Matthew Gudenius

Review of Terra Restaurant, Napa

We wanted to like this place, because we are local...

We wanted to like this place, because we are locals and we enjoyed the previous restaurant that occupied this building (Tra Vigne -- and we still frequently do Tra Vigne pizzeria), but we have stopped in a couple of times, and were never enticed to actually stay:

1) Pretty expensive -- even by Napa Valley standards. For the same price or a little bit LESS, you can get an amazing lunch from the Michelin-starred SolBar at Solage resort about 10 minutes north in Calistoga area

2) We decided to peruse the bar/cocktail options, but the bar area was a pretty sterile atmosphere, and the cocktails they had on the menu were not very unique or inspired... we decided we will just stick to Goose & Gander (if you want the best cocktails in town, head to Goose & Gander's downstairs bar!)

3) We came in hungry on a Sunday at around noon, looking for a nice lunch. Well, we were out of luck, because apparently they don't do lunch on weekends -- only brunch! Normally, this wouldn't be a problem -- we often love brunch, because they tend to have many savory lunch items in addition to a selection of breakfast items

But that is not the case here. "Brunch" basically means "all day breakfast", because that's practically all they had on the menu... things like omelettes, biscuits, waffles, etc... but marked up to exorbitant prices (about $20 for an egg platter is just too expensive) We scanned the menu, looking for ANYTHING that could be a nice, hearty, savory and protein-filled lunch choice... We were able to find basically ONE item that fell into this category, and it was (drumroll, please)... a hamburger. (For, of course, about $20)

Nah. No thanks. If we wanted a hamburger, we would have gone to Gott's (Taylor's Refresher) right across the street -- they make excellent hamburgers, and they are half that price. (So we just walked out, and haven't been back since.)

[EDIT: I just looked up their brunch menu, and it now seems to have a lot more hot lunch items than it did when we went in October. In October, the choices for savory meat dishes were: cold smoked fish, or a cheeseburger. They still have a pretty shabby selection, though... only 12 total choices, a few of which are low-protein vegetarian options... and all of them are exorbitantly priced. An apple pancake with brown sugar should not cost $18. Or soft scrambled egg with avocado for $20? That's ridiculous.]

The dinner menus also seem to have that same expensive-yet-nothing-special assortment of dishes, so as we see it, there's literally nothing to entice us to come here. The cocktail list = meh. The brunch = poor selection and too expensive. And the dinner menu = overpriced and nothing special that would require you to choose here over any of the other fine restaurants in town.