4 Best Restaurants in Yountville, Napa and Sonoma

At this low-key southern Yountville dining room, superstar chef Thomas Keller offers a daily-changing, fixed-price multicourse menu whose mains might include smoked beef brisket with baked beans and coleslaw or sesame chicken with radish kimchi and fried rice. Ad Hoc also serves a small but decadent weekend brunch, and the Addendum annex, in a small building behind the restaurant, sells boxed lunches to go (ultra-moist buttermilk fried chicken) a few days a week from late spring to early fall.

A roadside stop 1¼ miles north of Yountville for specialty cocktails, casual lunches, and evening fine dining, Brix shares ownership with Kelleher Family Vineyards, whose Cabernet Sauvignon grapevines surround the restaurant on three sides. Pan-seared fish, house-made pasta, risotto, fried chicken locals adore, and juicy Brix burgers with smoked cheddar and bacon marmalade appear on the lunch and dinner menus, with king and queen cuts of prime rib the crowd-pleasers on Sunday night.

With Edith Piaf as his background track, Dennis McInnich spent several months toiling to perfect the macaron, the favorite cookie of his wife, Aubrey. Success selling the resulting confections at farmers' markets and elsewhere spurred the couple to open this shop and café serving their brightly colored treats, along with sweet and savory crepes and a few brunch and lunch items.

Crystal chandeliers and fountains worthy of a French château supply the pizzazz at Restoration Hardware's street-side café, and the all-day menu's starters (charcuterie, crispy artichokes, burrata with charred peppers and sourdough), salads, and mains (from a burger modeled on one from Chicago's Au Cheval restaurant to whole grilled branzino) easily live up to it. The prosciutto is flown in from Italy, the greens are ever-so-fresh, and the plating impresses.