17 Best Restaurants in St. Helena, Napa and Sonoma

Elliot Bell, a French Laundry alum, St. Helena resident, and volunteer firefighter, took over a light-filled space formerly occupied by Cindy Pawlcyn of Mustards fame, enchanting patrons with elevated comfort cuisine and variations on fine-dining classics. Ingredients from local farms and protein purveyors go into apps, sides, and mains that might include abalone Rockefeller, shrimp and grits, slow-cooked trout, vegetarian potato Milanese, and brown-butter-aged Wagyu brisket.

A curved marble bar spotlit by contemporary art-glass pendants adds a touch of style to this downtown restaurant whose northern Italian cuisine pleases with understated sophistication. Mussels with house-made sausage in a spicy tomato broth, chopped salad with pancetta and pecorino, and the daily changing risotto are among the dishes regulars revere.

In a high-ceilinged former barn with plenty of outside seating, Farmstead revolves around an open kitchen whose chefs prepare meals with grass-fed beef and lamb, fruits and vegetables, and eggs, olive oil, wine, honey, and other ingredients from nearby Long Meadow Ranch. Entrées might include wood-grilled trout with fennel and bacon-mustard vinaigrette, caramelized beets with goat cheese and chimichurri, or a wood-grilled heritage pork chop with jalapeño grits.

Gung-ho Culinary Institute of America students in their final semester run this excellent, if unheralded, restaurant in a historic stone structure. A solid value, the three- or four-course prix-fixe meals—oft-changing, nicely plated dishes like ricotta ravioli or grilled leg of lamb—emphasize local ingredients, in some cases grown a few steps away.

A cavernous casual-chic restaurant with a contempo-barn interior and wraparound patio steps from neighboring vineyards, Press has long been a preferred upvalley stop for a top-shelf cocktail followed by a well-prepared meal paired with a high-scoring local wine. Chef-partner Philip Tessier, formerly of Yountville's The French Laundry and Bouchon Bistro and New York City's Le Bernardin, prepares refined five- and seven-course tasting menus, much of whose produce is grown nearby.

Chef-owner Rachel "Ray Ray" Williams's Southern background, education at the Culinary Institute of America, stint at Meadowood resort, and experience as a graphic designer all inform the Austin-style gourmet tacos she serves in a stone-walled old building. Williams first gained notice at the St. Helena's Farmers Market for breakfast tacos whose novel combinations, high-quality ingredients, and balanced flavors and colors inspire pilgrimages from fans throughout the Bay Area.

A chef with a national reputation applies classic Italian and French techniques to predominantly California ingredients inside the 1907 Georgian-style mansion housing the Alila Napa Valley resort's destination restaurant. Lunch items like a griddled mortadella sandwich or smash burger give way at dinner to more intricate à la carte fare like squash blossom bucatini and Santa Barbara sea urchin or truffled Petaluma hen, but the prix-fixe and tasting menus demonstrate the culinary team's prowess the best.

After Napa Valley fixture Tra Vigne lost its lease, many staffers regrouped a few miles north at the restaurant (the titular Kitchen) of the Brasswood complex, which also includes a bakery, shops, and a wine-tasting room. Along with dishes developed for the new location, the chefs incorporate Tra Vigne favorites such as mozzarella-stuffed arancini (rice balls) into the Mediterranean-leaning menu.

Christopher Kostow's reputation rests on his swoonworthy haute cuisine for the Meadowood resort, but he and his Charter Oak team adopt a more straightforward approach—fewer ingredients chosen for maximum effect—at this high-ceilinged, brown-brick downtown restaurant. With exceedingly fresh produce from Meadowood's nearby farm, this strategy might translate into dishes like mole-spiced tri-tip, smoked sturgeon with radish-leaf pesto, or red kuri squash with pickled peppers, almonds, and goat cheese.

Although it occasionally ventures out for special events, this walk-up food truck serving Italian-inflected fast food has a steady gig outside the Clif Family Tasting Room. From 11:30 to 4 (until 6 on Wednesday), order soups, salads, panini, or a mushroom, porchetta, or vegetarian bruschetta to go or to enjoy in the tasting room or on its back patio.

"Elevate Your Everyday" glows a neon side at Crisp, whose spanking-clean interior mirrors the pristine food—avocado toast, beet-cured salmon tartine, breakfast and lunch bowls, and inventive juices, soups, broths, and smoothies—this health-oriented café serves. The location next to Sunshine Market (easy parking out front) may lack glamour, but the place exudes wellness, and the menu acknowledges the requirements of vegans, vegetarians, and carnivores alike.

A Craftsman bungalow whose 1920s owner reportedly used the cellar for bootlegging during Prohibition houses this restaurant where the pairing of food and drink is as likely to involve a craft cocktail as a sommelier-selected wine. Main courses such as wood-grilled chicken or salmon, pork katsu, black Angus rib eye, and the grass-fed G&G burger with Gruyère follow starters that might include corn croquettes, sticky pig ears, and grilled cauliflower with vadouvan aioli.

A 1950s-style outdoor hamburger stand goes upscale at this spot whose customers brave long lines to order breakfast sandwiches, juicy burgers, root-beer floats, and garlic fries. Choices not available a half century ago include ahi-tuna and Impossible burgers and kale and Vietnamese chicken salads.

Ernesto Martinez, this stone-walled, high-ceilinged eatery's Mexico City–born executive chef and co-owner, often puts a Latin spin on farm-to-table American classics. Although he plays things straight with the chopped salad, Champagne-battered fish-and-chips, and baby back ribs, the organic fried chicken comes with cheddar-jalapeño cornbread, and the fried calamari owes its piquancy to the accompanying peppers, nopales cactus, chipotle aioli, and avocado-tomatillo dip.

Thanks to multiple plugs by Oprah, each day's fresh batch of English muffins often sells out, but the scones, croissants, breads, and other baked goods also inspire. Breakfast brings pastries and sandwiches with scrambled eggs, cheddar, and bacon between a buttermilk biscuit; the lunch menu expands to include soups, salads, pizzas, and more sandwiches—turkey-pesto focaccia, ciabatta chicken-Asiago panini, and vegan veggies among them. There are other Model Bakery locations in downtown Napa and Yountville.

Joel Gott of nearby Gott's Roadside purchased a downtown gas station and kept the pumps humming, spiffing up the interior retro style and adding shaded outdoor seating. Start the day with quiche, a chipotle bacon and egg biscuit, or avocado-and-egg or smoked-salmon toast, or drop by for lunch sandwiches, salads, and by-the-slice pizzas.

Crisp, thin-crust Neapolitan-style pizzas—among them the unusual Positano, with sautéed shrimp, crescenza cheese, and fried lemons—are the specialties of this family-friendly offshoot of the famous, now departed, Tra Vigne restaurant. Hand-pulled mozzarella and a few other Tra Vigne favorites are on the menu, along with salads, pizzas, and pasta dishes.