Hey Melanie!
For the first time ever we stayed in Santa Ynez. Every other time we have gone up we have stayed in Los Alamos, but it was great fun being in another area, and we LOVED the Santa Ynez Inn which includes something like 19 different tastings! We had dinner one night in Brothers red barn which was very good though I have to say, HEAVY on the salt. We had our second dinner at Trattoria Grappolo which was superlative. Great food and service. Wine tasting-we LOVED Solminer so much we became members! We tried the bubble shack, not good at all. But Story of the Soil and Coqiouelicot made up for it. We got sandwiches at Los Olivos Grocery and headed out to some of our favorites Beckman, Tres Hermanos, Buttonwood, Zaca Mesa and picnicked at our favorite picnic spot Rancho Sisqouc. I have to mention GLOBAL GARDENS. Holy hell, the olive oil tasting was phenomenal and we bought the best Olives I think I have ever had. We also love to visit Clairmont Lavender farm and stock up on dried Lavender and Herbs de provence. It was a great trip. We love the area and try to get up there a couple times a year. Thanks for the help everyone!

HEY! I am so sorry it has taken me so long to follow up on this post. Life took over for a little while there. Thank you to everyone for their great advice, we are even MORE in love with Morro Bay after our stay. What a great place. Here are the places we loved and didn't. We absolutely LOVED Bayside, the food was wonderful, service so great and the atmosphere beautiful. We were there to watch the sun go down and it could NOT have been more perfect. We loved the food at both Tognazzini and Giovanni, but the atmosphere at Tognazzini's dockside is second to none. We loved the outside music and as we sat there the otters and seals were playing right beside us and it was so idyllic I felt like I was in a rom-com. Just a beautiful place. I'm from the Chesapeake Bay and super picky with fresh seafood and both places, the seafood was SO fresh, well-prepared, and super fairly priced. We had fantastic sandwiches at the hofbrau, and the Libertine. Great beer selection at the Libertine! We loved breakfast at Frankie and Lola's and the Coffee Pot, while not as good, was also enjoyable. All of these places were so friendly. We are always so happy to get out of LA and the attitude!

Sadly, we were not super impressed with our dinner in the Galley. The people there are SO nice I hate saying it, but the food was only ok, and super overpriced for bland fish and veg. Our appetizers were all really good and they have lovely wine choices, so I would go back and just have an app and a glass of wine, but the entrees were super disappointing. We were also not so impressed with Dorn's. Granted, we only got a few dishes, but the fried seafood was not good and amazingly expensive. It reminded me a lot of what can sometimes pass for "fine dining" in rural Maryland and Virginia. Very expensive menu, great views with a lot of bland food.
Thanks again to all my chowhound friends, I have never been let down with ya'lls advice. Hit me up if you need LA advice!

STEVEWI !!!

WOW you are amazing! Thanks so much for the comprehensive list. I guess maybe I should have said what we are looking for is more old school? (As I said, here I would send you to musso and franks or Dan Tana's -old school) We have SO MANY restaurants opening here all the time and I just don't need to go to Portland and see Edison bulbs and get Brussels sprouts when I can do that here. (Unless the edison bulbs are in a brewery-my husband is Irish and we need to hit some breweries! )

And of course, I am scrolling all the old threads and reading those too.