I'll try to keep it brief - I flew to San Jose for a 3 day trip where we ate I believe 9 michelin stars worth of food. Something that silly could only have been planned by old school 2+2er mike l. I met Mike and two of his friends who I've known a long time as well and we quickly headed south to meet up with a central california wine maker Mike knows. We had a tour of their vineyards, tried some wines, and went to lunch in beautiful San Juan Batista (a quaint small town) at a yummy Mexican restaurant.

After that we drove back towards the heart of silicon valley to check into an air b n b and rest before dinner at Manresa. Manresa has a cool, comfortable dining room, though the bar / waiting area is kinda tiny and weird. I had an average drink I can't recall at all, but our two friends said the non-alcoholic house made sodas were much better. Dinner was the full tasting menu plus wine pairings plus two bottles Mike added on (it was slightly too much but my stamina was fine on day one so no biggy). I would describe the food as modern with southern influences. Excellent service and solid food across the board. I really can't find any complaint, except that I've just had similar stuff and I wouldn't describe the meal as much of a progression. They did some cool things like start out with some finger food that looked like dessert but was savory, and then at the end brought what looked like the exact same plate except this time it was sweet. They sent us home with house made chocolate granola which was kinda odd tbh. Overall it was a very good meal but at that price I wouldn't go back, glad I tried it.

Passed out, woke up feeling decent, we packed up and drove to San Francisco. I've never been there before and was surprised at how massive of a city it is, much more Manhattan than I expected. I love big cities but the smoke from the california fires definitely put a damper on it. We dropped our bags off at a really nice hotel in chinatown, and headed out on foot in search of coffee. Caffeine acquired, we headed to meet another wine friend of mike's for lunch at a michelin star Thai place called Kin Khao. I found the food to be hit or miss, perhaps they do dinner better. There were some great dishes but overall I would have preferred a meal at Chada Thai in vegas any time. After lunch Mike and I headed to the hotel for a nap while the other two went shopping. After a decent re-charge we met up and headed to a fun place called Song tea and ceramics for tea tasting. I'm a tea snob so I was accustomed to the things they had available but the other guys were sorta tea newbs so they had fun doing a 30 minute tasting.

Went back to hotel to change for dinner at Benu. Benu has a beautiful space but I think we got the short end of the stick on our table, in a corner against a wall, it was less than ideal. The menu itself was fantastic though. It's basically very high end asian fusion, and it was fun to be at such a nice place serving unique foods. I've been to Wing Lei in vegas which is supposedly high end chinese and i found it to be incredibly mediocre. Benu showed me it can be done right. My favorite course was a whole roasted Squab with various sides / sauces. The beverage pairings were great too and very eclectic, some wines, a beer, a carbonated sake. Cheaper than Manresa and in my mind better, very enjoyable. After dinner I was feeling good so mike and I decided to go check out a highly rated bar called Trick Dog. It was fine but I don't see what all the fuss is about. Not worth going out of the way for.

Next day we woke and drove to Napa. The smoke was so much worse that day, as we were driving I saw a news report saying San Francisco was currently rated the worst air quality of every city in the world. Sounds about right. Napa was bad too but not nearly as bad. First stop was lunch at Dean and Deluca's. That should be the first stop in Napa every time. We had two private tastings scheduled (thanks mike!), mathiasson and Shafer, then headed to hotel to check in and rest up before Meadowwood! I've been before, a couple years ago, and it was and is my favorite place in America, though there are some East Coast places I haven't had a chance to try yet to compare (11 madison park for example).

Upon arrival I remembered immediately why I love the place so much, the service and attention to detail is just on another level. They recently changed bar directors but it seemed even better than I recall. The dining room was changed around a bit too and our server let us know they are closing for three weeks in January to renovate the inside entirely. I guess they just don't like to sit still. The menu was also completely different from what I remember, they don't appear to have any "signature dishes", just great, exciting food every time. We had some mind blowing french white wines Mike substituted for the wine pairings as well. To me, the food there is perfectly simple, it almost seems like I should be able to re-create the dishes at home, but of course the illusion of simplicity means its anything but. An example was three middle courses where first they brought out a whole cooked peking duck to show us the "before", then they served the first "duck" course which was the best consomme I've ever had, simple and perfect. Next was a plate of duck breast itself with some sides, and then the "rest of the duck" which had been used to make rice. Simple amazing rice. I don't know, I guess its just my style to have a simple bowl of rice set in front of me and then taste it and realize its the best rice I've ever had, and then have 12 other courses like that. It's incredibly expensive, but I would still happily go back about once a year if I could just to see what they are up to. They sent us home with boxes filled with house made caramels and a bottle of apple brandy, mmmmmm.

That reservation didn't start til 9 pm so by the time we got back to the hotel it was 2 am and I passed out to a nasty 8 am alarm clock. Drove to oakland airport where I sat in the new "escape lounge" and coated my stomach with grease until my delayed flight was ready, slept for two hours on the plane, arrived home and felt the weight of 3 days of eating and drinking. Crashed for 12 hours more and now I'm feeling human again. It's a tough life

Great review, DD. Short and sweet.

DD,

Awesome review, thanks. That’s pretty much exactly how I’d rate those three places relative to each other, and also with you on KK and trick dog.

I mainly wanted to hear what you thought of manresa. I live very close to benu, and meadowood is of course a great destination location. But manresa is so out of the way that I don’t really see myself going back unless someone says they’re doing something really new and incredible.

Alright, back to Vegas fine dining!

Great TR! I have a question about Meadowood. A while ago a friend told me they tried to get reservations but the restaurant was already booked the only night that fit their schedule. When they called to ask how likely it would be to get a table through a short notice cancellation, they were told the tasting menu is pre-paid at $600/person. Is paying $1200 for two a couple weeks/months in advance the only way to get a table there?

Mad,

https://www.exploretock.com/therestaurantatmeadowood

I'd like to see a hot lunch at the St. Helena Preschool For All!

I'm not aware of this at all. Mike booked our reservations (through Tock) and said the website is not good at all, but we didn't prepay anything. I wouldn't be surprised if your friend spoke to someone at Tock and they were just flat out wrong. Also I don't know exactly what the menu costs because we did a lot of wine add-ons, but that price is much lower than what I've paid each time (been twice).

Heading to Meadowood Jan 29. Will report back.

oh man looking forward to a very detailed trip report!
pls order everything.

Trying to pick a restaurant for my father-in-law's 70th bday.

Which is better: Picasso or Sinatra, & are there other similar places that are better than both?

I usually only steakhouse when I go fine dining. Sorry if this has been asked & answered, on phone so searching is hard.

I think if you asked me that question while we were stood outside Sinatras, I'd pick Picasso at least 9 times out of 10.

As an afterthought, if some of the party were picky eaters, that might make me lean towards Sinatras. Also the bigger the group, the more likely to choose Sinatras.

Sinatra is a good restaurant.

Picasso is close to a world class restaurant

Thanks guys. There might be some picky eater issues & not wanting to pay that much $ issues.

Is there anything like Sinatra but better?

Imo Picasso is a world class restaurant. It’s not making any of those fancy lists because they don’t really like chefs running a gazillion restaurants and Picasso’s menu is kinda unimaginative and always plays on the save side, but everything about the place is top notch.

@JMurder3 just to clarify, are you asking about another high end Italian restaurant? Picasso has that little Spanish influence, but is still a very traditional French fine dining restaurant. That concept doesn’t really exist for Italian restaurants.

I think it's more of an interesting experience my wife is looking for. Get him dressed up, make him feel special, treat him to a new experience, more so than a specific type of cuisine...buuuut other parts of her family are being a bit resistant to the more high-priced section of that range.

I believe that the Prix Fix menu may be in the range of $120+ per person. That is not cheap . . . but . . . this is a once in a lifetime experience and the "less expensive" places are still going to be about $80+. So really it is maybe a $40 difference and the Picasso experience will more than make up for the $40 difference.

I think Picasso is actually really decent in the bang for your buck category, considering that you are hard pressed to get 3 courses a la carte at any Strip fine dining restaurant for under $100.

I don’t want to hate on American-Italian fine dining, but I have a hard time justifying the pretty outrageous prices when the main difference to your standard Italian restaurant is a nicer ambiente, more professional service and veal instead of chicken in the Parm.

If you have picky eaters, which often means repulsion of seafood, your best bet might be a steakhouse?

Thanks guys. I'll just send your posts to my sister-in-law haha.

Agree completely that Italian fine dining is the most overpriced.

Took me a long time to come to grips with this but have to agree. At the same time, I think the more expensive italian places also provide a menu that just about everyone will find something they really like and they won't disappoint. I would put steak houses right up there too when it comes to not getting value from your dining buck. The really tough part is finding a good valued local place for steak or italian, much easier said than done.

If you are looking for Italian, I would suggest Nora's Italian Cuisine. It is probably not "Fine Dining" (i.e. super expensive), but the food is very good and it has a certain amount of elegance.

http://www.norascuisine.com/www/

I like Nora's a lot, particularly their ribeye lunch special.

OP, I think the more important question is would your father in law even enjoy/appreciate the food at a place like Picasso? I ask because my father in law would not even enjoy the place. I am on board with wanting to make him feel special and make the experience awesome, but I think he has to be open enough to enjoy the food, not just the experience.

Personally, considering the push back from some people on the $point, I think you can give him a great experience at one of the top steak houses in Vegas. They will have a wide price range to accommodate everyone, and you can still make it a special experience. Maybe one or several have private rooms for larger groups depending on your group size. Just my tree fiddy.

but on that note, if they arent paying, they will still feel somewhat obligated to order cheaply instead of getting the whole experience. obv not knowing the people but could go back to a hotel in privacy and say "yeah it was good but i wanted xx but it was $$$ so i didnt get it"

book a place, try calling ahead and getting unpriced menus for the rest of the table?

Gaetano’s and Capo’s are two very different Italian restaurants that I do like quite a bit. Gaetano’s more of a fine dining place, but both good spots with good food.

This sounds very promising. I will give this place a go on my next trip.