Cyrus OR Dry Creek Kitchen??
 

I will be in Healdsburg for 5 days with my boyfriend in Sept. We have reservations for a few places (Willi's, Zin, Ravenous). We were thinking about going to either Cyrus or Dry Creek Kitchen for out last night. Which one would you recommend?

Haven't been to Cyrus, but Dry Creek Kitchen is very nice. Do the tasting menu there, everything we had was excellent. ***kim*** ((l))

Has anyone been Cyrus? I would love some feedback.

I think you've made excellent choices with Willi's, Zin and Ravenous. You can add Manzanita to that if you want.

We've never really enjoyed our dining experiences at Dry Creek Kitchen nor at Cyrus. In the early days of it's establishment, Cyrus was being touted as the next French Laundry. Unfortunately, it never lived up to expectation and, somehow, the service and the hit-and-miss dishes suffered due to the unfair comparison with one of the consistently best restaurant in the world.

Twice we've been to each place and they never impressed.

If you'd like to be within the area, we've found Santi in Geyserville (about 15 minutes from Healdsburg north on 101) to be a very good Italian restaurant in the Sonoma wine country and the restaurant at Farmhouse Inn (just 20 minutes south on 101 towards Santa Rosa) to be the better choices.

We haven't been to Dry Creek Kitchen, but we did have one of the best meals of our lives at Cyrus last Fall.

We started with cocktails, as their bartender makes very unique and interesting drinks. However, since we had wine pairings with our meal we really should have skipped the pre-dinner cocktail (next time we'll drop in just for a drink on a different day than our dinner). They also bring around a Champagne & Caviar cart which we declined.

Their menu allows one to choose a 3, 4, 5 or 7 course meal. We decided to 'go for it' and chose the 7 course chef's tasting menu. As recommended, we allowed the chef to choose the dishes. However, if there's something on the menu you really want you can ask for it to be included as one of your courses (we specified a foie gras sampler - partial portions of different foie gras to count as 1 course). We also specified 1 dish we did NOT want. They were VERY accommodating in allowing one to tailor the meal to your liking.

Our reservation was early as that was all that was available, but in the end we were glad because from the seating until our leaving was 3 hours. The service was excellent; not slow but not rushed. We ordered one wine pairing with our two meals and shared the glasses which worked out well. Even though each isn't a full glass, there were one and sometimes two wines for each course so it would have been a lot for us to drink if we each ordered the pairing.

When we were there in the fall black truffles were in season so they offered a special truffle menu where they're used in every dish, but that doubled the price. Even though we declined, almost half our dishes did include truffles to good effect. An early dish we loved was a chestnut & sherry soup over truffle shavings. It was awesome.

Every course was either very good or excellent. We had a cheese course where we were able to select from a dozen cheeses, fresh fruit & baked dessert bread (I can't think of what it's called). Being cheese fans, we love a cheese course and it's rare for us to get it in the States.

For dessert, they brought us each a different dessert so we could have variety. In fact, each dessert plate actually had 3 different items on it so we had 6 different sweet tastes.

We rolled out of Cyrus and were glad that our B&B was in walking distance. The check totaled $300 for both of us, including a cocktail each, two 7-course meals, 1 7-course wine pairing, tax & tip. Although that's a big splurge for us, one person's tab at the French Laundry can be that much or more!

If every experience at Cyrus is as good as ours, then you'll love it.

P.S. For other meals, we've also eaten at Ravenous and Zin. We enjoyed them both, with a nod toward Ravenous.

I was just reminded that our check was $300 before tip, not including it. It was worth every penny.

Ouch Alan! I do know that Dry Creek Kitchen does not charge a corkage fee for local wine. That's a huge savings and a great policy, IMO. I'm glad you had a great meal at Cyrus. We were out there in April and decided not to go due to some negative comments from locals and a few comments we read on tripadvisor.com. I don't always believe reviews, but when people are very specific about problems, I take them to heart. (Just like I did Alan's comments.) We had a nice meal at Dry Creek Kitchen a few years ago when it had just opened. But like bill boy, we were just blown away by Santi and don't know why we hadn't tried it before. We went on a VERY busy night (FFord Coppolla's birthday party!!!) and though they couldn't seat us, we were welcome to eat at the bar and they couldn't have been nicer. Plus, the food arrived in good time and was just awesome. I was very impressed. The atmosphere in there is great, too.

hi sll:

We ate at Dry Creek and Cyrus each twice in our June stay. First time at Dry Creek the tasting menu in the dining room; the second time at the bar. The reverse for Cyrus–first time at the bar, second time in the dining room.

If you are "foodies" I would drop Willi's and go to both Cyrus and Dry Creek. One way to keep the cost down is to eat in the bar of one and/or both.

The bartender at Cyrus is a true "mixologist"--but he was great on our first visit where we ate at the bar and then treated us like s**t when we re-visited a few days later with a reservation for the dining room (you will have to trust me that we are great tippers--so it wasn't that).

I thought that Cyrus--in the dining room--was pushing the expensive caviar tray and pretentious in the service. There was only one woman serving us the entire evening--she was allowed to bring us bread.

No question that some dishes at Cyrus were better. But I cannot recommend it for the very expensive dining room experience.

As I have said, you can experience both–and that is what I would recommend. If you are there on a weekday, Dry Creek has a great value prix fixe dinner–plus as you probably know that it features only Sonoma wines.

oooo, I think I would have them skip Zin or Ravenous before Willi's. We've been there three times and absolutely love it. Again, if you trust tripadvisor at all, Willi's is rated #1 in Healdsburg and given 5 stars by everyone (including me)

We just ate at Cyrus last weekend!I thought the food was fabulous and well worth the $58 for the three courses.
I have not been to Dry Creek Kitchen as I have "unkind thoughts" about Hotel Healdsburg and what it's coming to town has done.(Sorry my local pals taint my view).

Try breakfast @ Downtown Creamery..the croque madame was to die for.

Beauty really is in the eye of the beholder on this stuff. We have eaten at Santi several times over the years and really liked it when it first opened. Three separate times we have been back and three separate times we have been way underwhelmed.

We have also eaten several times over the years at the French Laundry. I really think there is no comparison between FL and Cyrus. However, FL is now enormously expensive and Cyrus does offer some splendid food especially if you take the three course option.

Why were you underwhelmed at Santi over the last 3 times?

You know it just seems to lack imagination. The menu seemingly never changes much and most of the dishes seem pretty "pat".Overall, it seems lackluster. We really prefer Geyserville now to Healdsburg(small and quiet) and would love to walk home from Santi to our hotel. We recently spent the weekend there and our friends ate at Santi the night before we arrived. They too were underwhelmed.

To place us(moi et amis) all in the "food likes" category which might give you some idea of our tastes: Chez Panisse upstairs remains among my favorite places over time, we like smaller venues overall(Blvd is just too much for us and we remember when Nancy Oakes had L'Avenue)we happily eat at El Sombrero (the Mexican joint across from Oakville Grocery in Healdsburg), and were underwhelmed by Babbo in NYC as well. If we could find a Sicilian style roadhouse like one does on the East coast, we'd be happy as clams.

Pam, you didn't miss a trip to Meeker did you?

Yup but we made up for it with a trip to Gary Farrell.We bought 2 bottles of knock out Zin to share with our beloved former neighbors who come from Suisse next month for a visit.

I hope your beloved neighbors reciprocate. We had some GREAT wine there and can't a single bottle here. :-(

We are local Healdsburgers... we love Dry Creek Kitchen. We've had good meals there each time. Only ate at Cyrus once and have no plans to return. I agree that Willi's is a fun, different and delicious place to eat...they don't take reservations, however. Try Barn Diva too, for dinner and drinks..esp. for late dining......

Yes, Willi's does take reservations through www.opentable.com I always make them before I leave on my trip. Here, I'll save you the trouble of looking it up, LOL.
http://tinyurl.com/s77sd