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Where to Eat During Napa Valley Restaurant Week

Including $20 lunch at a Michelin star restaurant

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The Wine Country businesses affected by the North Bay fires need our support more than ever, and if you’ve been mulling over a visit, there’s no more appetizing time than Napa Valley Restaurant Week. From January 21 to 28, more than 40 participating restaurants throughout Napa Valley will serve up prix-fixe menus at a serious bargain: A two-course lunch for $20, and a three-course dinner for $36 or $46. To help you choose where to plant your fork, we’ve narrowed it down to the top 10.

To view the full list of participating restaurants, click here.

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Brasswood Bar + Bakery + Kitchen

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Brasswood’s three-course dinner ($46) is worth it for the melt-in-your-mouth, hand-pulled, made-to-order mozzarella starter alone. But, the french onion soup and duck bolognese (sonoma duck, classic mirepoix and red wine on a bed of housemade fettuccine) both sound pretty fantastic too. Moreover, while most of their neighbors are charging extra for wine pairings, Brasswood includes a pour for each course in the pre-fixe pricing. One more bonus: If you’re staying in town another day, return to Brasswood’s tasting room with your Restaurant Week receipt and receive a complimentary tasting of their wines.

Brasswood

Acacia House by Chris Cosentino

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Also new to Napa Valley in the last year is Acacia House by chef Chris Cosentino (of SF’s Cockscomb), housed in a beautifully-refurbished, Georgian-style mansion built in 1907. Acacia House has designed seafood-inspired Restaurant Week menus with warm winter vibes, like a lobster bisque and oxtail toast topped with house-made ricotta for lunch. For dinner ($46), start with a salt cod brandade, followed by Hokkaido scallop with mushroom risotto and then a tre leches cake with cinnamon ice cream for dessert. If you have some extra cash to spend, order their heavenly margarita topped with a salty pillow of seafoam.

The Charter Oak

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Last summer, chef Christopher Kostow opened The Charter Oak in St. Helena, a significantly more approachable and elemental dining experience than his posh post at The Restaurant at Meadowood. Free of pretension, it’s a great spot for a semi-casual lunch with friends and during Restaurant Week, The Charter Oak is offering their Family Lunch—a rotating pre-set menu that’s meant to be shared with the entire table—for $20 per person ($10 off the usual price), with optional wine pairings. The uber seasonal-driven menu won’t be finalized until that week, but some past family meal favorites include pork shank with squash and chorizo-stuffed peppers and a slow-cooked, then fried chicken confit with a brown butter potato puree.

 

Courtesy of The Charter Oak, Photography by Kelly Puleio

Auberge du Soleil, an Auberge Resort

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A Michelin star lunch for $20? Some of the best panoramic views in all of Napa Valley? Yes and yes to lunch on the expansive terrace of Napa Valley’s first fine dining restaurant at Auberge du Soleil. The menu tends to rotate daily, and wine pairings are available for an additional cost. As with most great things, there is one small catch: this deal is only available Monday-Friday, so you may want to start practicing your sick voice for work.

Harvest Table

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If you crave a less posh, more cozy wine country casual setting than Charlie Palmer’s new steakhouse, make a reservation at Harvest Table (located at the Harvest Inn), the chef’s original Napa Valley digs. For both the $20 lunch and $36 dinner, you get to choose from a pair of tasty dishes for each course to curate a meal that might look like this: chicory and goat cheese salad, grilled beef tri-tip and a roasted pear tart. Wine pairings are also available for an additional cost.

Paige Green Photo

Long before St. Helena’s Farmstead, Napa Valley institution Brix mastered farm-to-table dining in wine country. For Restaurant Week lunch, $20 goes a long way and won’t leave you hungry. Enjoy lobster bisque and a truffle-roasted chicken carbonara fettuccine, with bacon and local egg. The same soup is instead paired with a Tuscan-braised lamb shank in a creamy polenta for the $46 dinner, which adds on a salted caramel chocolate tart with espresso ice cream for dessert. If the weather is nice, request a table outside looking out at Brix’ two-acres of stunning culinary gardens, with vineyards and views of the Mayacamas Mountains.

Open a mere eight months, ALBA remains one of Napa’s best-kept secrets. At the River Terrace Inn along the Napa River, dine by cozy fire pits on what’s arguably the best outdoor patio in all of Napa, featuring live music from top local bands on the weekends. For $36, ALBA’s three-course dinner will start with a choice of porcini mushroom bisque or a beet salad. Decide between a grilled pork chop with kabocha squash or a grilled veggie caponata (a Sicilian eggplant dish) for the main, and round it all out with something delightfully unexpected: homemade Key Lime Pie with a graham cracker and macadamia nut crust. For an extra $14, you’ll get two wine pairings, but their original craft cocktails are tough to pass by, like the Valley Heat (tequila, jalapeno, cucumber and pineapple).

The Restaurant at CIA Copia

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Known for training some of the world’s top chefs, it’s a safe bet that the Culinary Institute of America can whip up a killer meal. Located at the institute’s new downtown Napa campus, The Restaurant at CIA Copia is adding on a bonus course to both its lunch and dinner Restaurant Week menus. The $20 three-course lunch will feature a simple salad, a housemade pappardelle with mushrooms and sherry cream and then tiramisu for dessert. The $46 four-course dinner gives you a choice for each course. Will you order spicy mussels or Italian staple cacio e pepe? Fisherman’s Stew or vinegar-braised chicken? Tip: Bring a friend, and you can try it all.

CIA at Copia

Compline Wine Bar, Restaurant & Merchant

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Founded by two sommeliers, Napa’s hottest, new wine bar Compline (pronounced like Compton) goes beyond the customary cheese and charcuterie plates and operates as a full-fledged fine dining restaurant — plus a wine shop and wine education center. During Restaurant Week, Compline will offer both the lunch deal and a three-course dinner for $36, which will feature a squash soup starter with pumpkin seeds and sage, chef’s signature fried chicken and California chili braised beans for the main. For dessert, there’s a chocolate cookie with cream. And as a bonus, you have the option to pair your meal with a wine flight from local legend Steve Matthiasson. It’s an extra cost, but you’ll be hard pressed to find these cult wines elsewhere.

Compline

Charlie Palmer Steak Napa

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The first Charlie Palmer Steakhouse in California has landed in Napa, and since a three-course dinner for $46 is less than the cost of a steak off their usual menu, this is a great chance to beef up on a budget. For restaurant week, the highbrow steakhouse is also offering the $20 lunch deal (select a main with an appetizer or dessert), plus bottomless wine pairings for an extra $17. Choose from three options for each course, like American Wagyu beef meatballs for a starter, grilled tri-tip steak for the main and Earl Grey panna cotta for dessert. You might as well also book a room upstairs at the brand new Archer Hotel — they’ve got introductory rates as low as $199 — so that you can sleep off the ensuing food coma in style, with views of downtown Napa.

Andy Berry Photo

Brasswood Bar + Bakery + Kitchen

Brasswood’s three-course dinner ($46) is worth it for the melt-in-your-mouth, hand-pulled, made-to-order mozzarella starter alone. But, the french onion soup and duck bolognese (sonoma duck, classic mirepoix and red wine on a bed of housemade fettuccine) both sound pretty fantastic too. Moreover, while most of their neighbors are charging extra for wine pairings, Brasswood includes a pour for each course in the pre-fixe pricing. One more bonus: If you’re staying in town another day, return to Brasswood’s tasting room with your Restaurant Week receipt and receive a complimentary tasting of their wines.

Brasswood

Acacia House by Chris Cosentino

Also new to Napa Valley in the last year is Acacia House by chef Chris Cosentino (of SF’s Cockscomb), housed in a beautifully-refurbished, Georgian-style mansion built in 1907. Acacia House has designed seafood-inspired Restaurant Week menus with warm winter vibes, like a lobster bisque and oxtail toast topped with house-made ricotta for lunch. For dinner ($46), start with a salt cod brandade, followed by Hokkaido scallop with mushroom risotto and then a tre leches cake with cinnamon ice cream for dessert. If you have some extra cash to spend, order their heavenly margarita topped with a salty pillow of seafoam.

The Charter Oak

Last summer, chef Christopher Kostow opened The Charter Oak in St. Helena, a significantly more approachable and elemental dining experience than his posh post at The Restaurant at Meadowood. Free of pretension, it’s a great spot for a semi-casual lunch with friends and during Restaurant Week, The Charter Oak is offering their Family Lunch—a rotating pre-set menu that’s meant to be shared with the entire table—for $20 per person ($10 off the usual price), with optional wine pairings. The uber seasonal-driven menu won’t be finalized until that week, but some past family meal favorites include pork shank with squash and chorizo-stuffed peppers and a slow-cooked, then fried chicken confit with a brown butter potato puree.

 

Courtesy of The Charter Oak, Photography by Kelly Puleio

Auberge du Soleil, an Auberge Resort

A Michelin star lunch for $20? Some of the best panoramic views in all of Napa Valley? Yes and yes to lunch on the expansive terrace of Napa Valley’s first fine dining restaurant at Auberge du Soleil. The menu tends to rotate daily, and wine pairings are available for an additional cost. As with most great things, there is one small catch: this deal is only available Monday-Friday, so you may want to start practicing your sick voice for work.

Harvest Table

If you crave a less posh, more cozy wine country casual setting than Charlie Palmer’s new steakhouse, make a reservation at Harvest Table (located at the Harvest Inn), the chef’s original Napa Valley digs. For both the $20 lunch and $36 dinner, you get to choose from a pair of tasty dishes for each course to curate a meal that might look like this: chicory and goat cheese salad, grilled beef tri-tip and a roasted pear tart. Wine pairings are also available for an additional cost.

Paige Green Photo

Brix

Long before St. Helena’s Farmstead, Napa Valley institution Brix mastered farm-to-table dining in wine country. For Restaurant Week lunch, $20 goes a long way and won’t leave you hungry. Enjoy lobster bisque and a truffle-roasted chicken carbonara fettuccine, with bacon and local egg. The same soup is instead paired with a Tuscan-braised lamb shank in a creamy polenta for the $46 dinner, which adds on a salted caramel chocolate tart with espresso ice cream for dessert. If the weather is nice, request a table outside looking out at Brix’ two-acres of stunning culinary gardens, with vineyards and views of the Mayacamas Mountains.

ALBA

Open a mere eight months, ALBA remains one of Napa’s best-kept secrets. At the River Terrace Inn along the Napa River, dine by cozy fire pits on what’s arguably the best outdoor patio in all of Napa, featuring live music from top local bands on the weekends. For $36, ALBA’s three-course dinner will start with a choice of porcini mushroom bisque or a beet salad. Decide between a grilled pork chop with kabocha squash or a grilled veggie caponata (a Sicilian eggplant dish) for the main, and round it all out with something delightfully unexpected: homemade Key Lime Pie with a graham cracker and macadamia nut crust. For an extra $14, you’ll get two wine pairings, but their original craft cocktails are tough to pass by, like the Valley Heat (tequila, jalapeno, cucumber and pineapple).

The Restaurant at CIA Copia

Known for training some of the world’s top chefs, it’s a safe bet that the Culinary Institute of America can whip up a killer meal. Located at the institute’s new downtown Napa campus, The Restaurant at CIA Copia is adding on a bonus course to both its lunch and dinner Restaurant Week menus. The $20 three-course lunch will feature a simple salad, a housemade pappardelle with mushrooms and sherry cream and then tiramisu for dessert. The $46 four-course dinner gives you a choice for each course. Will you order spicy mussels or Italian staple cacio e pepe? Fisherman’s Stew or vinegar-braised chicken? Tip: Bring a friend, and you can try it all.

CIA at Copia

Compline Wine Bar, Restaurant & Merchant

Founded by two sommeliers, Napa’s hottest, new wine bar Compline (pronounced like Compton) goes beyond the customary cheese and charcuterie plates and operates as a full-fledged fine dining restaurant — plus a wine shop and wine education center. During Restaurant Week, Compline will offer both the lunch deal and a three-course dinner for $36, which will feature a squash soup starter with pumpkin seeds and sage, chef’s signature fried chicken and California chili braised beans for the main. For dessert, there’s a chocolate cookie with cream. And as a bonus, you have the option to pair your meal with a wine flight from local legend Steve Matthiasson. It’s an extra cost, but you’ll be hard pressed to find these cult wines elsewhere.

Compline

Charlie Palmer Steak Napa

The first Charlie Palmer Steakhouse in California has landed in Napa, and since a three-course dinner for $46 is less than the cost of a steak off their usual menu, this is a great chance to beef up on a budget. For restaurant week, the highbrow steakhouse is also offering the $20 lunch deal (select a main with an appetizer or dessert), plus bottomless wine pairings for an extra $17. Choose from three options for each course, like American Wagyu beef meatballs for a starter, grilled tri-tip steak for the main and Earl Grey panna cotta for dessert. You might as well also book a room upstairs at the brand new Archer Hotel — they’ve got introductory rates as low as $199 — so that you can sleep off the ensuing food coma in style, with views of downtown Napa.

Andy Berry Photo

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