195 Best Restaurants in Napa and Sonoma, California

Shaded by oaks and burnt-orange umbrellas, this kid- and dog-friendly roadhouse outdoor restaurant, best for lunch on a sunny day, often bustles with locals and out-of-towners chowing down on comfort fare based on ingredients from local artisanal purveyors. A recent menu's smoked-and-glazed pork belly with maitakes and pistachio pesto pleased with its layered flavors, as did vegan and gluten-free sweet-potato tacos and a vegetarian mushroom Cubano with spicy pickles, cabbage, and Monterey Jack on focaccia.

The Southern-inspired cuisine piques the palate at this farm-to-table restaurant inside a vast industrial-looking space (sometimes the din overwhelms) whose garagelike doors open up to unite the dining/bar area and spacious patio. Dishes that might include ahi tuna tartare, truffle fries, and cioppino owe as much to California as Carolina (fried chicken with collard greens, once-a-week shrimp and grits special), while options like Cajun shrimp pasta straddle both coasts.

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), steak, fish, and a pasta dish or two. The flatbreads—including smoked salmon with fromage blanc, Parmesan, lemon crème fraîche, and capers—are worth a try.

There's almost always a line outside the bakery next door to Thomas Keller's Bouchon Bistro. The textbook golden-brown croissants star, and the brownies, macarons, kouign-amanns, artisanal breads, and savory sandwiches are equally alluring.

Wall-mounted game trophies and two tables with leather saddles doubling as seats contribute to the whimsically rustic atmosphere of this wine store, wine bar, and restaurant. The small menu’s standouts include the pulled-pork and smoked beef-brisket sandwiches served with three types of barbecue sauce, the meltingly tender St. Louis–style ribs, and the signature beer-can chicken (only Tecate will do).

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.

Spanish-style tapas and an outdoor patio in perpetual party mode make this restaurant, headquartered in a restored 1920s bungalow, a popular downtown perch. Contemporary Spanish mosaics set a perky tone inside, but unless something's amiss with the weather, nearly everyone heads out back for croquettes, paella, jamón ibérico, pan tomate (tomato toast), grilled octopus, skirt steak, and crispy fried chicken.

Fried chicken and St. Louis ribs whose meat glides off the bone are among the hits at this open-air, partially covered restaurant where diners sit at sturdy oak picnic or high-top tables. Many ingredients come from artisanal protein and produce purveyors; craft breweries make most of the two dozen beers on tap.

A family-owned restaurant with tables lining wainscoted walls, Bricco aims for old-school authenticity in both its Italian cuisine and no-pretense hospitality. Although the menu isn't as massive as its Italian-American counterparts of eras past, the chefs fire up the greatest hits: arancini, carpaccio, and stracciatella soup starters; penne with vodka-tomato sauce, four-cheese ravioli, and seafood linguine first courses; and veal scaloppine, chicken Parmigiano, and osso buco mains.

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.

A roadside stand at the west end of Calistoga's downtown, Buster's serves Louisiana-style barbecue basics, sweet potato pies, and cornbread muffins. Local-fave sandwiches at lunch (best time to come) include the tri-tip, spicy hot links, and pulled pork, with tri-tip and pork or beef ribs the hits at dinner (which ends early, at 6 or 7 in winter, 7 or 8 in summer).

The efficient chefs at this down-home diner churn out comfort food with a touch more flair than the zingy Cal-hippie decor might lead you to expect. Huevos rancheros and other egg dishes top the breakfast (until closing) menu, along with pancakes, waffles, French toast, and vegetarian and corned-beef hash; burgers (beef, fish, black bean), tuna melts, sandwiches, wraps, and several salads headline at lunch.

Calistoga's flashy 19th-century entrepreneur Sam Brannan built the depot in 1868 to receive well-to-do spa patrons, but it was looking careworn until a 21st-century equivalent restored the wood-frame building, connected by a boardwalk to vintage railroad cars. One of four dining options amid the Calistoga Depot complex, which includes a few bars, the deli serves plant- and meat-based sandwiches, salads, and wood-fired pizzas.

When the weather's nice, the inn's outdoor patio and beer garden edging the Napa River are swell places to hang out and sip some microbrews. Among the beer-friendly dishes, the garlic-crusted calamari appetizer and the country paella entrée stand out, along with several pizzas, the burger topped with Tillamook cheddar, and (for lunch) the Reuben with ale-braised corned beef.

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.

When only a thick, flawlessly cooked New York or porterhouse (dry-aged by the eminent Allen Brothers of Chicago) will do, this steak house inside an 1886 stone building is just the ticket. New Zealand lamb chops are the nonbeef favorite, with oysters Rockefeller, beef carpaccio, and creamed spinach among the options for starters and sides.

Sommelier Matt Stamp and restaurant vet Ryan Stetins opened this combination restaurant, wine bar, and wineshop that’s a hot gathering spot for its youthful vibe and eclectic menu. Starters might include deviled eggs, beef tartare, yellow tuna crudo, or harissa lamb, with fried chicken, pork loin, local rockfish, or the Compline burger—best enjoyed with duck-fat fries and, per Stamp, Champagne—as an entrée.

Two microbrewing brothers' longtime dream, this gastropub serves their ales and other area craft brews, plus kombuchas, ciders, stouts, seltzers, and sours. The beverages beguile, as do the flavors in dishes that might include a farro salad, a smoked brisket sandwich, a roasted mushroom melt, vegetable toast, and meatball sliders (good with the house IPA).

Breakfast, served through lunchtime at this bright-yellow French-style bakery and café, includes the signature omelet (sun-dried tomatoes, bacon, spinach, and Brie) and French toast made from thick slabs of cinnamon-walnut bread. French onion soup and cranberry-turkey, chicken with Jarlsberg, and (on the cinnamon-walnut bread) Monte Cristo sandwiches are among the lunch favorites.

"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.

Long a locals' favorite for traditional Italian-American cuisine, this restaurant has a warmly lit, often packed dining room and a heated back patio with Petaluma River views. The chef, who trained in Italy, prepares several pasta dishes a night, along with mains that might include veal scaloppini or saltimbocca, roasted chicken stuffed with arugula and pancetta, and pork tenderloin with Gorgonzola sauce.

After three decades of serving Tuscan-inspired cuisine, this restaurant with a plant-filled heated and tented back patio has developed a homey patina enhanced by brickwork, a fountain, family photos, and other old-school touches. Likewise with the food, you won't find belabored technique or froufrou preparations, only soulful renditions of northern Italy's greatest hits—veal scallopini, mushroom ravioli, pappardelle with rich duck ragout—from two generations of family recipes.

A dining area with hardwood floors, a pressed-tin ceiling, and exposed brick walls provides a fitting setting for the rustic cuisine at this Geyserville mainstay. Chef Dino Bugica studied with artisanal cooks in Italy before opening this restaurant specializing in wood-fired pizzas and house-cured meats, with a few salads and meaty main courses rounding out the menu.

Chef Charlie Palmer's ultramodern restaurant—pastel walls, soft lighting, contemporary artworks, and a gently vaulted ceiling meant to evoke a wine cave—enchants diners with clever combinations of flavors and textures in three-course prix-fixe and six-course tasting menus based on seasonal, often local, ingredients. Early courses might include kanpachi crudo or sweet-potato mochi, followed by mains like a 50-layer lasagna, pine-nut-crusted halibut, or chicken roulade with crispy polenta.

This restaurant owes its visual appeal to its clean lines and svelte decor, but the eye inevitably drifts westward to the open kitchen, where longtime executive chef Armando Navarro's team crafts dishes full of subtle surprises. The menu might include ceviche or roasted maitake mushrooms as starters and pan-roasted salmon, fettuccine carbonara, or paella awash with seafood among the entrées.

The goodness at Karen Waikiki's roadside restaurant, which has more tables outside than in, starts with high-quality ingredients and authentic techniques. The stars include tamales (chicken mole, Niman Ranch pork, and seasonal vegetables), tacos filled with beer-battered fish or crispy beef, ahi tostadas poke style, and enchiladas and burritos.

Wicker baskets hanging from the ceiling and dried-plant wall arrangements provide rustic flourishes to this intimate, otherwise urban-leaning bistro (the name is Spanish for "steak"), which two Argentine architects turned restaurateurs opened along downtown's Riverfront Promenade. Tipping its hat to their origins and California's agricultural abundance, the menu adds salads, sandwiches, and lamb and beef burgers to the expected mix of grilled steaks.

The gas-lamp-style lighting fixtures, charcoal-black hues, and bistro cuisine at Evangeline evoke old New Orleans with a California twist. The chefs put a jaunty spin on dishes that might include gumbo ya-ya or steak with bordelaise sauce; the elaborate weekend brunch, with everything from raw oysters, smoked-salmon toast, and fried chicken and a waffle to Canadian-ham Benedict and a chicory, prosciutto, and apple salad, is an upvalley favorite.

The compact menu at this cheerful bistro focuses on California and French comfort food—pot roast and duck confit, for instance, as well as flounder meunière and a few thin-crust pizzas. Steamed mussels are served with crispy fries, which also accompany the Chef's Burger (top sirloin with cheese), two of the many dependable dishes that have made the Fig a downtown Glen Ellen fixture.