I will soon be visiiting Napa (03/18-03/19) and Sonoma (03/20). Any dining recommendations would be appreciated. We will be stayng in Yountville Tuesday & Wed. Downtown Sonoma, Thursday night.

We cannot go to Domaine Chandon because it is not open Tuesday or Wednesday. Wednesday night we will be dining at Brix (close-by after a long day of tasting). I am trying to decide upon a place for Tuesday night; preferably, not too far from where we are staying (hopefully in Yountville, Oakville or Rutherford).

I have dined at Mustards, French Laundry and The Napa Grille and have had great meals but I am looking for something new--not too stuffy, fun, with great food/wine selection.

Any thoughts would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Hard to go wrong at most places in Napa.

I thoroughly enjoyed Auberge du Soleil. Expesnive, but great view and food.

You'll like Brix as well.

If it is still around, consider lunch at the Wappo Bar. No, that's what it is called, I'm not kidding.

Enjoy.

I ate dinner at the Wappo last time I was out there. We stayed in Calistoga, so it was really convenient.

I thought the food, service and atmosphere were terrific. I may try to go there for lunch this time.

Here is another vote for Brix, in Yountville. Hurley's is a new place in Yountville, and is excellent. Of course, if you can get into the French Laundry, that's a no brainer. FInally, I've heard great things about Bistro Jeanty, but I have not yet had a chance to visit.

We love Celadon in Napa or Julias Kitchen at Copia- very reasonable wine list!
Celadon has a $15 corkage fee.

Downtown Sonoma, The Generals Daughter is excellent for dinner.
For lunch, there is a "New Haven" (New haven, CT has some of the best pizza anywhere)pizza place we have been dying to try brick oven pizza- think its called Red Tomato.

Lunch at Wappo is a staple of my trips out to wine country. We got to eat outside the last time we were there under all of the plant covered trellises... great place.

Well, here is my list of favorites:

La Toque
Terra
Domaine Chandon
Brix
CIA (may be)

There are several new restaurants opening which is keeping everybody on their toes.
- Roux, main st, st helena - I think the best cooking in the valley (after FL)
- Angele. new, at the Hatt building in Napa. a french/CA blend (had a great dinner there last night)
- Celedon. now moved to the Hatt building in Napa. Great food with an Asian influence
- Tra Vigne in St Helena. Been there for EVER, but they still cook good italian food
- Bistro Don Giovoni. Rt 29 between napa and yountville. Also been there for ever and also cooking great italian food.
- Bisto Jeanty. Started by Phillipe Jeanty who put Domaine Chandon on the map. He has recently started a new restaurant in SF, so has been a little distracted, but the food is still quite good. French country bistro
- All Seasons in Calistoga. This place seems to change chefs once a year and sometimes is very ordinary. However, the current chef, Kevin Kathman, is supurb!
- Miramonte in St Helena. Cindy Pawlcyn's new place, latin american influence food. casual and quite good

In my next bucket:
- Bouchon in yountville. Paris bistro without the smoking or the dogs. open late. doesn't change the menu much, but tasty
- Wappo Grill. As described by others. Some dishes great, some only OK. Cucumber and citrus in the water, yum!
- Martini House in St Helena. A Pat Kuleto restaurant. Expensive and a bit heavy for my taste.
- Hurley's in Yountville. We've had inconsistant meals. Bob Hurley used to be at the Napa Grille, which is now not as good

There are a bunch of others which don't rate a mention for a short trip, but:

my last bucket:
- La Toque in Rutherford. Expensive and you have to like being abused by waiters with an LA attitude (appologies to those of you from LA who think it is us northerners with a problem)
- Brix. The worse service in the valley.

I'm sure that as soon as I hit the send button I will think of 3 more that I forgot, but...

The main one you forgot was Terra (buy the cookbook). Terra is a virtually perfect example of wine country dining - I picked Terra as the place for my rehearsal dinner over French Laundry.

I agree w/ Terra! Wonderful food!

This is another example of a 'keeper' thread. I had forgotten about the Wappo water. Dee-lish!

My favorite place continues to be MARTINI HOUSE in St. Helena.

Great food, super wine list and a great atmosphere. The wine list works on a declining % markup as you choose more expensive bottles. And there are some very limited bottlings. If it is not on the list; ask.

My favorite is a flight of dessert wines called "Trip To the Moon". I like to order Fois gras and have the Yquem glass of the flight with that. That leaves a TBA and a Tokay for after dinner.

Bressler, I'll have to disagree on Miramonte. I've only been there once, but the place was a mess. The service was very slow and the food was not cooked as ordered (I ordered a steak medium rare and it came well done, the replacement was little better). That night we weren't the only ones having trouble as the table next to us had complaints and as did someone behind us. I've never been to a restaurant that was this off (one dinner sure, but three in such a short span is pretty incredible).

On the other hand they did recommend a very nice (and nicely priced) spanish wine.

We went to Miramonte for lunch about six months ago and it was fantastic. Duck enchilada; yummy!

WRT Miramonte: I think that this is a case where we are all correct. I bet it depends on whether Cindy is in the kitchen. I have noticed that while some restaurants (e.g. Roux, Tra Vigna) keep the same service staff for long periods of time, Miramonte has suffered a fair amount of turn over. As they say, you roll the dice and order your meal...

Count me as a fan of Miramonte.

Two new restaurants opened in St Helena this weekend. One is Market (across the street from the movie theater, in the space where Beau Vine used to be). We're going on Tuesday and I will report then. This is the one in which you are probably most interested.

The other is a Thai restaurant in a small space at the south end of the main street strip. Why, you ask, am I wasting Rev's valuable disk space talking about a Thai restaurant? Because, although we may have as many great restaurants per capita as anywhere, there are almost no Asian restaurants. You basically had to go to Berkeley or SF to get good Thai. Well now we have one. Is it 5 stars? No, but it is pretty good, and that all I really wanted.

\bob

Does the Thai restaurant have a name?

oops, sorry about that. Supreeya's Thai House. I had "Mus sa mun" curry (which I have never seen spelled the same way twice), which is sort of my test dish. Very nice. They aren't taking reservations, but are open from 11am to 9pm.