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Farm-to-table Modern American cuisine is the prevalent style in the Napa Valley and Sonoma County, but this encompasses both the delicate preparations of Yountville’s Thomas Keller, whose restaurants include The French Laundry, and the upscale comfort food served throughout the Wine Country. The quality (and hype) often means high prices, but you can find appealing, inexpensive eateries, especially in Napa, Calistoga, Sonoma, and Santa Rosa.
Spouses Andzia and Jenay Hofftin opened this organic restaurant, retail and wine shop, and community gathering spot inside Occidental's oldest building (1872). The "farm-fresh comfort food" menu encompasses everything from egg sandwiches and a yogurt and grain-free-granola parfait for breakfast to vegan bowls and pork melts for lunch and (three days a week) early dinner until 7.
Not one to rest on her laurels, the creative director of this urban-rustic restaurant responded to winning a prestigious fine-dining award by welcoming a new chef, mixologist, and wine lead, all with impressive credentials themselves. The worth-the-splurge cuisine, hinging on hyperfresh local ingredients from superstar purveyors, comes off even more intricate than before in dishes that might include kanpachi crudo or goat-cheese croquette apps or a smoked pork chop with Japanese sweet potato entrée.
A casual storefront restaurant on Guerneville's main drag, boon eat+drink has a menu built around salads, smallish shareable plates, and entrées that might include a vegan bowl, chili-braised pork shoulder, and local cod with shiitakes. Like many of chef-owner Crista Luedtke's dishes, the signature polenta lasagna—creamy ricotta salata cheese and polenta served on greens sautéed in garlic, all of it floating upon a spicy marinara sauce—deviates significantly from the lasagna norm but succeeds on its own merits.
In a postage-stamp-size open kitchen (the dining room, its white walls adorned with contemporary art, is nearly as compact), chef Jeffrey Lloyd turns out understated, sophisticated fare emphasizing seasonably available local ingredients. Meats, pastas, and seafood get deluxe treatment without fuss or fanfare—and the daily risotto special is always worth trying.
Calistoga's flashy 19th-century entrepreneur Sam Brannan built the depot in 1868 to receive spa patrons, but it was looking careworn until his 21st-century equivalent, Wine Country vintner-showman Jean-Charles Boisset, restored the wood-frame building and opened a combination gourmet grocery, café, wine shop, distillery, and wine and beer garden. As at Boisset's historic Oakville Grocery, salads, artisanal sandwiches, and wood-fired pizzas headline.
In a high-ceilinged former barn with plenty of outside seating, Farmstead revolves around an open kitchen whose chefs prepare meals with grass-fed beef and lamb, fruits and vegetables, and eggs, olive oil, wine, honey, and other ingredients from nearby Long Meadow Ranch. Entrées might include wood-grilled trout with fennel and bacon-mustard vinaigrette; caramelized beets with goat cheese and chimichurri; or a wood-grilled heritage pork chop with jalapeño grits.
For years this cavernous casual-chic restaurant with a contempo-barn interior and wraparound patio steps from neighboring vineyards was northern Napans' preferred stop for a top-shelf cocktail, dry-aged steak, and high-90s-scoring local Cabernet. You can still order a tomahawk or New York strip, but chef Philip Tessier, formerly of Yountville's The French Laundry and Bouchon Bistro and New York City's Le Bernardin, has introduced more refined cuisine, much of whose produce is grown nearby.
Possibly the most romantic roost for brunch, lunch, or dinner in all the Wine Country is a terrace seat at the Auberge du Soleil resort's illustrious restaurant, and the Mediterranean-inflected cuisine more than matches the dramatic vineyard views. The prix-fixe dinner menu (three or four courses), relying mainly on local produce, might include caviar or diver scallop starters, delicately prepared fish or vegetable middle-course options, and mains like prime beef pavé with béarnaise, spiced lamb loin, or Japanese Wagyu A5.
Pink on the outside, with tutti-frutti walls on the inside and colorful chairs painted by a local artist, Sebastopol’s hands-down favorite for all-natural ice cream and sorbet often appears in feature stories listing the nation's best shops. Mimi's Mud (espresso ice cream, cookies, chocolate chips, and homemade fudge) and strawberry made from local fruit are among the popular ice creams, with lemon, raspberry, and mango among the top palate-cleansing sorbets.
The restaurant at Solage attracts the resort's clientele, upvalley locals, and guests of nearby lodgings for sophisticated farm-to-table cuisine served in the high-ceilinged dining area or alfresco on a sprawling patio warmed by shapely heaters and a mesmerizing firepit. Dishes on the lighter side might include house-made pasta or sake-marinated fish, with duck breast, crispy pork, or a tomahawk steak among the heartier options.
Inside an ivy-laced old stone building and atop many a Napa Valley visitor's bucket list, chef Thomas Keller's destination restaurant lives up to the hype with intricate yet not overthought cuisine. Some courses on the two prix-fixe menus, one of which highlights vegetables, rely on luxe ingredients such as white quail; others take humble elements like carrots or fava beans and elevate them to art.
The same people who operate the Willow Wood Market Cafe across the street run this restaurant with a Continental atmosphere and a seasonal menu based on smaller and larger dishes. Entrées might include anything from hoisin-glazed ribs and seared scallops to "Thai Life" staples like chicken curry and crispy five-spice duck leg.
A longtime Bay Area caterer opened this retail shop serving soups, salads, sandwiches, and a few entrées to go or eat indoors or on the front patio. Supplementing staples like turkey, tri-tip, and roasted portobello sandwiches—the Caesar salad is a town favorite—are surprise items, says the owner, "we just feel like cooking, like pot roast when it rains or Thai wraps on sunny days."
At this low-key dining room with zinc-top tables, superstar chef Thomas Keller offers a changing daily fixed-price menu that might include smoked beef short ribs with creamy herb rice and charred broccolini or sesame chicken with radish kimchi and fried rice (check the website for that day's offerings). Ad Hoc also serves a small but decadent Sunday brunch, and Keller's Addendum annex, in a separate small building behind the restaurant, sells boxed lunches to go (including moist buttermilk fried chicken) from Thursday to Saturday except in winter.
The rooftop's the draw at this three-level brick-walled bar and restaurant opened by vintner Joseph Wagner, who grew up working at his family's Caymus Vineyards before starting Belle Glos Pinot Noir and other brands on his own. Small plates for pairing with updated classic cocktails might include caviar, oysters on the half shell, ceviche, and roasted bone marrow, but it's worth sticking around for dinner items like steelhead trout, pan-seared scallops, and cola-braised short rib.
Every dish on the small menu at this wine store, wine bar, and restaurant is a standout, including the pulled-pork and smoked beef-brisket sandwiches served with three types of barbecue sauce, the meltingly tender St. Louis–style ribs, and the signature beer-can chicken (only Tecate will do). The space is whimsically rustic, with stuffed-game trophies mounted on the wall and leather saddles used as seats at a couple of tables.
Succulent fried chicken and St. Louis ribs whose meat glides off the bone are among the hits at this open-air, partially covered restaurant where diners sit at sturdy oak picnic or high-top tables. Many of the ingredients come from top artisanal protein and produce purveyors; most of the two dozen beers on tap are by craft breweries.
Longtime upvalley restaurateurs run this down-home diner whose efficient chefs churn out comfort food with a touch more flair than the zingy Cal-hippie decor might lead you to expect. Huevos rancheros and other egg dishes top the breakfast (until 2:30 closing) menu along with pancakes, waffles, French toast, and vegetarian and corned-beef hash; burgers (beef, fish, or black bean), tuna melts, sandwiches, wraps, and several salads headline at lunch, with sides that include crispy-golden onion rings.
When the weather's nice, the inn's outdoor patio and beer garden edging the Napa River are swell places to hang out and sip some microbrews. Among the beer-friendly dishes, the garlic-crusted calamari appetizer and the country paella entrée stand out, along with several pizzas, the burger topped with Tillamook cheddar, and (for lunch) the Reuben with ale-braised corned beef.
Two chefs who've starred at fine-dining restaurants shifted gears to open this humble shop, expanded with seating in 2023, where everything's made from scratch, either by them or their vendors. The ingredients are all of the highest quality, which explains the long lines at breakfast for the Ham & Jam (buttermilk biscuits with molasses-brined ham and seasonal jam) and at lunchtime for the Cuban, mortadella, and a few others.
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