my mom enjoyed crab cakes and a different kind of squash salad!

The ambiance was a touch lacking where we ate indoors, but we were happy to have space and everyone working there was incredibly kind (not batting an eye when C colored on the white tablecloth with a green crayon- parenting joy! hah.).

Mendocino is a great temperate destination year round. Check out other cooler summer destinations in the USA.

A lot of people think of redwood forests when they think of things to do in Mendocino County. You won’t find Redwoods along the coast, so you’ll need to drive inland a bit. Here are 4 places to see redwoods in Mendocino County. can see some redwoods at Mont If you’re traveling back to the Sacramento area from Mendocino, a stop in Sonoma County is always fun. See our picks for the best restaurants in Healdsburg and fun things to do in Sonoma County!

If you’re doing more travel in California, be sure to include beaches in Santa Cruz, things to do in Chico, best Napa Wine Tour, and great things to do in Sonoma County!

No matter if you’re home or traveling check out these local summer activities that don’t require much planning!