Where to eat in Bishop?

We're always looking for somewhere to eat that will be a bit different, and a bit better, than the usual small town trailhead fare. Yeah, we've found good burgers in a few places, and every town has a pizza place, a Mexican place, and at least one BBQ joint...etc. But our last visit to Bishop gave us another reason to return. Not only was the hiking great, but we found a really nice restaurant there.

While the location isn't ideal (it's in a small local shopping center on the road that leads to the North Lake/Sabrina/South Lake trailhead) Sage Restaurant is a step above the usual small town café. The menu is interesting, with enough dishes that we were tempted to eat there two days in a row. The wine list is reasonable, and has some good choices on it. And the whole feel of the place is more sophisticated and food focused than anything we'd expected--at least, anywhere on 395.

True, if it were in Napa, where we live, we probably wouldn't give it a second thought. But it's not in Napa. It's in Bishop. And if you want a culinary experience in Bishop, it may not only be a good choice---it may be your only option. We were delighted with it. Check it out the next time your are in Bishop: 621 W. Line St. #101 Town & Country Plaza.

On the other hand, we also stopped for lunch at the Cardinal Café in Aspendell. The menu had three choices--a hamburger, a hot dog, and a grilled cheese sandwich. We asked if they had a salad, and the very perky and cute waitress suggested that we could order lettuce, tomato and an onion on the cheese sandwich---and that would be kind of be like a salad.

Well, not really. Oh dear.

Luckily, the guy running the store in the other half of the building pointed out that he had a green salad in his cold cases...and we bought one of those. It was green, a little faded, and came with a package of dressing in the box. But we won't go out of our way to eat there again...