There are towns where one goes to dine, and then there are towns where said dining is a scenic activity. Sausalito is firmly in the latter category.
Perched along the northern lip of the Golden Gate, the city has long been one of the Bay Area’s most seductive dining destinations—a place where the view competes with the menu (usually a tie). But once a year, the culinary spotlight swings decisively back to the plates themselves. That moment arrives March 16–22 with the return of Sausalito Restaurant Week.
Think of it less as a promotion and more as a guided tour through one of Marin’s most concentrated dining districts. For seven days, restaurants across town roll out special prix-fixe menus designed to showcase their best work—and to lure diners into ordering that extra glass of wine while the sun sets over the bay.
The format is refreshingly straightforward. Diners can enjoy three-course dinner menus priced from $50 to $75, along with two-course lunch menus ranging from $25 to $45. Select spots are even offering a $10 specialty cocktail, which—let’s be honest—is the sort of civic generosity we should all support.
This year’s lineup reads like a greatest-hits compilation of Sausalito dining: Angelino, Copita, Cultivar, Le Garage, Poggio, Scoma’s, Sula, Sushi Ran and The Spinnaker.
Where to begin? Start with Angelino, where classic Italian cooking gets the waterfront treatment. For Restaurant Week, diners might begin with grilled Monterey calamari brightened with blood oranges, pickled onions, Castelvetrano olives and arugula salsa verde and continue with a spinach-potato gnocchi alla Genovese with braised short ribs in a white wine, onion and herb sauce finished with Parmigiano and close with a plate of house-made Italian cookies.
A few doors down the culinary spectrum sits Copita, Joanne Weir’s exuberant temple of Mexican cuisine, with a Restaurant Week menu that includes citrusy salads, tortilla soup or tacos and entree choices including enchiladas de pollo bathed in rich mole manchamanteles, filled with roasted chicken, apple and queso Oaxaca, and finished with almonds and crema Mexicana.
Likewise, Poggio continues to anchor the town’s Italian scene with its polished trattoria fare, while Sushi Ran remains one of the Bay Area’s most respected Japanese restaurants—an establishment whose reputation has long extended far beyond Marin County.
Meanwhile, waterfront classics like Scoma’s and The Spinnaker remind diners why Sausalito became synonymous with seafood in the first place. Few dining experiences rival cracking into fresh fish or shellfish while gazing across the water toward San Francisco’s skyline.
The week also offers a chance to explore newer additions to the local food ecosystem, including Cultivar and Sula, which bring contemporary California sensibilities to the Bridgeway corridor.
In many ways, Restaurant Week reflects Sausalito’s quiet culinary renaissance. The city has steadily built up its reputation as a serious dining destination—and the setting doesn’t hurt.
Most of these places are within walking distance of one another, turning dinner into a kind of edible promenade along the waterfront.
It’s not difficult to imagine the ideal itinerary: a long lunch, a sunset stroll past the harbor, perhaps that aforementioned specialty cocktail, followed by dinner somewhere with a view of the bridge lights flickering on across the bay.
Come hungry. And maybe plan to loosen the belt a notch or two. In Sausalito, during Restaurant Week, that’s practically part of the dress code.
Sausalito Restaurant Week runs March 16–22, presented by Marin Magazine, The Marin Dish and LocalGetaways. For menus, reservations and the full restaurant lineup, visit SausalitoRestaurantWeek.com.
