What are the Best Restaurants in Sausalito?
Summer, 2011 – We first started doing our quarterly surveys of restaurant popularity on the Web in 2008, and by 2010 a pattern had clrearly emerged. The large downtown restaurants in Sausalito see their scores dip a little under the onslaught of the summer crowds, then recover during the "off-season" as visitor traffic declines and local diners provide the majority of online feedback. Without the long summer wait times, the major Sausalito "view restaurants" are even more likely to send people away happy.
All of this translates into a 2% to 3% average drop in scores for the restaurants in downtown Sausalito during the summer, and the pattern seems to be holding true already as we collect the numbers for the Spring quarter. Here's a summary of the trends and surprises our statistical braintrust found in building the July list.
Click on the headlines below to see the corresponding list.
Best Restaurants (Lunch and Dinner)
The top five restaurants on the list shuffled their positions slightly, but contain the same mix of small neighborhood gems and big regional restaurants. Sushi Ran had tied with Avatar's for the top spot last quarter, but the "if you can imagine it we'll make it for you" approach at Avatar's once again came out on top for Summer.
Le Garage, Buckeye Roadhouse and Poggio Trattoria (a sponsor of this site) rounded out the top five.
As we noted in a recent article, the last year has seen a wide range of new restaurant openings in Sausalito, and six new places made the Top 30 on the Lunch-Dinner list, an amazing 20% of the total.
We like to point out that there are many ties on the list, and many cases where restaurants are an insignificant single point apart. Each of the top 23 dinner restaurants in Sausalito scored at least 80 points on our scale, which requires them to impress a wide variety of diners. A drop of a point or two survey-to-survey is not significant, and happens regularly to just about every restaurant, and the same goes for small increases in the ratings.
Best Restaurants (Breakfast and Lunch)
If you think the competition on the Top 30 Lunch-Dinner list is tough, it's even tougher on the Top 20 Breakfast-Lunch list, where the top ten all scored at least 87 points. And yes, it's amazing that there are about 65 different places to eat in our town of 7,000 people!
This month was no exception, with Marinship favorite Anchorage 5 returning to the top spot, followed by Venice Gourmet, Lighthouse Cafe, Golden Gate Mkt. Deli, Fred’s Coffee Shop and Louie's Delicatessen, all with an amazing 94 points or more. Four of this quarter's top five have led the chart some time in the last year, and we think the pattern is explained in part by neighborhoods. Each of these places is a favorite among the locals in one area of our long, thin coastal town, and therefore any of them can come out on top in a particular survey.
Restaurants with the Most Online Buzz
For the first time in the three year history of the list, a restaurant other than Sushi Ran topped this list. Buckeye Roadhouse edged out the Japanese giant for garnering the most online attention. In the position shuffling on the rest of the Top Ten Avatar's was the biggest winner, rising two spots to number four.
Best Special Occasion Restaurants
This list was remarkably stable last quarter, with the same ten restaurants holding their positions. Only Le Garage and Murray Circle changed their positions swapping slots at #6 and #7.
While the Special Occasions list was remarkable for its stability, the Best Casual Dining list was (as seems to happen regularly) a wild re-mix of the restaurant rankings.
Avatar's jumped back into the top position, dropping Fred’s Coffee Shop down to #3. Wellington's Wine Bar, Bayside Cafe and Kitti's Place all returned to the list after absences of 3 to 12 months each.
Our Other Restaurant Lists
We have over 15 restaurant lists, and we've only listed the five that come from our surveys of online consumer sentiment. Here are some of the others:
Restaurants Listed by Neighborhood
Restaurants that have Closed or Changed Their Names
