Chris D.
Yelp
This is a totally hidden restaurant that transports you into an instant vacation. It's at "The Ranch" resort in Laguna and a place I would have never known about if it wasn't for yelp. I recommend using GPS because the turn off on PCH is easy to miss. Look for The Ranch signage. I still missed it and had to make a u-turn. Next when following the road and you see another sign for the Ranch the arrow is pointing forward. Keep going straight it'll take you to the resort. For some reason I took the forward arrow as a right turn and turned right. If you do the same you'll eventually come to a wooden foot bridge and a dead end. Make a left at the foot bridge and this will also take you to the resort. Parking is valet only but free! Walk into the hotel and the restaurant is in the back. Just look for the breath taking views.
On yelp you'll see plenty of pictures of a huge patio but this is actually another spot on the resort and not Harvest. The restaurant still has a patio but it was pretty small and they had no seats available. We did get a great table at the window though that not only provided the same panoramic views but also air conditioning!
Restaurant is open for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and has a weekend brunch menu. We came on a weekday so we went for lunch. To start I had the French Onion soup which was coated in gruyere and parmesan. Delicious soup and one of the better versions I've had. While eating my soup my wife saw another table get the fried squash blossoms so she ordered one too. They were stuffed with lemon herb ricotta, pistachio dukkah, and green goddess dressing. We both thought they were good but probably wouldn't order again. For the price needed a bit more, maybe another piece.
For entree I had the steak salad. It came with a perfectly cooked 8 ounce hanger steak which was surprisingly melt in your mouth tender. It had a nice season rub on it came with chimichurri sauce to dip. Steak was served whole so you can eat it like a steak or slice it up for your salad. The salad itself was arugala, frisee, fresno chilis, avocado, thick chunks of smoked bacon, parmesan, sourdough croutons, and mustard vinaigrette. It's hard to tell from my picture but this was a huge salad. Everything about it was great and if you're in the mood for a steak this is a great choice.
My wife went with the BBQ Tri Tip Sandwich. Piles of tri-tip covered in peach BBQ sauce, crispy onions, and aged cheddar, and housemade potato chips. She avoids carbs so it was a vacation splurge and she said it was worth the splurge. I took a bite and really liked the flavor of the bbq sauce. The housemade potato chips were awesome, great seasoning.
We both had cocktails too. I had a pineapple serrano mezcal drink which was awesome and I can't recall what my wife ordered.
At this point we should have called it a day but I saw on yelp a cinnamon roll. A very expensive cinnamon roll. Out of curiosity I asked about it and our waitress aid they usually keep a few on hand after breakfast for people like me in the know. Sure, YOLO, let's get one. Oh my god, no wonder this thing costs so much. It was the size of a head. HUGE cinnamon roll covered in candied bacon, cream cheese frosting, and maple syrup. It was INSANE both in size and flavor. We got about halfway through it before giving up. Luckily it heated up great later. Washed it down with a coffee served in a really cool clay mug.
Our waitress Daisy was AWESOME. She truly made our experience perfect. Excellent restaurant, highly recommend. You're in Laguna yet transported to what felt like the central coast. We went on a weekday and it was pretty empty, I'm sure it's busy on the weekend. Reservations are on Open Table.