i usually do my research and have a list of food places to eat at whenever we travel, but this particular day was not planned until the night before (due to us getting into monterey much later than expected and having to postpone our meeting with our friends until the next morning), so i had nothing planned for lunch. before our friends left us for their camping trip, they advised us to look out for pots of chowder outside restaurants offering free samples so that we could try-before-we-buy. we didn't walk very far from the aquarium on cannery row before encountering a girl serving up samples of hot chowder from louie linguini's. we've learnt to make quick decisions whenever we go out with our two kids, as we no longer have the luxury of 'shopping around'. when hubby and i agreed that we liked the chowder, we took a quick look at the menu next to the girl to confirm the availability of variety that were not too expensive, and we promptly entered the restaurant. louie linguini had a large dining area, with some outdoor tables, and the harbour views were lovely. the service was great, the menu offered a wide range of dishes, and serving sizes were generous. it was a bit of a novelty eating clam chowder from a bread bowl, but it wasn't our first experience, and while louie linguini's clam chowder was tasty, we had a better one the next day (you'll just have to wait for the review for that one). overall it is a family-friendly restaurant conveniently close to the aquarium, serving tasty seafood and agoodversion of clam chowder in a bread bowl.