20 Best Restaurants in Sonoma, Napa and Sonoma

Even before charting on Esquire's list of 2022's best new restaurants, the intimate, bungalowlike establishment of New York City transplant Joshua Smookler (formerly chef at his own Mu Ramen and Thomas Keller's Per Se) was already drawing a crowd for its mash-up of Basque, Jewish, and Korean cuisines. Smookler, whose wife, Heidy He, runs the front of the house, consistently delights with idiosyncratic flavor combinations in dishes like feather-cut ibérico pork, lobster in XO sauce, grilled whole turbot, and dry-aged rib eye.

In a postage-stamp-size open kitchen (the dining room, its white walls adorned with contemporary art, is nearly as compact), chef Jeffrey Lloyd turns out understated, sophisticated fare emphasizing seasonably available local ingredients. Meats, pastas, and seafood get deluxe treatment without fuss or fanfare—and the daily risotto special is always worth trying.

Inside a former residence that received a high-design makeover down to its open-air patio, this restaurant began as an exclusive perk for Stone Edge Farm Estate's wine-club members; though now open to all, it still flies under the radar. Prix-fixe meals built around organically grown ingredients from the winery's nearby farm might include an appetizer like tuna adorned with crispy shallots, kumquats, and cashews followed by a salad of picked-the-same-day greens and a sensitively spiced fish, meat, or vegetarian entrée.

Born in the Azores and raised in Sonoma, chef-owner Manuel Azevedo serves cuisine inspired by his native Portugal in this warmly decorated spot with a heated patio out front. The wood-oven whole-roasted fish is always worth trying, and there are usually boldly flavored pork dishes, along with a casserole, pot roast, stew, salted cod, and other hearty fare.

Chef Efrain Balmes attracted such throngs for his "real Mexican food" truck specializing in his native Oaxacan cuisine that he finally went full brick-and-mortar, sharing space with (and pretty much taking over) an existing coffee roastery. The tacos—fish, shrimp, potato, mushroom, pork, and an outstanding lamb one—and the signature mole Oaxaqueño sauce are the must-tries here, the latter with either an enchilada or the "wet supreme burrito."

At this hot spot for inventive French cooking inside the historic Sonoma Hotel bar, you can always find a dish with the signature figs on the menu, whether it's a fig-and-arugula salad or an aperitif blending sparkling wine with fig liqueur. Also look for duck confit, a burger with matchstick fries, and wild flounder meunière.

The team behind this wine shop, bar, and restaurant across from Sonoma Plaza revamped a 19th-century adobe (though inside you'd never know it's this old) and expanded its outdoor patio, where most dining takes place. Sustainably produced seafood and meats find their way into "California home cooking"—summer dishes that might include halibut with corn and cherry tomatoes and winter ones like pork adobo or a half chicken with broccoli.

A San Francisco culinary star with establishments worldwide, Michael Mina debuted his first Wine Country restaurant in 2020, its interior of charcoal grays, browns, and soft whites dandy indeed, if by evening vying with outdoor spaces aglow with firepits and lighted water features. Seasonal regional ingredients—Pacific Coast fish, pasture-raised meats, freshly plucked produce—go into haute-homey dishes, prepared open-fire, that include pizzas, handmade pastas, and the signature lobster potpie with brandied lobster cream and black truffle.

After three decades of serving Tuscan-inspired cuisine, this restaurant with a plant-filled heated and tented back patio has developed a homey patina enhanced by brickwork, a fountain, family photos, and other old-school touches. Likewise with the food, you won't find belabored technique or froufrou preparations, only soulful renditions of northern Italy's greatest hits—veal scallopini, mushroom ravioli, pappardelle with rich duck ragout—from two generations of family recipes.

This restaurant owes its visual appeal to its clean lines and svelte decor, but the eye inevitably drifts westward to the open kitchen, where longtime executive chef Armando Navarro's team crafts dishes full of subtle surprises. The menu might include ceviche or roasted maitake mushrooms as starters and pan-roasted salmon, fettuccine carbonara, or paella awash with seafood among the entrées.

The goodness at Karen Waikiki's roadside restaurant, which has more tables outside than in, starts with high-quality ingredients and authentic techniques. The stars include tamales (chicken mole and Niman Ranch pork), tacos filled with beer-battered fish or crispy beef, ahi tostadas poke style, and enchiladas and burritos.

"The beer garden concept but with wine" is how winemaker Jordan Kivelstadt describes his roadhouse operation in southern Sonoma. Conventional wine tastings of Kivelstadt's sometimes unconventional wines take place here, with the outdoor space a lively combination restaurant and wine bar where local families and tourists mix it up while enjoying comfort fare that might include sweet-potato tacos, veggie potpie, smoked-chicken tostadas, and a mushroom Cubano on focaccia.

Down-home Southern cuisine with modern flourishes remains the mission of this retro-yet-au-courant roadside restaurant—originally the Fremont Diner—whose vineyard-view outdoor patio has a backyard-party vibe. Local families and tourists savor biscuits and gravy, hash-brown casserole, and the fried-chicken waffle for breakfast, with more fried chicken, multiple burgers and barbecue dishes, and a sloppy-good shrimp po'boy among the lunchtime attractions.

Chef David Bush, who achieved national recognition for his food pairings at St. Francis Winery, owns this barlike small-plates restaurant inside an 1890s storefront, erected as a livery stable, that incorporates materials reclaimed from the building's prior incarnations. Starters often include oysters, ceviche, and deviled eggs with Dungeness crab and homemade yellow curry, meant to be enjoyed before moving on to braised-pork-shoulder tacos, shrimp and cheesy grits, or an achiote chicken sandwich.

Elegant Santé is the Fairmont resort's restaurant for haute cuisine focusing on seasonal local ingredients. You can dine à la carte, but the intricate dishes on the chef's tasting menu make it worth trading up.

The owner of this combination restaurant and marketplace escorts her customers on a round-the-world journey via artisanal sausages—traditional links and savory pork, beef, duck, and chicken variations. In her bright storefront edging Sonoma Plaza's southern edge (there's also a patio out back), sausages also appear in sandwiches, tartines, and impressively moist biscuits with creamy sausage gravy.

Decorated in shades of brown and white and softly lit at night, the Grille is the type of spot where old schoolers start a meal by washing down oysters on the half shell with a stiff gin martini or cut to the chase with vodka oyster shooters. The menu at lunch and dinner skews heavily surf but covers all the turf bases with grilled, baked, or roasted beef, lamb, pork, chicken, and fish dishes, plus risotto and pasta plates.

Whimsical art and brightly painted walls set a jolly tone at this casual eatery whose assets include the verdant patio out back. Omelets, biscuits, and waffles are the hits at breakfast, with the grilled cheese sandwich and smoked-duck sandwich, the latter served on a sourdough hero roll with garlic aioli, two favorites for lunch.

The scent of waffle cones baking draws patrons into this family-run parlor serving artisanal ice cream made fresh daily. Butter brickle, peach custard, Oreos and cream, and salted caramel are among the alternating flavors that include sorbets and sometimes sherbets, and always vegan options.

Sonoma dining—or nibbling, given the portion sizes—received a boost when Azores-born chef Manuel Azevedo opened this retro-contempo tavern dedicated to small Portuguese bites. Dividing his menu into five parts—Cheese, Garden, Sea, Land, Sweet—Azevedo, who also owns the nearby restaurant LaSalette, serves everything from hearty caldo verde stew, pork sliders, smoked duck breast, and salted codfish cakes to São Jorge cheese topped with marmalade.