Press

At Press, an almost too lovely to eat meyer lemon tart topped with spiky meringue.

Solbar

An amazing stack of junior sized lemon-ricotta pancakes with blueberry syrup, pinenuts and powdered sugar during breakfast at Solbar.

Ad Hoc brunch

Ad Hoc serves a reservations worthy 3 course brunch on Sunday. Our first course was a colorful fruit salad with marshmallow meringue sauce.

Fried chicken with mushroom sausage gravy, bacon and waffles. Enough chicken to take home for dinner!

Brunch doesn't need dessert, but the dense walnut brownie with whipped cream and raspberry sauce was too good to pass up...

Redd Wood

Redd Wood in Yountville has great food and a great interior. The shaved summer vegetable salad was colorful and fresh in an herbed green goddess dressing.

Roasted corn soup was thick, creamy and drizzled with olive oil.

The spagettini carbonara was rich with spinach, mushrooms, artichoke and pancetta.
 

A light and citrusy side of seasonal grilled summer squash.

The ricotta pizza was perfectly thin with a crunchy crust and loaded with white corn, bacon, onion, pecorino, basil and chili flakes for a little spice.

French Blue

The outdoor patio at French Blue is a great place for dinner in the summer, starting with crunchy fried olives with a toasted almond romesco.

The chicken liver mousse was rich and creamy with pickled shallots, greens and candied pistachios on crostini.

Wood baked lamb meatballs are fantastic served with a spicy sauce, crumbled feta and crunchy, buttery bread.

Farmer Omar's Salad is full of fresh veggies from the local market and is delicious in a celery seed vinaigrette.

The parkerhouse roll comes sprinkled with sea salt and dripping with butter. 

The smoked chicken has a great skin and is served on a fresh salad with beans and croutons.

French Blue, Breakfast

Breakfast at French Blue is a fun affair. I loved the blueberry pancake, which is more like a blueberry muffin in a pan, with rhubarb maple syrup and a petite french omelet.

The baked eggs are served with polenta, spicy chorizo and swiss chard.

The other baked egg dish is with tomatillo sauce, fried plantains, and rancho gordo beans. The buttermilk biscuit is a perfect add-on with indulgently rich brown sugar butter.

Addendum

Addendum, the outdoor stand behind Ad Hoc, serves lunch in a beautiful outdoor space with picnic tables. The meat on the pork ribs was falling off the bone in a bbq sauce and accompanied by pulled pork.

The buttermilk fried chicken was perfect - dry, crispy breading and super juicy on the inside and served with sweet honey cornbread.

Sides of purple potato salad and a play on corn succotash with red peppers and a spicy sauce.

Pastronomy

Pastronomy is a ny-style mobile deli serving pastrami, corned beef and matzo ball soup. The excellent rueben is stuffed with corned beef, swiss, sauerkraut, russian dressing and grilled.

The turkey sandwich is piled with herb-roasted turkey and topped with cranberry sauce for a twist. Sides are a half-sour pickle, potato salad and cole slaw.

A play on tater tots, the potato latkes are fried and extra crispy with applesauce and sour cream toppings.

C Casa

The tacos as C Casa at the Oxbow Market aren't the average taco. Options like the spiced lamb with goat cheese, mint, jalapeños, garlic aioli, mixed greens, and avocado creme take the taco to a whole new level.

Auberge du Soleil Bistro & Bar

The view from the outdoor deck at Auberge du Soleil's Bistro & Bar in Napa Valley is stunning. The great food just makes the experience even better. The Ahi tuna tartare tops a generous amount of avocado and dashi gelee, with fresh tortilla chips.

The Mediterranean octopus is chopped into a salad with chickpeas, olives, peppers and salsa verde.

Steamed manila clams are in an amazing broth with chunks of pork belly, lime and basil.

Bottega

Bottega in Yountville, California, has a lovely outdoor deck and surrounded by flowers and the mountains in the distance it makes for a perfect, and surprisingly light (for Italian) dinner. We started with the roasted baby golden and chiogga beets with Point Reyes blue cheese spuma and pistachio vinaigrette.

The shaved artichoke was filled with amazing chunks of lemon olive oil braised artichoke, fried artichokes and parmigiano reggiano.

A shaved brussel sprout salad was a study in simplicity with only five ingredients including marcona almonds, sieved egg and pecorino. So light and fresh.

The green egg and ham was delicious and beautiful with a crispy fried egg with a runny center over olive oil poached asparagus and prosciutto bits.

The black pepper bucatini alla carbonara had a soft cooked hen egg over thick noodles and shaves asparagus in a creamy sauce.

The linguini bolognese had a rich, meaty sauce with veal, pork, rosemary and a porcini mushroom sugo.

The whole fish was roasted in a wood oven with meyer lemon, coal cooked fennel and roasted asparagus.

Finally, the grass fed lamb was tender and had amazing compliments of honey roasted pears, tarragon dressing and thick, creamy polenta.

Morimoto

Morimoto feels more meatpacking district than Napa valley, but the food is incredible and I’d be happy to have it in the city! It was a cool day, and a start of chicken ramen in a rich, meaty broth with perfectly tender noodles was great to warm up with.

The foie gras balls were unexpected and amazing – small, rich croquettes that reminded me of a decadent version of thanksgiving stuffing.

Slices of yellowtail with pastrami spices were unbelievably and flew off my plate. The purple beet powder, candied olives, gin crème fraiche, and breadsticks were perfect compliments.

The tempura soft shell crab rolls were beautiful with asparagus, avocado and spicy sauce.

I was expecting little dumplings when I ordered the pork gyoza; they arrived covered in a thin, crispy skin with bacon foam, tomato chutney and scallions.

I couldn’t help but order the beef curry bread – a panko breaded and fried ball of beef in sweet Japanese curry.

The fried rice came with a beautifully runny egg on top and was a great additional to the rest of the plates.

Gott's Roadside

Gott's may be the hippest roadside stand I’ve been to, starting with the mango-tangerine smoothie blended with house-made lemonade. So refreshing on a hot day.


The fish tacos were loaded with griddled mahi mahi, salsa, slaw and a spicy jalapeno cilantro sour cream.

Sweet potato fries were salty and crunchy; the special sandwich, a Korean style tender pulled pork shoulder, was on a toasted egg bun with kimchi, hoisin mayo and cilantro. For the healthier option, a thick patty of seared tuna with ginger wasabi mayo and asian slaw.

The classic bacon burger was juicy, topped with secret sauce and perfectly complimented with crunchy onion rings.