Avila Beach Restaurant Guide

Fat Cats where the locals eat. Nothing beats a late lunch at Fat Cats Café in Port San Luis - unless it's breakfast or dinner there. Fat Cat's has been a Port San Luis institution since 1985, serving breakfast, lunch and dinner 6am to 10pm, seven days a week, year round. (They close for Christmas, but that's it.) A big part of the restaurant's business are workers at a nearby power plant.They make it a habit to stop by Fat Cats before and after shift change. Other regulars include the harbor employees and boat crews on the job in the Port San Luis boatyard just across the parking lot from Fat Cat's, at the base of Harford Pier. Add bicyclists and surfers and plenty of other Central Coast locals, and you get a pretty eclectic crowd at Fat Cat's. On a sunny day, you can find everyone trying for a patio table, to sit outside in the warm air and gaze out across San Luis Bay to Avila Beach and Pismo Beach. The patio is almost a sure bet anytime thanks to the gas heaters outside - with rainy winter days the sole exception.Flowers spill over the patio walls and there are blossoms filling flowerpots everywhere. But what you'll always get at Fat Cats, in addition to the bay view, is great friendly service and great homey food: burgers, fries, onion rings, steaks, fish and chips. You can even get an albacore salad,shrimp salad,lobster tacos or an open-faced crab or lobster sandwich. Even the steaks are great. Most fun, you can also get breakfast anytime - omelettes, French toast, eggs benedict, fresh hot cinnamon rolls. French toast at dinner? No problem. Fried Eggs at 1 p.m.? Sure. For a great breakfast, lunch or dinner, try Fat Bacon and Eggs, Lobster Benedict,or one of the specials