Hi - we're heading to Sonoma/Napa for 5 days of R&R in early April, so I'm starting to think about dinnners out. We always dine "on the cheap" during the day - free breakfast included with hotel stay, then picnic food for lunch, but love to have a great dinner in a great restaurant. What are your favorites? We'll be staying in Sonoma, just north of Santa Rosa. On past trips we've enjoyed the Kenwood Grill, John Ash & Co, and one of Lisa Hemenway's former restaurants. Still think about trying French Laundry, Bottega, or....???? THANKS !

have you thought about redd ? marvelous
or i like girl and fig when you're in sonoma but it gets mixed reviews

have you thought about redd ? marvelous
or i like girl and fig when you're in sonoma but it gets mixed reviews

thanks Toncasmo - will go look up Redd. Have done lunch at Girl and Fig a couple of years back. very nice.

Another vote for Redd...love it.

El Dorado Kitchen, across the street from The Girl and The Fig, is excellent, and the very small Cafe La Haye, just off the diagonally opposite side of the Square in Sonoma, is also one of our faves. I've had fantastic dinners in both places.

If you're in Napa and want a truly exceptional meal (and don't mind paying for it), then the French Laundry is your ticket.
In Sonoma, Cyrus in Healdsburg fills a similar need for high end dining.

Keller's French Laundry gets a lot of buzz, but folks I know say they prefer Cyrus. The Farmhouse Inn in Forrestville has an outstanding restaurant. Also in Forrestville is Mosiac, very good. Down the spectrum price wise, we've enjoyed Zin in Healdsburg.

French Laundry

french laundry, willie's wine bar. enjoy.

I just surfed the web a bit, and while Mosaic has a web page that makes it appear to be open for business, when I went to read customer reviews on Yelp, it indicates Mosaic is closed.....I'd best call and see.

In Sonoma, consider Cafe La Haye or girl and the fig. In Yountvile, Botegga is wonderful, we have dined there twice now. REDD, Ad Hoc and Bistro Jeanty are all very good, also. ***kim***

"We'll be staying in Sonoma, just north of Santa Rosa.
Do you know, Nancy, it is a 45 minute drive at non-commute times between "just north of Santa Rosa" and the town of Sonoma ? I think that is quite a haul for dinner, LOL.
There are quite a few exceptional restaurants
in the area, so you could have terrific dinners nearby.

From 101 North, head east on Guernevile Rd to Zazu
http://www.zazurestaurant.com/
From 101 N, take the Mark West Springs Rd exit or
Mendocino/ Old Redwood Hwy exit and head to Willi's Wine Bar
http://www.starkrestaurants.com/willis_winebar.html
The Starks' have 3 restaurans in the area and 1 in Healdsburg-
you can review them all from the link above.

Just off of Fountaingrove Parkway on Stagecoach Rd. is Santi-
http://www.santirestaurant.com/
which has moved from it's original location in Geyserville.
Not to be missed is Josh Silver's Syrah-
http://www.syrahbistro.com/
and his other venture, Jackson's Bar & Oven (named for his son)
http://www.jacksonsbarandoven.com/

If you want to venture into a little bit of west county-
consider Sebastopol just east of 101 N on Hwy 12.
Do consider K&L Bistro
http://www.klbistro.com/
and/or Peter Lowells
http://www.peterlowells.com/

A bit further west in Occidental is-
http://www.bistrodescopains.com/site/home

Mosaic is indeed closed for the moment-

In Windsor, do take a look at Mirepoix
http://www.restaurantmirepoix.com/Re...x/welcome.html

Hope these will give you some fabulous alternatives to consider.

R5

Loved loved loved French Laundry. If you're going to be there and are specifically looking for a great dinner in a great restaurant, spend at least one of your evenings there! Have a great trip.

Wife and I spent a week in Napa last spring, and ate at both French Laundry and Bouchon. French Laundry was a "life experience" sort of thing, but Bouchon was just awesome, we will go there again and again. Also, we would never have picked it ourselves, but had it arranged for us- La Toque in the Westin Napa. Fantastic prix fixe with wine pairings, a really enjoyable meal.

We liked Tra Vigne in St Helena
http://www.travignerestaurant.com/tv.html

We adore Syrah in Santa Rosa and had a wonderful dinner at Ubuntu, one michelin star, part vegetarian resto and part yoga studio, in Napa on New Year's Night (DH knows the pastry chef).

(Hi Razzie)

Bookmarking

in napa, coles chop house, next to ubuntu is great, and the restaurant pearl is wonderful.

Just returned from Napa, where we were lucky enough to dine at both French Laundry and at Meadowood. French Laundry is famous world-wide and for a couple of years was rated # 1 in the US, and one of the top-five in the world and is still rated highly.

But there are only 16 tables and it's extremely difficult to get a rez. You have to call 60 days ahead of time and usually they get 150-200 callers jamming the line for the few available seats (it took us weeks to get thru and score a table, the norm for us was 150 re-dials before we even got thru only to be told we were too late).

Meadowood was recently awarded a third star from Michelin, one of I think 9 or 10 restaurants in the US to get this, and the meal we had there was exceptional as well, with the benefit of costing almost $250 less than French Laundry. You can actually GET reservations for Meadowood without all the drama OpenTable books for them so you can easily do it ahead of time. (OpenTable also books a few tables for French Laundry at non-prime times).

Anyway, those are the top two rated restaurants in California, much less Napa, so if you get a chance and don't mind spending a lot of money these are terrific.

The waitress at French Laundry recommended Redd if we wanted something different, and Bouchon is owned by the same chef as French Laundry, so I'd recommend that ... we've eated at the Bouchon in Vegas and it was very good so most likely the one in Yountville is also good (I see both Redd and Bouchon have one Michelin star).

Actually looking at the list of Michelin starred restos in the Bay Area I see another 7 or 8 in Sonoma or Napa (including Cyrus mentioned above) so there are a lot of excellent choices ... here's a link ... http://www.opentable.com/promo.aspx?pid=211&m=4