It’s a good bet that if you see anyone dressed up in Carmel-by-the-Sea, a charming beach town and major laid-back tourist draw where shorts and sweatshirts are the norm, they are likely headed to dinner at Aubergine.

Located in the Relais & Chateaux luxury hotel, L’Auberge Carmel, it is the only Michelin two-starred restaurant in this tiny town of 3,000. In fact, since retaining its one Michelin star since 2019, it was awarded its second star last year.

A lot has changed since I last dined there a dozen years ago. Most notably, jewel box of a dining room always felt intimate but even more so since four tables have been removed, leaving all of five now situated around the perimeter. There are two seatings available, 5 p.m. and 8 p.m. If you choose the early seating as we did, you’ll catch the last light on a fall evening through the wall of draped windows.

Executive Chef Justin Cogley remains the constant, a former professional figure skater with “Disney on Ice,” who glides smoothly through the upper echelons of fine dining, having launched his career at none other than Charlie Trotter’s in Chicago.

The seven-course tasting menu ($285) has a through line of the sea, and rightly so, given its location on the Monterey Bay coast. The standard wine pairing ($250) includes a few wines that echo that with their subtle notes of salinity.

The evening opens in dramatic fashion with a large wooden board of canapes set on your table. With leaves and flowers scattered about, smooth stones, and a heavy ceramic dish the color of sea foam, it makes for a tableau that evokes a picnic on an ocean bluff.

There are delicate crostatas filled with creamy fromage blanc and crowned with ramps, pea shoots and bright orange salmon roe like a seafood cheesecake in taste; and tiny squid ink tartlets holding meaty, fatty bluefin tuna from Nagasaki and white seaweed.

Doll-sized soft tacos made with red masa are stuffed with diced kampachi in a leche de tigre with a prickle of heat. Its outsize powerhouse of flavor belies how adorably miniature these are in size.

Abalone is not done in the usual fried or grilled method, but in an aspic kombu terrine with baby squash blossom that accentuates its sweet, deep sea taste. Lastly, there’s rich and indulgent Japanese A5 Wagyu tartar with mustard and caviar, all arranged atop a chia seed crust that has a nutty taste.

A single Pacific gold oyster from Moro Bay arrives on a bed of kelp, its top shell wrapped in twine. You’re instructed to lift off the shell to reveal the plump oyster that sits on a thin layer of chawanmushi with cucumber. The server spoons over a foamed cucumber sauce to complete the dish. The egg custard is soft and custardy. The cucumber and a bit of rice vinegar together create a dish that has the whoosh of a sea breeze.

Next, a dish that’s been a staple at Aubergine, though, gets changed up regularly. Amadai or tilefish sports scales that are edible. Cogley makes them especially irresistible by pouring hot oil over them so they get as crisp and easy to eat as potato chips. A fish bone broth gets poured over it like a delicate dashi.

To accompany this, a server pounds a peanut XO sauce with five spice in a mortar and pestle, then spoons it over koshihikari rice, giving it an incredible toasty taste. Slip some of the rice into the remaining broth, and enjoy a spoonful of pure comfort.

A scallop that’s been smoked gets presented at the table in a donabe before being whisked away to finish plating. Since I’m allergic, I get buttery tasting salmon slices instead. Both get finished with a creamy, slightly sweet Sun Gold tomato sauce. Good thing this course is served with crispy, buttery brioche because you’ll want to use it to mop up every bit of this lusty sauce.

Duck gets aged for 14 days before getting smoked over cherry wood. The breast gets sliced and served beautifully atop a raft of tied branches and ferns. It’s juicy and moist, with a sweet smokiness reminiscent of ham or bacon. The leg is turned into a juicy meatball full of gingery Asian flavors. A salad bundle with strawberries and marigold is off to the side to dunk into a sweet potato vinaigrette. There’s also a small, shallow bowl of concentrated duck broth that had me dreaming of a big bowl of it for ramen noodles.

The final savory course is dry-aged ribeye, aged 32 days, deepening its notes of minerality and iron. It gets plated artfully in a green pool of chimichurri with a rim of black garlic and squid ink sauce. A beef jus, reduced for 48 hours, gets drizzled over the meat at the table. This may be a land dish, but it eats unexpectedly like surf & turf, with the squid ink providing a briny note that really works.

Hot and glossy sourdough bread is served with this course with butter topped with a layer of beef bone broth gelee. Spread it on the bread to add a savory, beefy taste to the lush butter.

To refresh the palate, there’s icy melon granita with goat milk yogurt gelato that together taste like a 50-50 bar.

A cart gets rolled to your table for dessert, a corn ice cream whose base is infused with the silk, cob, and kernels. The ice cream gets hand-mixed with Big Sur honeycomb and pepper jam, just like at Cold Stone Creamery, our server joked. Lastly, honey that’s aged for 4 years and fermented for 8 months gets added.

The sweet corn taste is pronounced. As you enjoy spoonfuls, you get crispy, crackly bits from the honeycomb and a subtle earthiness from the honey.

Because it was our anniversary, the kitchen added an extra treat: a small buttermilk shortbread cake in the shape of a Russian onion dome with a single rose petal at its top that was light and floral tasting.

Mignardises come in the form of pretty chocolate blackberry-hazelnut and apricot-sarsaparilla bonbons. To take home, there’s a chocolate bar, made with top-notch dark chocolate and chewy dried persimmons.

It’s a dining experience that leaves you as decompressed yet reinvigorated as an afternoon lingering on the ocean.

More: A Visit to Carmel’s Restaurant with One Michelin Star — Chez Noir