Ad Hoc
Buttermilk fried chicken served family style, the cheap seat on Thomas Keller's Yountville block. The MICHELIN inspectors call it the best bet for how Keller cooks at home.
Why go
The fried chicken is what people book for, and the guide calls it a longstanding signature.
1 Everything arrives family style in a wood-paneled room the inspectors describe as feeling like a country home.1 Salads run to green asparagus, cauliflower and beets, and the kitchen will also put French onion dip and kettle chips on your table.1 The guide's line on that is short: while dishes may sound simple, the crafting is not.
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Order this / avoid
- Order: the buttermilk fried chicken.1
- Order: the French onion dip with kettle chips, which the guide names on the page.1
- Avoid: walking up.
Waits are inevitable without a reservation.
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What locals & experts say
- MICHELIN Guide, California (selected):
If you've ever wondered how Thomas Keller cooks at home, Ad Hoc is your best bet. The most casual of Chef Keller's restaurants, it offers accessible fare served family style in a bright and inviting wood-paneled room that feels like a country home.
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Good to know
- Hours: dinner from 4:30pm Monday and Thursday through Sunday, lunch from 11am Friday and Saturday, and from 10am Sunday. Closed Tuesday and Wednesday.1
- Standing: in the MICHELIN California selection, with no star and no Bib Gourmand on its guide page.1
- Addendum: the to-go window behind the restaurant runs Friday and Saturday, 11am to 2pm, and has its own entry. The operator files the two as one property.2
- Hygiene: not established. No inspection instrument for this county is on file here.
Verdict
should-visit — Buttermilk fried chicken served family style is the whole proposition, and the MICHELIN inspectors say the crafting is not as simple as the dishes sound, which is a judgment on the plate and not on the name over the door. It sits in the California selection with no star and no Bib, checked against Auro's starred page on the same host, so read it as the cheap seat in Thomas Keller's Yountville rather than a room to study. Bring people and share, because the format is built for a table. It stops short of the top rung because one publisher wrote everything known about it here.