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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.
From the limestone floor to the cedar walls and cypress tabletops, most of the materials used to build this downtown Napa restaurant specializing in seasonally changing multicourse kaiseki meals were imported from Japan, as was the ceramic dinnerware. Delicate preparations of eel, abalone, bluefin tuna, and slow-roasted Wagyu tenderloin are typical of the offerings on the prix-fixe menu, which also includes impeccably fresh, artistically presented sashimi and sushi courses.
The owner of casual and fine-dining restaurants in Japan and elsewhere, Kobe-born chef Haruyuki Yamashita gained fame within his native land for techniques that modernized Japanese cuisine. At his sparsely decorated Napa location—black, gray, and brown tones, polished concrete floor, gleaming open kitchen—his team prepares prix-fixe multicourse meals, but you can also order sushi, tempura, and other items à la carte.
Iron Chef star Masaharu Morimoto is the big name behind this downtown Napa restaurant where everything is delightfully over the top, including the desserts. Organic materials such as twisting grapevines above the bar and rough-hewn wooden tables seem simultaneously earthy and modern, creating a fitting setting for the gorgeously plated Japanese fare, from straightforward sashimi to more elaborate seafood, chicken, pork, and beef entrées.
Inside a tall-ceilinged, brick-walled, industrial-looking space with reclaimed wood from a coastal building backing the bar, the chefs at Ramen Gaijin turn out richly flavored ramen bowls brimming with pork belly, wood ear mushrooms, seaweed, and other well-proportioned ingredients. Izakaya (Japanese pub grub) dishes like donburi (meat and vegetables over rice) are another specialty, like the ramen made from mostly local proteins and produce.
The owner-chef at this industrial-looking high-ceilinged spot pushes the envelope with crowd-pleasers like the 15-spice spare ribs with hoisin barbecue sauce and salmon tartare tacos with crispy wonton shells. He and his team also present sushi classics with style, the intricacy enticing as much as the freshness of the mostly local ingredients.
Preparations are traditional and unconventional at this sushi and country-Japanese restaurant whose owner vows diners will not leave hungry. The menu's diversity might daunt you into sticking to the familiar, but don't overlook offbeat items like the Fungus Among Us (tempura mushrooms stuffed with spicy tuna), Batman Roll (eel and cream cheese), and Hottie (deep-fried panko shrimp with spicy tuna).
At this storefront a block north of Healdsburg Plaza, Japanese-style prints and furniture offset the mildly industrial feel of an enterprise whose offerings include tea flights, light cuisine, and a spalike tea treatment involving a foot soak and a facial mask. Ramen cold or hot and rice bowls are the highlights, the former accompanied by shoyu-marinated egg, fish cake, tofu, and other ingredients as desired.
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