176 Best Restaurants in Napa and Sonoma, California

Christopher Kostow gained fame as the award-winning chef of the Restaurant at Meadowood, the essence of Napa Valley haute fine dining, but the fare and mood are more down-to-earth at the order-at-the-counter deli he and his marketing-whiz wife, Martina Kostow, opened at the Oxbow Public Market. Bagels and bagel sandwiches anchor the breakfast menu, with pastrami and smoked-whitefish-salad sandwiches appearing for lunch and early dinner, along with matzoh ball soup, latkes, and other stalwarts.

A vintage-style neon sign outside this bungalow restaurant announces "Great Food," and the chefs deliver with well-plated dishes served in two buildings, one a Craftsman gem, or on street-side patios that are especially festive during weekend brunch. The offerings at women-owned and  -run Lovina change often, but a recent menu's roasted Cornish hen, lobster and prawn risotto, and seared wild halibut with gnocchi and wild mushrooms are typical of the imaginative cuisine.

Seasonal pies including blood-orange custard with graham-cracker crust are the specialty of this white-walled, brightly lit pie palace with a few tables and barstool window seating. The bakers use heritage grains like buckwheat and farro in the crusts, filling them with local fruits and other ingredients, and, if desired, topping the ensemble with ice cream in flavors from Swiss chocolate and vanilla bean to Thai tea, salted caramel, and almond cardamom.

Northern Thailand–born chef-owner Lalita Souksamlane decorated her Wine Country restaurant with the same upscale flair—Thai wall ornaments, ornate wallpaper, cushy leatherette chairs, quartz tables adorned with roses—as her longtime San Francisco flagship. Beyond the aesthetic pleasure the decor provides, it also signals that in their delicacy and finesse her aromatic, flavorful entrées (some garnished with orchids) are on a par with similarly bedecked fine-dining establishments.

Delicate pastries and quiches, croques monsieur, and other bistro bites have made locals as passionate about this Highway 116 café as its executive and pastry chefs, who previously worked at establishments in Paris, San Francisco, and elsewhere, are about their cuisine and hospitality. Pastel-green walls, a wood-burning stove, and tables from reclaimed wood lend the small interior space a French-country feel; on sunny days the best seating is on the wooden deck outside.

Regulars of this southern Petaluma "daytime café" with indoor and outdoor seating rave about its eastern Mediterranean–inflected cuisine—then immediately downplay their enthusiasm lest this unassuming gem become more popular. The menu changes often, but mainstays include shakshuka (a tomato-based stew with baked eggs) and a lamb burger dripping with fennel tzatziki.

A longtime member of the United States Pizza Team, chef-owner Leah Scurto has won national and international awards for creations like the Mush-a-Roni (pepperoni, cremini), the Nico (olive oil, mozzarella, roasted garlic, Parmesan), and the spicy Old Grey Beard (two kinds of cheese, sausage, Calabrian peppers, honey, orange zest). She serves her pies—plus salads, calzones, meatballs, and a few other items—in a minimally decorated strip-mall storefront with a spacious entryway patio.

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.

Even restaurateurs as famous as Thomas Keller test out concepts via pop-ups, though in retrospect his pairing of mostly French sparkling wines with caviar from a company (Regiis Ova) the chef co-owns was always destined for permanent glory. Intended as a palate-cleansing pit stop between Cab tasting and dinner, the place, furnished in insouciant, faintly decadent style by Bay Area celeb designer Ken Fulk, tempts patrons to stay put, order more bubbly and roe, and call it a meal.

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.

The brightly lit dining room's mural map of the Naples coastline signals the chef's focus on frutti di mare (seafood) at this downtown homage to southern Italian cuisine the folks behind valley-fave Bistro Don Giovanni opened in 2023. Raw oysters, cooked whole fish, skillet-sautéed mussels, and halibut soup were among the early hits, along with pizzas hot out of a wood-fired oven.

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 seasonally oriented Japanese dinners known as kaiseki inspire the 10-course prix-fixe vegetarian, meat, and seafood menu at the spare, elegant restaurant—redwood walls, walnut tables, mesquite-tile floors, muted-gray yarn-thread panels—of internationally renowned culinary artists Katina and Kyle Connaughton (she farms, he cooks). As Katina describes the endeavor, the micro-seasons of their nearby farm plus SingleThread's rooftop garden of fruit trees and greens dictate Kyle's rarefied fare, prepared in a theatrically lit open kitchen.

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.

Chef Efrain Balmes attracted such throngs for his "real Mexican food" truck specializing in his native Oaxacan cuisine that he finally went full brick-and-mortar, sharing space with (and pretty much taking over) an existing coffee roastery. The tacos—fish, shrimp, potato, mushroom, pork, and an outstanding lamb one—and the signature mole Oaxaqueño sauce are the must-tries here, the latter with either an enchilada or the "wet supreme burrito."

The chef-owners of this neighborly restaurant say their fare "walks the line between comfort and haute cuisine"—mostly California-inspired and "hyperseasonal" items that range from vegetarian butter-bean cassoulet (there's also a pork-belly version) to a 30-ounce tomahawk steak. The same could be said for the casual but knowing hospitality and the decor (bare wooden tables yet linen napkins), but it all works: dining here engenders quiet excitement.

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.

At this hot spot for inventive French cooking inside the historic Sonoma Hotel bar, you can always find a dish with the signature figs on the menu, whether it's a fig-and-arugula salad or an aperitif blending sparkling wine with fig liqueur. Also look for duck confit, a burger with matchstick fries, and wild flounder meunière.

The location of Dustin Valette's farm-to-table restaurant holds a special place in his heart: the bar and its Wine Wall taps dispensing mostly Sonoma County wines occupy the space where the Geyserville native's great-grandfather ran a bakery a century ago. Valette describes the menu—aged meats creatively adorned, local fish with recently plucked vegetables—as a "love letter" to local agriculture, a point driven home by the large, bright paintings of farm and culinary activity hanging above the dining-room floor.

The redwood-timbered main dining space of this comfort-food haven recalls the 19th-century heyday of the former sawmill (later a grist mill) it occupies, though when the weather's nice most patrons take their meals on a plant-filled outdoor deck with timeless Sonoma Creek views. Culinary influences from Latin America to Southeast Asia underlie dishes that might include fire-roasted achiote half chicken, wild poached salmon, and potato patties with red lentils and chutney.

Torc means "wild boar" in an early Celtic dialect, and owner-chef Sean O'Toole, who formerly helmed kitchens at top Manhattan, San Francisco, and Yountville establishments, occasionally incorporates the restaurant's namesake beast into his eclectic offerings. A recent menu featured tuna tartare, squash risotto, three hand-cut pasta dishes, a side of mushrooms foraged by a local pro, and Maine diver scallops in a lobster emulsion, all prepared by O'Toole and his team with style and precision.

The founders of Quail & Condor, both formerly of SingleThread Farms, followed up the success of their small bakery in town with this shop and restaurant that by day showcases their naturally fermented sourdough breads in sandwiches ($–$$) distinguished by their expressive flavors. Come evening, the kitchen shifts into fine-dining mode, producing multicourse prix-fixe French-inspired "Le Dîner" meals, served at counters and a communal table, that quickly evolved into a local hot ticket.

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.

Northern Sonoma native Dustin Valette opened this homage to the area's artisanal agricultural bounty with his brother, who runs the high-ceilinged dining room, where the playful contemporary lighting tempers the austerity of the exposed concrete walls and butcher-block-thick wooden tables. Charcuterie is an emphasis, but also consider the signature day-boat scallops en croûte (in a pastry crust) or dishes that might include coriander-crusted duck breast, Duroc pork tenderloin, or pan-roasted trout.

The team behind this wine shop, bar, and restaurant across from Sonoma Plaza revamped a 19th-century adobe (though inside you'd never know it's this old) and expanded its outdoor patio, where most dining takes place. Sustainably produced seafood and meats find their way into "California home cooking"—summer dishes that might include halibut with corn and cherry tomatoes and winter ones like pork adobo or a half chicken with broccoli.

Tabletop linens and lights softly twinkling from this ruby-red roadhouse restaurant's low wooden ceiling raise expectations the Parisian-style bistro cuisine consistently exceeds. A starter of cheeses or French onion soup awakens the palate for entrées like chicken cordon bleu, steak au poivre, or seafood dishes that might include scallops in a rich yet somehow delicate gastrique or subtly sauced wild Alaskan halibut.

First in a historic roadside haunt that perished in the 2017 wildfires and now in a strip mall location more urbane than its exterior suggests, Willi's serves inventive globe-trotting small plates paired with international wines. Pork-belly pot stickers represent Asia, the Mediterranean inspires Tunisian roasted local carrots and Moroccan-style lamb chops, and curried crab tacos straddle two, maybe three, continents.

A San Francisco culinary star with establishments worldwide, Michael Mina debuted his first Wine Country restaurant in 2020, its interior of charcoal grays, browns, and soft whites dandy indeed, if by evening vying with outdoor spaces aglow with firepits and lighted water features. Seasonal regional ingredients—Pacific Coast fish, pasture-raised meats, freshly plucked produce—go into haute-homey dishes, prepared open-fire, that include pizzas, handmade pastas, and the signature lobster potpie with brandied lobster cream and black truffle.

The owner of this four-storefront empire touts it as a "mid-block party": ZuZu for paella, tapas, and other northern Spanish favorites; next door a gin bar (the spirit is big in Spain); third, a takeout window; and finally La Taberna for beer, wine, and pintxos (bar bites). The anchor, which opened in 2002, is still drawing crowds, who come for shareable plates that might include flounder ceviche, tender wood-fired octopus, jamón ibérico, and lamb chops with Moroccan barbecue glaze.

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."