Napa Valley reigns as California’s most exclusive wine region. While the area is relatively small, about 30 miles long by five miles wide, stretching from Napa proper in the south to Calistoga in the north, it’s packed with epicurean treasures.
Planning a trip to the area can be intimidating — especially when you’re looking for a memorable culinary experience to pair with that fabulous cabernet. Luckily, the region is known for its world-class restaurants almost as much as it is for its award-winning grapes. Finding a great meal is easy if you dine at these establishments with delicious fare, hospitable service and, of course, extensive wine lists.
The Restaurant at Auberge du Soleil
Discover the restaurant with wine country’s best view at Forbes Travel Guide Five-Star Auberge du Soleil. Consider a leisurely lunch at Four-Star Restaurant at Auberge du Soleil a little slice of heaven high on a hill in Rutherford. The dining room, recently redesigned by San Francisco interiors guru Suzanne Tucker, combines patterns and textures that create a sumptuous, chic and sophisticated environment. With an incomparable vista, stunning cuisine and an inviting atmosphere, a meal at The Restaurant at Auberge du Soliel will exceed your expectations.
Choose from a list of starters, entrees and desserts for a three-course meal prepared by chef Robert Curry. The bread arrives crusted with salt and warm from the oven. The sauteed octopus is cooked to tender plumpness and comes with chorizo chips and a delectable chili sauce. Scallops are served with savory spinach and squash puree while the short ribs with brown butter red wine sauce melt in your mouth.
Desserts are equally impressive. Pastry chef Paul Lemieux’s confections include pumpkin custard with espresso gelato and cinnamon cream, apple sorbet with champagne-soaked sponge cake and milk chocolate mousse with fried banana ice cream.
Press has long been one of Napa’s top restaurants; however, after the pandemic, the eatery shifted its culinary point of view. It’s no longer a steakhouse but a fine-dining destination with a seasonally driven, expertly executed tasting menu, thanks to Philip Tessier. The chef’s technical prowess earned him the 2015 Bocuse d’Or silver medal, the equivalent to the food Olympics.
At Press, Tessier offers a five- or seven-course menu in a laid-back yet refined space. Despite having the world’s most extensive collection of Napa Valley wine — the list is more than 170 pages long — there is nothing pretentious about Press. The staff is welcoming and kind, and the food is exquisite. A recent menu featured perfectly cooked duck breast, flaky halibut with foamy hollandaise and pillowy, delicate ricotta gnudi. The latter round balls of cheesy deliciousness were wrapped in squash blossoms and sitting in a pool of Parmesan and tomato broth.
Farm, the Four-Star restaurant at Four-Star Carneros Resort & Spa, recently underwent a renovation, menu revamp and chef change. The updates are positive, and the resultant eatery, open for dinner and Sunday brunch, is superb. Chef Chase Immel serves Italian farmhouse-inspired fare, including housemade pasta, such as fusilli with spiced sausage and mezzaluna with duck and chanterelles, and hearty entrees like seared scallops and lamb scottadito. And it doesn’t get much more farm-to-table than the culinary gardens mere steps from the kitchen.
On Sundays, Farm’s unique brunch experience calls for four dishes to be ordered for the table and served family style. Choose from a long, delicious list of options — blackberry cheesecake crepes, fried chicken and black pepper gravy with biscuits, and eggs in purgatory (soft-cooked eggs in a spicy tomato sauce) — and each dish comes out as its own plated course. It’s a fun and fabulous way to eat breakfast.
Head to this Yountville address if you’re craving quintessential French fare. Thomas Keller’s bistro is perennially packed for good reason: it’s an electric scene, and the food never disappoints. Here, you might find a winemaker grabbing a warm goat cheese salad at the bar and chatting with tourists visiting from Shanghai who are eagerly awaiting the steak tartare.
All the French classics are on the menu: French onion soup with melted Comté cheese that pulls for miles; buttery, garlicky escargots with crisp puff pastry hats; and a duck leg confit that couldn’t be more tender if it tried. The white tablecloth service is impeccable, and the wine list features bottles exclusively made for the restaurant.
Chef Gustavo Rios serves classic California cuisine for breakfast, lunch and dinner at Four-Star Solage, Auberge Resorts Collection’s Solbar. The Four-Star restaurant is one of those fantastic eateries that feels cozy and inviting in winter and airy and cool in summer.
And the scrumptious menu may flow even better. Think Dungeness crab cake Benedicts in the morning, spicy shrimp lettuce wraps in the afternoon and 48-hour braised beef short ribs at night. Whenever you choose to dine, save room for two of Rios’ signature dishes: the piping-hot sourdough Parker rolls, which come with a variety of toppings, like Mt. Tam cheese fondue and creamy spinach artichoke dip, and the butterscotch pudding with chocolate-covered toffee pearls and whipped cream. Pair the latter with the old fashioned that’s smoked tableside.
Back in 2006, chef Keller had a simple idea: to open a temporary restaurant serving a family-style menu that changed daily. The food was meant to be like the family meal that his staff enjoyed at the nearby French Laundry before service and would feature the American favorites from Keller’s childhood. He would call it Ad Hoc, and it would temporarily fill the space until the team could come up with a better restaurant concept.
The restaurant and its incredibly popular buttermilk fried chicken were so successful that the idea stuck. Eighteen years later, the food at Ad Hoc remains just as tasty and satisfying as it was on Day One. The four-course menu changes daily and includes a starter like chopped romaine salad, a main, a cheese course and dessert. It’s a comforting and satisfying dining experience that is one of the best deals and dinners in the valley.
For a truly California experience, where the food is prepared simply and made from local seasonal ingredients, head to The Charter Oak in St. Helena. Its 3.5-acre farm is only a half mile from the restaurant, a historic, beautifully remodeled old stone building dating back to the 1800s.
There’s nothing more palate-whetting than the smell of cooking vegetables and proteins over a live fire grill, and they’re the first things you’ll notice upon arrival. The wood-burning hearth creates a dramatic open kitchen that chef Christopher Kostow oversees. Order a Swiss chard salad with stracciatella and anchovy vinaigrette, the chicken sausage-stuffed chicken and a tri-tip with mole and pine nuts. Everything is fresh, flavorful, fragrant and filling. The Charter Oak’s bar is a lively scene and a great place for a frosty cocktail when you need a break from merlot.
The spot also has some cool activities, ranging from one of Napa’s most underrated happy hours to a wintertime yurt village, where you can enjoy a meal in a private enclosed space.
No Napa restaurant list is complete without mentioning the area’s grande dame that put Napa Valley on the epicurean map. Now in its 30th year (and celebrating the 25th anniversary of the ground-breaking companion cookbook), the Five-Star French Laundry still shines as a culinary mecca. Everything about the eatery is exemplary, from the signature dishes to the unparalleled service.
But reservations are hard to come by and are only open on the first of each month for the following month. Of course, there are always cancelations, so contacting the restaurant closer to your date to check for any openings is another way to secure a table at the coveted institution.
Not every restaurant in Napa features carefully plated food and a prix fixe menu. Case in point: Gott’s Roadside, the best place in the valley for a burger, fries and shake. Gott’s has two locations here: the original roadside stand in St. Helena and the downtown Napa diner. You’ll discover great salads, sandwiches, tacos, hot dogs and more at both destinations.
In 2024, Gott’s celebrated its 25th anniversary with seasonal monthly specials like October’s pumpkin shake and truffle fries, November’s wedge cut fries and December’s Dungeness crab sandwich and candy cake milkshake. Even with all the fun the kitchen has here, the best thing about Gott’s is that there’s something for everyone, be it chicken tenders for the kiddos or falafel salad for those looking for healthy dishes.
For a seafood feast, you can’t beat Hog Island Oyster Co. The 40-year-old local chain is a Bay Area institution known for its fresh local oysters and incomparable fish dishes. The restaurant is in the Oxbow Public Market, downtown Napa’s must-visit food hall. The casual stop has a raw bar, shuckers at the restaurant’s center and plenty of outdoor seating along the creek. Oysters are a must on the half-shell or grilled with an assortment of buttery toppings.
Other standout items include the grilled cheese sandwich, the halibut crudo with avocado and the steamed mussels. Loaded with tender potatoes, delectable clams and a rich, creamy broth, the clam chowder is one of the best in the region. The rustic seafood stew is also exceptional, but be prepared to get your hands dirty with it.
Rogelio Garcia is living the Napa Valley dream. The chef grew up in the area and, after school, worked as a dishwasher at a restaurant. He worked his way through the local culinary ranks and today runs the kitchen at Auro, the elite dining establishment at Five-Star Four Seasons Resort and Residences Napa Valley. Here, Garcia illustrates his prowess with a seven-course seasonal tasting menu that includes a rectangle of flawlessly cooked marbleized wagyu, a crispy squab leg with rich mole negro and cinnamon buñuelo chocolate crémeux. It’s a memorably decadent meal — especially if you get sommelier Derek Stevenson’s wine pairings.
With an emphasis on freshness and technique, Auro embodies the essence of elevated Californian cuisine in a luxurious setting. And if the urge to duplicate the experience in your own kitchen comes over you, don’t leave without picking up a copy of Garcia’s new cookbook, Convivir. It’s filled with recipes for modern Mexican food with a wine-country twist.
