Enjoy traditional Italian Cuisine and Fresh Seafood at Cafe Fina on Fisherman's Wharf in Monterey.
We specialize in Italian seafood and feature fresh local seafood, seasonal organic vegetables from the owner's ranch, fresh homemade pasta and a classic wood burning oven--the first in Monterey.
Located on Fisherman's Wharf in Monterey, our restaurant offers many fresh seafood items from which to choose. Steak, pizza, and many other non-seafood items are also available. Our restaurant is pet friendly and we offer a doggie menu for our four-legged friends. We also feature a wide variety of wines, including the best of our local wines, the finest wines that Napa valley has to offer, and a fine selection of Italian wines.
With gorgeous views of the Monterey Bay from almost anywhere in the restaurant, and the friendliest service in town, Cafe Fina is one of the better choices for a meal while visiting Fisherman's Wharf.
We look forward to welcoming you and your party for lunch or dinner.
Awards:
2014 Monterey Herald Reader's Choice Awards - Favorite in Monterey, Favorite Local & Family Owned, Favorite Freshest Seafood, Favorite for Date Night, Favorite Server
Ten Best Restaurants in Monterey County, Annual Reader's Choice Survey by Adventures in Dining Magazine
Best Places in Northern California, Frommers, AAA Travel Guides
Best Places to Kiss in California
AAA Three Star Approved
Diamond Award AAA Approved 2010
Dubbed Rachael Ray's "picks". Rachael had a great time during her visit to Café Fina!
About Us:
Since 1958 Old Fisherman’s Wharf in Monterey, Calif., has been like another home to Dominic Mercurio. "A bunch of us used to come down here every day in the summer time," he recalls. "We were 10 or 11 years old and would leave home in the morning and not go back until dark. We'd be fishing every day, catching little smelts or mackerel.”
Some years later, Mercurio opened a restaurant on Old Fisherman’s Wharf, naming it after his mother, Josephina. Family recipes passed down from grandmother to mother are used at Cafe Fina, which specializes in Italian cuisine, homemade pasta and fresh fish since 1989. "When the guys from the local fish company eat out, they come to my restaurants. When you work in the fishing industry, you only eat truly fresh fish,” said Mercurio.
In addition Mercurio owns and operates a 25-acre stretch of sun-soaked land in Los Banos, Calif., which produces fine crops organic produce for a farm-to-table experience at Café Fina not found anywhere else on the Wharf. He is also a knowledgeable cultivator of almonds, and started J.D. Almonds in October 2000, a commercial venture that Mercurio estimates produces 2 million pounds of almonds annually.
Mercurio and his family are part of Monterey’s famous fishing industry legacy. Fishermen from all over the world who settled in Monterey enjoyed a bounty of sardines, squid and other seafood, but when the sardines vanished in the 1950s, the fisherman ventured north to Alaska for salmon and to South America for tuna, seasons that are still observed today.
"My father Jean introduced my brother and I to the fishing industry, and shared everything he knew. We are proud to continue his legacy," Mercurio said, pointing to one of the many family photos hanging from the walls of Cafe Fina. "He was born in a French province of North Africa. He was one of a group of Sicilians who went there to fish the sardines and who were kicked out during the French Revolution in the 1950s. That's how he and his five brothers ended up coming here – for the sardines."
Mercurio also co-operates Domenico’s on the Wharf with his brother Sam Mercurio and Sam’s wife Angeli, which serves fresh seafood and Italian cuisine and opened in 1981 on Old Fisherman’s Wharf.
Mercurio’s excellent cooking has enabled him to be the sole caterer for John Madden’s induction ceremony into the Football Hall of Fame in 2006, and he continues to tour with him every year on the Madden Cruiser to Canton, Ohio. Mercurio has earned him visits from Rachel Ray, the Hillstrand Brothers of the Discovery Channel’s Deadliest Catch and other TV stars. Mercurio is also committed to his local community, donating on a regular basis to a number of organizations in the Monterey area.
