Auberge du Soleil, Napa Valley, California
Last Visit: May 2008
OVERALL
You will NEVER see so many pictures in any other reviews that I wrote. Because this restaurant is about one adjective - BEAUTIFUL. Beautiful setting and view, beautiful interior, and beautiful food. It's an overall spectacular culinary experience to sit through the complete set menu dinner in about 2.5 hours - but unfortunately everything looks better than they taste and very often I am not sure whether that Michelin star - YES, this is a one-mich star restaurant!! - was given to its beauty or taste.....
FOOD 
When you go into a Michelin-starred restaurant, you expect some spectacular food, but in the traditional way. There shouldn't be much surprise factor - else it might just throw those classy European judges off. Therefore, Auberge du Soleil has to deliver some solid French-looking dishes, but also give them adequate Californian flavor to impress the mostly local guests. While these simple goals are achieved, Auberge du Soleil really put up a fancy show of ambience and cuisine.
The restaurant offers a set-price menu with like four choices for each course. We ordered a variety of different dishes so that we can seeI have included a ton of pictures with this review. but the everything in this restaurant is about beauty. The dishes are simply arranged like art work. Colors are well-coordinated and the main characters are properly highlighted. The plates are large and white for a good reason - so that the guests will not lose the focus on the beauty of the food.
Of course, let's NOT forget the taste..... Everything is made from superbly fresh and top-notch ingredients, which is not a surprise given where the restaurant is (Napa = best food material at premium price). Some of the most memorable dishes are the lobster appetizer, foie gras with rhubarb, seared tuna, english pea risoto. new york steak, etc. We were not impressed with the sweetbread and duck dishes though - just too ordinary - still pretty though. Well, maybe I'm just biased against 
Californian cuisine to begin with.... The cooking style is definitely California with a good French foundation (hint hint, that's how they got the star). Overall they are really exceptional but I noticed that rhubard appears twice, and also a braised pork were found both in appetizer and entree. The pork tastes very asian - like something I'd cook for dinner. To have the exact same items appear in two different courses in a Michelin restaurant is a bit surprising.
Desserts were the biggest disppointment. They are - not surpringly - meticulously set and color-coordinated, but they just don't taste that "outstanding". I can't find the right word, but it's like having a dessert from Starbucks - they taste ok but I don't even remember what they taste like, except the chocolate filo which is creative but again not that great-tasting. I had to give them four stars instead of five because of the shortcomings in desserts and the overall blandness of the food.
SERVICE
Given the traditional importance of service in a classic French restaurant, you would think that Auberge should have excellent service in order to win a star. The service staff was attentive and courteous, but they were surprisingly not that professional - they simply made too many easy-to-avoid mistake. Some waitresses seemed downright nervous, and time and again they delivered dish to the wrong person in our party. Granted that there were six of us, you would think waiters working in a restaurant like this one would be able to handle a dozen guests' orders with no problem. Another major issue is that the entrees delayed by about 1/2 hr to deliver, and they apologized when they delivered the dishes. BIG NO NO - if you knew you're late, you give your guests a heads up and offer something while they are waiting. This is particularly important for a group of guests with kids. Oh another small problem - the waiter recommended a bottle of wine (cheap - only $100) that is just not right for our food - it has too much character but lacks smoothness for Californian cuisine.
I do have to give them credit with how they dealt with the fact that we had a baby and two small kids. This is NOT the kind of place you want to bring kids to, but they did a good job offering some off-menu food and drinks for them, and also tried hard to ignore their presence (btw with Nintendo DS). However, we did not go to Red Robin, which would do much better with kids. The service alone costed us more than $200, so we were expecting service that is memorable - preferably in the positive way.
AMBIENCE
Did I mention the word beautiful? Well, the cuisine is just part of the story. The interior of the restaurant is nice, but it's the setting that is impressive. Napa Valley is not quite Tuscany, but this restaurant gives you the view that is almost Tuscan. The rolling hills of Napa Valley serves as a gorgeous background. We decided to sit inside instead of out in the patio so that our kids won't end up rolling down the hill, but even from inside (which is how this picture was taken) the view was rather pleasant.
Of course I wouldn't give five stars to just a nice view. Overall the restaurants delivers an outstanding experience in terms of ambience. Both inside and outside the theme was consistent - the "soleil" is everywhere. You definitely know it's a luxury restaurant, but it's also comfortable and casual. It's a piece of work that well represents California's pursuit of casual elegance.
VALUE
If you are looking for good value in Napa Valley, you WILL be disappointed. Napa is known to host the most overpriced and overhyped restaurants. Don't get me wrong, there are a ton of great restaurants there, but you'll definitely pay a price for quality. Auberge is definitely not the most overpriced restaurant there if you consider all the work that go into their overall setting, decorations and cuisine; however, don't expect to walk out feeling that the experience was worth every penny (actually a ton of pennies) that you just spent - I would say they could add a little more character to the food to earn that $100+. They do have a very extensive wine list, but at 300% markup you probably want to sip instead of drink your liquid gold.
BOTTOMLINE
I hope the pictures conveyed at least part of the beauty of the place - but honestly the full beauty of it can only be experienced personally, not seen throught some pictures. If you are a fan of Californian cuisine, don't mind some accidental repetition in your dishes, and you appreciate museum-class natural scenary, this is the place for you. Do make sure you have a high credit limit be sure you make a reservation (YES, it's definitely recommended!!).
BTW
If you are reading this website, you probably don't need my reminder that wining paring is absolutely critical to the overall dining experience, particularly when you're having French or Californian. You probably want to get your own wine - no matter how high the corkage is, it would be far better than getting wine off their winelist. Someone suggested that if you are not a hugh wine-drinker but you do want to have well-matched wine, just get their tasting menu. It's actually not a bad deal because wine is included.
