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A Caveat Summary: Wonderful lunch in a beautiful garden The Mendocino Hotel is a venerable Mendocino institution. It offers accommodations, as well as different dining options. We gave its Garden Room a try for lunch on a Wednesday in July 2007 and were quite satisfied. The Garden Room has dining inside a front restaurant and the garden outside. We found the front to be comfortable and somewhat elegant, but incredibly dark. The garden, on the other hand, was bright and sunny and very pretty with all the plants and flowers. Indeed, we had our own tableside entertainment in the form of hungry bees (if you don't like bees, you may want to avoid the garden). We liked it a lot. One big problem, however, is that the tables are rather close together and we sat near a couple of guys who seemed to be hard of hearing, as they nearly shouted to each other throughout lunch. It's not that fun to listen to every detail of other people's conversations. Unfortunately, they didn't leave until we did. The Garden Room's menu offers salads, sandwiches and entrees, all in the low to mid teens. Mike and I decided to split the burger with cheddar and bacon ($11.50) and the chicken flautas ($10.75). The burger was good, juicy and flavorful. I didn't like the homemade 3- seed bun, however. The fries were a bit too crispy and overcooked for my taste. The flauta was very nice as well. It was nicely crispy on the outside, and had a light flavor but went very well with the accouterments (salsa, sour cream and guacamole). The guacamole had a nice avocado flavor, while the salsa was sweet, with hints of fruit and a tiny bit spicy. I liked it. The portions were generous and we were definitely not hungry afterwards. We even liked our sodas. Service was prompt and efficient. They refilled our glasses quickly and there were no gaffes. In all, we had a very good meal at the Mendocino Hotel's Garden Room and I'd go back there again. Garden Room at the Mendocino Hotel 45080 Main Street Mendocino, Ca 707. 937. 0511 http://www.mendocinohotel.com/mendocinodining.html Garden Room at Mendocino Hotel Flautas Bacon Cheddar Burger