This was our first evening after driving up to Napa. After a lot of our meals, Andrea always talked about being able to just go up to our room right afterward instead of having to drive or take an Uber/Lyft/Waymo back. So, this was our chance since we were staying on property at Auberge du Soleil.

The resort seemed very uncrowded this time of year and mid-week and the dining room was the same with two or three other parties seated. They have a 3 or 4 course prix fixe or their tasting menu. My wife went with 3 courses and I went with the 6-course tasting menu and wine pairing.

Our first bite was an amuse bouche of a little toast with some whipped creme fraiche and golden osetra caviar. Always a nice start. Bread was served along with some butter both of which were decent. The next bite they gave us had some verjus gellée, ricotta, wine poached pear, and pistachio. Sadly, this made of this think of hotel dining room food, which technically it was, but it seemed not particularly impressive from a Michelin starred restaurant. Fortunately, things did eventually get a bit better.

For our first courses, Andrea had selected the Sunchoke Soup which came with a crispy oyster. The soup was nice, although Andrea didn’t want the oyster so I ate it. The breading strongly reminded me of something like friend shrimp at Red Lobster or some other less expensive establishment.

My first dish was the California Albacore Crudo which a slice of mandarin orange, and a bit of a blended avocado and a dab of uni. There was also some crispy garlic on the dish which really popped. The garlic was pretty overpowering, but I liked the dish anyway.

Andrea would slow eat her dish, partially because she wasn’t particularly hungry and also because she would only receive one of her dishes for every other one of mine. So my second dish was the Sauteed Diver Scallop. Very nice sear on the scallop and it was accompanied by chanterelles, sautéed spinach, some sunchoke, and a mushroom sauce. Decent dish overall.

Andrea’s next course was the Seared Savoy Cabbage. This cam eiwh an array of vegetables – onion, carrots, celery root, brussel sprout leaves, currants, almond slivers, and a vadouvan sauce. It was very vegetable forward as expected.

My dish was the Veal Sweetbread Roulade which was a dish to which I had been looking forward. The slice of the roulade appeared to also have been fried or roasted for a bit which was good. It came with some poached pears, some brussel sprout leaves and some bacon that was really more like pancetta.

My next dish was the Paine Farm Squab. This featured some cavolo nero kale prepared two ways, sautéed and fried. The fried preparation was nice since had a crispy texture. The other interesting components was the polenta which was made as tempura. The squab was cooked perfectly and wasn’t gamey at all. It came with a rosemary jus which was something interesting and different.

Andrea’s final dish was the Potato Gnocchi which she had ordered with the Black Perigord Truffle supplement ($75). We were pleasantly surprised to see that they had used Alba white truffles (’tis the season!). Strangely though, the truffle was the thickest shaved truffle (at least they were fresh) I’ve ever seen and the sizes of the gnocchi were very uneven and usually too big. But it all tasted good and the truffle paired nicely with the potato gnocchi, mushrooms, pea shoots and parmesan nage and a thin slices of parmesan (I wonder if they used the same to slice the truffle rather than a shaver?). In the end, this was probably our favorite dish.

My final savory dish was the Roasted Local Lamb. This was set atop a sauce made of made of moroccan spiced carrots and some jus with some Jimmy Nardello pepper. The pieces of lamb on the plate weren’t the nicest looking ones with a thick seam of fat, but it was cooked nicely and was tender and flavorful.

For a palette cleanser, I was given a pear panna cotta which was nice. For my dessert, it was Apple Cider Doughnuts. This consisted of mini doughnuts and donut holes made of shortbread streusel dusted with sugar. Three was a streak of Calvados caramel and some diced ginger compressed Granny Smith apples and a quenelle of apple ice cream. It was an ok dessert, but I did appreciate the apple leitmotif.

All in all, it was a good, but not great meal. Given some of the miscues, I would guess the head chef was not present in the kitchen.

https://auberge.com/auberge-du-soleil/dine/the-restaurant-at-auberge-du-soleil