Farmhouse Inn

While we were in Sonoma for John and Erin’s wedding, Ken’s client and his wife were also in Sonoma enjoying a long weekend. Owen and Jessica met up with us at Farmhouse Inn for dinner on Saturday night in the Russian Valley (we were both staying in the Sonoma-area). I made the reservation while we were still in New York and was contemplating whether we should go to Farmhouse Inn or the Thomas Keller popup that was closing a few weeks later, but decided to keep the reservation at Farmhouse Inn because the Thomas Keller popup sounded similar to Bouchon and it was in Napa.

We arrived right when the restaurant opened at 5:30 (actually, we arrived a little early because we didn’t want to be late) and walked around the grounds:

There’s a pool, an outdoor fire pit, hotel rooms and small cottages/suites you can rent. Ken and I thought it was so charming that we want to stay there the next time we’re in Sonoma! Owen and Jessica arrived soon after our walk around the property and we sat down to dinner.

When you walk into Farmhouse Inn, it feels like you’re walking into someone’s house, not a formal restaurant. It’s very warm and welcoming and the decor was very relaxed and California-esque. The restaurant offers two different tastings – you can do three or four courses (there’s the first course, second course, main course and dessert, if you do the three course option, you pick either a first or second course and if you do the four course you can do all four). We decided to do the four course tasting because the food all sounded delicious.

We started with an amuse bouche, – beets and a goat cheese panna cotta:

As well as some bread and butter:

For our first course, Jessica and I both ordered the Burrata a La Panna – Soda Rock Farm heirloom tomatoes, basil vinaigrette, Taggiasca olives and toasted brioche:

The burrata is delivered every day from a farm down the street and the tomatoes are from Soda Rock Farm, which is a family-owned farm not too far from Farmhouse Inn (the farm is located in Healdsburg, CA). The tomatoes were much more intense in flavor than the ones you buy in the grocery store – even compared to the ones you buy at the farmer’s market!

Ken and Owen’s first course was the sake cured ahi tuna with lemon cucumber, avocado, ginger vinaigrette, spicy soybean puree and seasame-nori-radish:

The ahi tuna was really delicious and very flavorful; I couldn’t taste the sake flavor but did taste fresh cucumber and lemon. The avocado also added a nice change in texture to the dish.

For our second course, I splurged with the Hudson Valley Foie Gras – Gravenstein apple puree, brown butter brioche, late harvest chardonnay and citrus gastrique, and pickled apple:

Foie gras is definitely one of my favorite dishes and this one was perfectly seared and paired very well with the sweet and tart apples. A great decision to order the foie gras!

Owen and Ken both ordered the grilled octopus with heirloom shelling beans, lime-jalapeno vinaigrette, and roasted lemon aioli:

The octopus tasted like it was barely cooked (maybe poached and then grilled?) and was soft in texture – not overly chewy/rubbery.

Jessica ordered the Atlantic scallop with crispy pork belly, Basque style vegetables and Jerez vinegar gastrique:

The second course was slightly better than the first (although I enjoyed my first course, I can’t resist the deliciousness of foie gras). Everything tasted light and fresh – a good thing because we still had two courses to go.

For Ken’s main course, he ordered the Snake River Farm pork rib chop with soffritto strwen wheat berry, sunflower, smoked king trumpet mushroom and essence of black garlic:

Owen ordered the rabbit rabbit rabbit, a signature entree from Farmhouse – it’s rabbit prepared three ways (applewood smoked bacon wrapped loin, roasted rack, confit of leg, yukon potato, and whole grain mustard cream sauce):

And Jessica and I both ordered the Bodega Bay black cod with miso braised hon shimeji, daikon, baby bok choy, and shellfish dashi:

The shellfish dashi is served tableside:

I enjoyed all of the main courses but thought the black cod was the best of the three we tried. The rabbit rabbit rabbit was an interesting preparation – I’ve had a similar concept (duck duck duck from Morimoto) but you don’t often see rabbit on dinner menus, much less three different preparations of rabbit. Ken’s dish was a bit too heavy and plain for me – he enjoyed it and the meat was very fragrant, but I thought it was a little too much.

For dessert, Owen ordered the verte verte with garden mint-grated Valrhona ice cream, matcha coulis, roasted pistachio, and Champagne biscuit:

Jessica and Ken ordered Theobroma – warm chocolate mousse, cocoa wafer, white chocolate chantilly, and olive oil-vanilla bean-anglaise:

I ordered the Blenheim Apricot souffle with apricot confiture filling, coconut macaroon, and pistachio financier:

All of the desserts were perfect – Ken thought his was the best (it might have been) and I really enjoyed mine because I love souffle (and usually have to order it when we go out to eat) and the apricot confiture filling was a nice tangy surprise.

Ken, Owen and Jessica did the wine pairings and the great thing about Farmhouse is the sommelier pairs each course with a different wine. All of them had different wines based on what they ordered – Ken had wines from Austria, the Russian River Valley, Carneros and Portugal. We thoroughly enjoyed the meal and the company and can’t wait to spend time with Owen and Jessica in New York! (next up for the four of us: dim sum in Chinatown!)