Bottega Restaurant

Bottega….in Napa….

 

I was so excited to go to Bottega, its one of those places you always hear about because the praise stretches all the way across the country. Bottega is Michael Chiarello’s restaurant and he has done a wonderful job with the place, it’s a perfect fit for Napa.

 

I will start off by saying that this was a 2.5 hour lunch and I think all lunches should be like this; the service was fantastic and the food was amazing. I also highly recommend going for lunch, it can be quite a filling meal and the lunch menu is almost identical to that of the dinner menu so this way you don’t go to bed stuffed.

 

We started with some sparkling wine and it just seemed to fit perfectly with the day we just kept them coming.  Then, pprosciutto and cheese crostini came out as an amuse to start.

 

 

They brought out fresh baked bread wrapped in a napkin, still hot, and placed it on the table with an amazing dipping sauce with lots of oil, garlic and I think a cheese.

 

 

Luckily my husband was in the mood to do tapas style dining so we ordered a number of items off the menu.

Burrata with sweet potato and mushrooms.

 

 

Of course I had to go for the octopus. It was very good, wood grilled with olive oil braised potatoes, pickled red onion and salsa verde.

 

 

Polenta Under Glass with caramelized mushrooms and balsamic sauce was delicious and very fun to eat.

 

 

Grilled short rib Meatballs Sicilian heirloom tomato sauce, coal roasted eggplant passata, cucumber, grapes, house made ricotta…I let Rob have the third meatball, he did let me eat all of the octopus, it was the least I could do.

 

 

Lobster Cavatelli with uni, I def could have used more uni...

 

We finished with a light dessert of their sorbets and cookie plate.

 

 

 

This was such a wonderful event - I can't just call it a meal - and I highly recommend you hop right over to Napa for a Bottega lunch.