3 Best Restaurants in Glen Ellen, Napa and Sonoma

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.

The compact menu at this cheerful bistro focuses on California and French comfort food—pot roast and duck confit, for instance, as well as flounder meunière and a few thin-crust pizzas. Steamed mussels are served with crispy fries, which also accompany the Chef's Burger (top sirloin with cheese), two of the many dependable dishes that have made the Fig a downtown Glen Ellen fixture.

Glen Ellen's finer restaurants emphasize seasonal local produce, but instead of riffs on French, Italian, or Cal-modern, the farm-to-table creations at this casual space (open kitchen, paper lanterns, wooden tables and chairs) fuse Indian and Himalayan cuisine. Start with samosas or tomato-based Himalayan pepper pot soup from Nepal—so warming on a chilly day—then proceed to curries, sizzling tandooris, or chicken, prawn, or vegetable biryanis of ethereally aromatic saffron basmati rice.