TORC
The akaushi beef short rib comes with potato boulangere and a Napa Cabernet glaze, and the list runs deep in back-vintage Napa Cabernet. Rock and soul are on, loud.
Why go
Sean O'Toole cooks it and his wife Cynthia runs the wine, and he describes what they are doing as dismantling the fine-dining evening rather than performing it.1 He builds plates around one ingredient and changes them constantly, so the Japanese hamachi crudo with winter citrus, yuzu kosho, coriander and forbidden rice is the shape rather than the guarantee.2 Wine Enthusiast picked the akaushi beef short rib with potato boulangere, artichoke, sugar snap peas and a Napa Cabernet glaze.2 The mushrooms are foraged, some of them by O'Toole himself.2 The room is a brick-and-wood hall with an open kitchen at the back and the music on, and the same address was Ubuntu until that restaurant closed.1
Order this / avoid
- Order: the akaushi short rib. It is the dish Wine Enthusiast named and the one the kitchen builds a Cabernet glaze for.2
- Order: a back-vintage Napa Cabernet off Cynthia O'Toole's list, which runs deep in exactly that.2
- Order: family style if there are eight of you. Groups call ahead and pre-order whole braised beef shank, whole roasted halibut tail or a lobster Thermidor for the table; the prices on the record are years old, so ask.2
- Avoid: coming for a quiet dinner. The restaurant leads its own description with the music being undeniably on.1
What locals & experts say
- Wine Enthusiast, Best Restaurants 2018:
In the heart of wine country, this restaurant has a serious but accessible wine program to serve both connoisseurs and casual wine drinkers. The ever-growing list has an emphasis on Californian wines, including a large selection of back-vintage Napa Cabernet, to complement the locally sourced food.
2 - Cynthia O'Toole, wine director, to the same magazine:
On any given night we have some of the most amazing wine luminaries dining with us. You can't help but be inspired.
2 - Sean O'Toole, on his own about page:
As Wine Curator and Chef, my wife Cynthia and I are proud to be 'dismantling' the fine dining experience, replacing it with a sophisticated yet relaxed evening that doesn't break the bank.
1
Both press quotes were read on the restaurant's own clipping wall rather than at the publishers, and the entry is worth exactly that much.
Good to know
- Booking: through OpenTable from the restaurant's own site, or 707-252-3292. No service hours are published on the page that answered.1
- The Register named it Best Fine Dining Napa Valley Restaurant in 2019, off a readers' poll run online in August that year. Readers voting, not critics eating.3
- MICHELIN standing is not established here. The guide's venue page came back not-found on the address I tried, while a known-listed restaurant answered on the same host, and one miss is not a delisting.
- Hygiene: not established. No inspection instrument for this county is on file here.
Verdict
should-visit — Sean O'Toole cooks and forages, Cynthia O'Toole runs the list, and the two of them built a room at 1140 Main Street where the music is loud and the wine program is not. Wine Enthusiast picked out the akaushi short rib with potato boulangere and a Napa Cabernet glaze, and called the list serious but accessible with a large run of back-vintage Napa Cabernet, which is the sentence that separates this from a good restaurant with a wine card. He rotates the menu constantly and builds dishes around one ingredient, so read the hamachi crudo with yuzu kosho and forbidden rice as the shape of a plate here. Take a table of eight or more and pre-order family style, because that is what this kitchen is set up for. Everything cited was read on the restaurant's own press wall rather than at the publishers, which is what holds this off the top rung.