What It’s Like to Eat at The French Laundry in Napa Valley

We couldn’t pass up the opportunity to eat dinner at the French Laundry in Napa. Check out our photos to see why this Napa Valley restaurant is so famous.

We’ve eaten everywhere from food trucks to destination dining at Michelin rated restaurants and so many places in between. We pride ourselves on our sophisticated yet down-to-earth palettes, and it makes us happy when friends ask for our opinions and recommendations.

When planning our a 2013 California adventure, we managed to score a reservation to The French Laundry in Napa Valley, and of course we had to go. How could we not jump at the opportunity to dine at one of the most famous restaurants in the country, if not the world?

Photos from our Dinner at The French Laundry in Napa Valley

This brings us back to our French Laundry dinner. We documented the march of multiple courses with our handy camera. Without further ado, here comes the parade!

Thoughts about our Dinner at The French Laundry in Napa Valley

The restaurant’s attentive focus toward every last detail of the dining experience separates it from all other American restaurants. It’s not even a close competition. Compared to other high-end dining establishments, The French Laundry’s service is like Secretariat at the Belmont or Michael Jordan on the basketball court.

Seriously, the service is impeccable to the extreme. In fact, we quietly commented on not liking one server as much as the others, and we never saw her up close again. It’s as if our table was under surveillance. We’re still wondering about that.

Great food deserves great wine. Not surprisingly, the wine list was extensive, sophisticated and accessible. The sommelier gave us the perfect recommendations, especially the Retro Cellars 2009 Petite Sirah from Napa Valley. We liked the red wine so much that we hunted it down the next day and bought some bottles to bring home to enjoy later.

The food, you ask? Of course, it’s excellent. Though it’s a shame that California passed the arcane foie gras ban. Every other great luxury meal that we’ve eaten has featured the rich, buttery delicacy, and its the one thing that would have propelled the food experience into the highest stratosphere. (The restaurant does offer a $100 upcharge for truffles, but that was a little too steep for our wallets.) Even still, the food was memorable, albeit in a somewhat predictable way.

You see, for Daryl especially, the eating experience felt like a movie where we already knew the major plot points. Daryl idolized Thomas Keller long before he met Mindi. Like many people, we own the cookbooks, we’ve enjoyed Chef Keller’s appearances on TV and in person, and we’ve perused more than our share of critically fawning articles.

Daryl knew that Oysters and Pearls would be on the menu along with Salmon Cornets, Butter Poached Lobster, and, of course, the restaurant’s play on ‘Coffee and Doughnuts’. These are all great, classic dishes. However, the lack of surprise muted some of the electricity that we experienced last year at Maison Lameloise in Burgundy, France.

In addition to asking how the meal was, people keep asking if we’ll go back. Though one should never say never, it’s fairly unlikely. There are so many great restaurants to try in Napa and Sonoma, and most don’t cost as much as The French Laundry.

Original Publication Date: August 1, 2013