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Farm-to-table Modern American cuisine is the prevalent style in the Napa Valley and Sonoma County, but this encompasses both the delicate preparations of Yountville’s Thomas Keller, whose restaurants include The French Laundry, and the upscale comfort food served throughout the Wine Country. The quality (and hype) often means high prices, but you can find appealing, inexpensive eateries, especially in Napa, Calistoga, Sonoma, and Santa Rosa.
Anchored by a large heated patio adjoining the pool, the Farmhouse Inn's casual all-day restaurant serves farm-to-table cuisine with ingredients as local as the herbs and vegetables from the on-site culinary garden and livestock from an owners' nearby ranch. Look for avocado toast, brioche French toast, and the hearty farmer's plate (eggs, meat, potatoes) for breakfast, smoked salmon salad and the sandwich du jour for lunch, and quail, bass, or a pork chop for dinner.
A dependable, varied menu makes this modest corner restaurant occupying a brick-and-glass storefront many Napans' go-to choice for a simple meal. Empanadas and iron-skillet cornbread with lavender honey and butter show up at all hours, with buttermilk pancakes and chilaquiles scrambled eggs among the brunch staples and cassoulet and roasted heirloom chicken popular for dinner.
The menu at this homage to Jewish delicatessens plays the greatest hits—blintzes, latkes, lox, chopped liver, and knishes, plus pastrami, corned beef, and Reuben sandwiches all on house-made breads—but mashes things up with chicken shawarma kebabs, fish-and-chips, and other atypical deli dishes. It's all executed with panache, and the retro-eclectic decor (black-and-white ceramic tile floors, colorful tropical-bird-print wallpaper, chunky stone fireplace) feels nostalgic yet of the moment.
Even before diners settle in their seats, the Montage resort's glass-walled destination restaurant captures the imagination with exterior views of vineyards, oaks, and far-off Mt. St. Helena and interior haute-luxury touches like chandeliers of locally handblown Czech glass. The Cali-Continental connection comes full circle in dishes—Pacific oysters with a spicy mignonette, perhaps, or halibut with shrimp, corn, and chanterelles—whose French flourishes elevate the seasonal ingredients.
The chef at this casual, family-friendly, mostly open-air spa restaurant promotes wellness via Southwest-inspired "booster food" like a quinoa-and-kale salad and bowls containing sautéed kale, red quinoa, green chilies, and avocado. To reel in the wary, House of Better hedges its bet with cheesy flatbreads and nicely spiced fish tacos, going full carnivore with a green-chili cheeseburger and pepper steak add-ons to nachos, enchiladas, and tacos.
The mile-long list of morning fare at Occidental's neo-hippie go-to breakfast and weekend brunch spot includes order-at-the-counter huevos rancheros, omelets, eggs Benedict, waffles, pancakes, French toast, and "healthy alternatives" such as oatmeal, house-made granola, and quinoa and brown rice bowls with kale and eggs. Soups, salads, burgers, and monstrous sandwiches are on the menu for lunch at this laid-back space with seating inside a 19th-century gingerbread Victorian and outside on its wooden front porch and covered back patio.
The burritos, tacos, and quesadillas at this unassuming pit stop will fill you up before wine tasting or help absorb what you've imbibed. The super burrito laden with cheese, beans, sour cream, guacamole, and your choice of meat—winery workers swear by the crispy carnitas—provides a day's fuel in itself; for breakfast (before 11) there's a burrito with eggs, your choice of meat, and potatoes, beans, and salsa.
Down-home Southern cuisine with modern flourishes remains the mission of this retro-yet-au-courant roadside restaurant—originally the Fremont Diner—whose vineyard-view outdoor patio has a backyard-party vibe. Local families and tourists savor biscuits and gravy, hash-brown casserole, and the fried-chicken waffle for breakfast, with more fried chicken, multiple burgers and barbecue dishes, and a sloppy-good shrimp po'boy among the lunchtime attractions.
In a modern space radiating offhand elegance, the Bardessono's restaurant seduces with sophisticated flavors, many from fruits, vegetables, and herbs grown in the hotel's on-site culinary garden. Although the cuisine is ultimately modern American, the chef might incorporate Japanese, Mexican, or other techniques and ingredients depending on the dish.
Thanks to multiple plugs by Oprah, each day's fresh batch of English muffins here sells out quickly, 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.
Built in 1881 as a general store, Oakville Grocery carries high-end groceries and prepared foods. On summer weekends, customers stocking up on picnic provisions—meats, cheeses, breads, pizzas, and gourmet sandwiches—pack the place, but during the week it serves as a mellow pit stop to sip an espresso out front, picnic out back, or taste wines at Oakville Wine Merchant next door.
Tourists, locals, and spa guests—some of the latter in bathrobes after treatments—assemble inside this casual resort restaurant or on its extensive patio for breakfast, lunch, bar snacks, or dinner. Lunch options include thin-crust pizzas, sandwiches, a cheddar burger, and entrées such as chicken paillard, with the burger reappearing for dinner along with fish, steak, the house-made pasta of the day, and similar fare.
The owner of this combination restaurant and marketplace escorts her customers on a round-the-world journey via artisanal sausages—traditional links and savory pork, beef, duck, and chicken variations. In her bright storefront edging Sonoma Plaza's southern edge (there's also a patio out back), sausages also appear in sandwiches, tartines, and impressively moist biscuits with creamy sausage gravy.
Join Peruvian locals enjoying a taste of back home at this strip-mall restaurant whose name means "flavor" or "seasoning." Several ceviche appetizers—including one with ponzu sauce for a Japanese twist—show the range of tastes the chefs conjure up, as do the empanadas, lomo saltado (steak and fries), and arroz con mariscos, a velvety, turmeric-laced seafood paella.
Whimsical art and brightly painted walls set a jolly tone at this casual eatery whose assets include the verdant patio out back. Omelets, biscuits, and waffles are the hits at breakfast, with the grilled cheese sandwich and smoked-duck sandwich, the latter served on a sourdough hero roll with garlic aioli, two favorites for lunch.
This small spot that melds rural charm with industrial chic serves updated American classics such as fried chicken (free-range in this case), burgers (with Kobe beef), and beer-battered fish tacos (with lemon crème fraîche). The flatbreads, including a smoked salmon one made with fromage blanc, Parmesan, lemon crème fraîche, and capers, are worth a try.
Owner-designer Jay Jeffers initiated a top-to-bottom makeover of this restaurant and its same-named hotel but retained the farm-to-table, French-inspired cuisine, the chef freshening it up a little to reflect The Madrona's flashy-elegant look. Inside a 19th-century mansion, with ornate molding and high ceilings but ultracontemporary to the max, diners feast in chic splendor on multifaceted preparations that make ample use of locally raised proteins and the on-site organic garden's fruits and vegetables.
A few blocks south of Healdsburg Plaza at the busy roundabout, Parish's chefs whip up beignets, gumbo, muffulettas, and heapin' po'boys—from fried oyster, shrimp, or catfish to roast beef, turkey, or ham and cheese—along with other New Orleans delights. Borderline decadent breakfasts served inside a white-trimmed yellow house or on its patio include bananas Foster French toast, egg po'boys, and the crawfish and andouille omelet slathered in Creole sauce.
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 cinnamon-sugar toast, or drop by for lunch wraps, grain bowls, salads, focaccia, and sandwiches.
The sticky buns at Wild Flour are legendary in western Sonoma—they're often all gone by the early afternoon on weekends—as are the rye bread and sock-it-to-me scones in flavors like double chocolate, espresso, and hazelnut. The coffee at this roadside stop is good, too.
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