Thank you to everyone who posted here. We really appreciate it. I am no longer a Napa Rose virgin. Last night DH and I celebrated an early Valentine's Day at the Napa Rose. For those of you who like to read the last page of a book first: OH-MY-GOODNESS! It was a wonderful evening. Fantastic food, great wine, incredible atmosphere, terrific service, and of course, fabulous company. How we have never eaten there before is just beyond me and we will definitely be back. It was amazing.
Now, for the full report (and yes, there will be food porn!):
DH and I arrived at the GCH early. After we valet parked, we went into DtD and did a little shopping, wandering, and people watching. We lost track of time and were running a bit late for our ressie. We called and they said it was no problem. (FYI, for others' knowledge, you get a 15 minute grace period.)
We were seated immediately upon arrival.
We forgot to ask for Saucy, but our server was fantastic. He explained the menu beautifully, answered our questions without talking down to us, suggested a wonderful wine, never made us feel rushed, and made our evening enjoyable.
I am not knowledgeable about wine at all. I would like to be and have visited a few wineries recently to try to start to learn. I explained to our server that I would like to try a wine, but not sure what to order. He said that after I ordered my meal, he would suggest something. I ended up with a glass of Valdiguie, J. Lohr Estate, Wildflower and it was perfect for my tastes.
For a starter I had the scallops that were mentioned here and that our server spoke highly of as well. Allow me to say that I enjoy scallops, but am not in love with them. Then I tasted my starter. OH - MY - STARS! It was amazing! Not,
Dreams, you are exaggerating, amazing, but truly just amazing. The sauce was delicious, the scallops were tender and just perfect. Although not listed on the menu, they were also available as an entree and I would have been very happy with a full entree of them. They were truly delicious.
DH had the pizzette. He didn't care for it as much as he thought he would (but finished it off, so I'm guessing it wasn't all that bad hehe).
We both ordered the Smiling Tiger Salad. At first I thought that the dressing had a spicy kick to it. Then I realized that under the greens was the spicy beef. I generally don't care for spicy, but the combination with the greens and the dressing (and some ice water hehe) made it really delicious. However, DH and I agreed that the star of this salad were the little guys tucked to each side: the tempura fried lobster. I'm going to repeat that because, well, it's worth repeating. Tempura fried lobster. Absolutely amazing. If they offered those little jewels as an entree, I'd order it twice a week and six times on Sunday. DH took a bite of one and his face suddenly changed. I thought the kick from the spicy beef got him. Then I realized he had just eaten a tempura fried lobster bite. He was in food heaven. A-mazing.
For our entree, seriously, there's more food coming?, I had the Cedar Roasted Maple Leaf Duck Breast and he had the Herb Roasted Colorado Rack of Lamb. I have had duck that I enjoyed and I have had duck that has left my tummy feeling ill because it's too greasy. For this reason I was hesitant to order the duck, but our server assured me the chef prepares it to not leave one with that greasy-tummy feeling. So I went with it. Have you ever taken a bite of something and literally had it melt in your mouth? The duck was absolutely fabulous. DH loved his lamb. There is a local restaurant that we have eaten at for years that serves lamb which he LOVES. His comment was, "With apologies to Chef S., this is the best lamb I have ever tasted." And that's a HUGE comment.
DH was very excited about the idea of trying a "fancy" mac & cheese so he switched his side (thanks for the tip!) to Truffled "Mac & Cheese" Orecchiette Pasta. He absolutely loved it. I am not a big mac & cheese fan, but had to try it. Wow it was good! Soooo good.
At this point, we were stuffed, DH was joking about "roll me out to the car," and the topic of dessert came up. The chocolate mousse caught my eye, but I was told it really wasn't to die for so we took DIS'ers input (and our server's) and we went for the hot chocolate.
Are we really ordering hot chocolate? It's just hot chocolate. Sigh. We'll share the hot chocolate, please.
So a platter arrives with two donuts, a donut hole, and small little cup of hot chocolate. Really? DH stares at me. I joke, "So, who's taking first sip?" DH picks up a donut, takes a bit, and just about starts to drool. So I take a bite. "Oh wow! Umm, yum." Then, the hot chocolate. I take a sip. I'm the chocolate-lover in the pair.
Okay, it's chocolate. It's good. I start to put it back down.
Whoah. What the -- what's that? There's like pieces of chocolate something in there. Oh my stars. That's chocolate goodness. What IS that? - sip again -
Okay, DH is not getting any of this. He's not a chocolate lover. It'll be wasted on him. He is staring at me. He asks me for the cup so he can have a sip. Sigh. Fine. I'll share. He takes a sip. His eyes get big. "That's ___ good hot chocolate." "I know, huh? Give it back."
And we shared the most amazing hot chocolate ever and the donuts.
At this point we realized that we had been there almost 3 hours. Yep. And it was an amazing evening. We glanced at our valet ticket and realized we were 12 minutes away from our five hours of valet parking. However, true to the entire evening, our server was in no rush to hurry us out the door. Except now we needed to zoom out of there. Let's ignore how much we are paying for dinner. We are going to get charge for 30 minutes of valet. HAHAHAHA!
Sometimes self-observation is funny. So... another server noticed us looking around. Asked if we needed anything. We told her. She got our server and he got us out the door very quickly. They told us to mention to the hostess that we were going to be about 10 minutes over on our valet. On our way out we did so. She called the valet and told them the restaurant was just a bit slow getting us out the door and to please extend our valet a bit. We took a few pictures and left.
Love the little details. This is the floor.
When we got to the valet, 20 minutes beyond our five hours, they had our car waiting and we were on our way, ending an amazing evening with a wonderful dinner.
Thank you everyone for your tips and input. It was exactly the introduction we needed for a perfect night.
Any questions? Feel free to ask.
- Dreams