So - you want to eat well in wine country. The Napa Valley area has no shortage of delicious food and drink, that's for sure. When I made our dinner plans, I had two objectives - 1) I wanted to eat well; and 2) I didn't want to
completely break the bank. So any chains were out, as was the
French Laundry. Some day, Thomas Keller, some day! I like fresh food with local ingredients, especially seafood, so any menu with inventive seafood caught my eye.
This was not my first trip to Napa, and my parents have been there many times, so I had some idea of what areas we wanted to visit. I then checked
Tripadvisor for current reviews and
Open Table to see if there were reservations available. In some cases, I had to call the restaurant directly because of our party size. I started this as soon as the plane tickets were purchased, which was about 2 months in advance. On to the goods...
I really liked this choice for our first night in the area. We had great service and there were several standout menu items - the mozarella cheese 'al minuto,' short ribs, and a special of the day - scallop risotto. The pasta was very good too. I would eat there again.

This was our best meal of the trip, in my opinion. The fish was the highlight of the menu (halibut, skate, and John dory), as were the desserts. The boys mixed it up that night by having local beers and I had some fun mixed drinks. Unfortunately, I don't have more than 3 photos of the evening because we were so busy eating! I would definitely eat at Redd again.
I have mixed thoughts about Brix. On one hand, the scenery is amazing. There is a lovely garden behind the restaurant that made for a nice little walk while waiting for our salads. And the sunset with the view was great, especially since we sat outside.

But. The food wasn't great. It was good, but not great. I had two appetizers instead of an entree - the mussels and the onion pizza. The pizza was not very good, even though I love onions and everything that was on it. I think it might have been undercooked, but it seemed to be browned enough. Other dishes were better but not as good as our previous nights' fare. I would probably not eat at Brix again.

I really wanted to like the Girl and the Fig, but it fell short. The dishes were good but nothing particularly stood out, aside from the cheese platter. Our table also didn't like the pickled figs - maybe we're in the minority but they were pretty gross. I probably wouldn't eat there again for dinner. Maybe for lunch though.
Make reservations. You don't have to, but restaurants get busy quickly and you won't want to wait 3 hours to eat dinner.
Don't be afraid to stay at the bar. If you're not interested in a full meal, sit at the bar and enjoy a drink and appetizer or two.
Keep your wallet open because food and drink will be expensive. It's the way it is! That doesn't mean that you blindly turn over your Amex, but just realize that you will pay more than you expected. You get what you pay for in most cases.