The French Laundry - American/French, Yountville

6640 Washington St, Yountville CA 94599
(707) 944-2380
Parking: street parking
https://www.thomaskeller.com/tfl

Last Visited: December 29, 2016

Food: 4 to 5 stars
Atmosphere: 4 stars
Service: 4 to 5 stars
Price: $$$$

Dining at the iconic French Laundry has been on my bucket list for more than a decade, but no matter when I looked at the price, it seemed out of reach.  A bonus at work made this possible and instead of spending it on another material item, I spent it towards this meal, and alas, it was worth it for the experience.  No matter how you calculate it, the food itself will not add up to the menu price, but if you love to experience food, this is something you won't forget.  At the end of the meal, we toured the kitchen, both the working temporary one and the new one yet to be put into service, which made this visit even more special.

The French Laundry only offers a prix-fixe meal which is currently priced at $310 per person, service included, without supplements.  A vegetarian and non-vegetarian tasting menu are available, both at the same price.  If you would like to try supplements like white truffles from Alba (+$175), Royal Kaluga caviar (+$60), and foie gras (+$30) are also available.  There isn't a special wine pairing menu, but they do have an extensive menu of options available.  Tax is not included.

While it typically takes planning about a month in advance and repeated phone calls to acquire one of their exclusive reservations, I managed to find one on Opentable two days before because they happened to add several lunch services during the Christmas/New Year's time frame.   During early to mid-January 2017, they are closed to complete the remaining renovations of their kitchen.

Although the prices are high, the dining room decor and the service don't feel pretentious.  Men are required to wear a jacket; tennis shoes and shorts are not allowed, but aside from that, you wouldn't think it's any different than any other nicer restaurant.   Folded white linens adorn the tables and are clipped with a wood French Laundry clothespin.  Not much else is on the table except for the bottle holder for your water or wine.  As each course arrives at your table, the appropriate silverware will be given to you.

Amuse Bouche

- Warm Puff Pastry with goat cheese - The puff pastry is just a little crispy and the richness from the goat cheese makes this a perfect bite.

- Hamaichi (yellowtail) Tartare Cornet with lime creme fraiche - The finely chopped yellowtail is refreshing and the attention to detail in this dish is crazy.  It comes wrapped in white as though it had wings and sits in a silver holder so that the cornet stands upright.  The crispy cornet is lined with black sesame along its fold giving an extra burst of flavor and the bit of lime in the creme fraiche in the base of the cone makes the next bite have a certain brightness.  I could have easily eaten ten of these.  Probably my favorite bite of the entire meal.

Chef's Tasting Menu

- "Oysters and Pearls" - Sabayon of pearl tapioca with Island Creek oysters and white sturgeon caviar - Dishes like this are probably why some people say the food is salty.  It's caviar - it's naturally salty.  The two oysters from Massachusetts are small, but bursting with the flavor of the sea and very tender - perfectly poached.  The base is made of a egg yolks, creme fraiche, heavy cream, and pearl tapioca and the butter based sauce over the egg is rich and creamy with chives sprinkled on it.  The caviar garnish was generous.  The sauce is also salty as it also contains oyster juice, so if you're not accustomed to it, you might find this dish too rich and too heavy on the salt, but otherwise, the textures are nice; the photo shows the inner bowl of three bowls.  Most dishes were presented this way - a small portion plated on a huge dish for a lot of white space.  When this dish arrives, it is covered by a small ceramic dome which the staff tries to remove for everyone at the same time.  Also, a mother of pearl spoon is provided so as not to affect the taste of the caviar.

After the "oysters and pearls," you receive another item not on the menu - this is the first of the breads available.

- Unsalted butter from Petaluma is provided in the tear drop shaped plate.  The little tower is salted butter from Animal Farm in Orwell, Vermont.  Apparently, the purveyor churns everything by hand and the majority of their butter goes to Thomas Keller restaurants. Remember when butter used to be yellow?  This is really yellow.  The brioche is hot and topped with a few salt flakes.  I could eat more brioche without a second thought - so delicious.

- Hawaiian Hearts of Peach Palm - Compressed sour apple, garden celery root confit, toasted English walnuts, Belgian endive - Everything is so finely cut and the little swirl is the poppyseed dressing.  The flavors in this dish are super light - I wondered why we had such a heavy oyster dish and then transitioned to this light salad.  The walnuts were nicely toasted and salted which gave a good contrast against the tart apple strips.  I wish there had been more dressing on the plate.  Beautifully composed with pieces of different shapes and very delicate, but my least favorite dish.

- Slow cooked fillet of Wild Scottish Sea Trout - Creamed garden cabbage, Black trumpet mushrooms, and "Beurre Rouge" - Beurre rouge is a butter sauce flavored with red wine and port.  The trout is super tender, like having a sashimi version of smoked salmon, but thicker.  The fish medallion is wrapped neatly in a very thin piece of beet making for a lovely presentation of color.  The fish sits atop creamed cabbage which was a bit salty, but the beurre rouge is sweet so together, it's well-balanced.  The two disks on top of the trout are crunchy and seemed liked they were pickled - still not sure what they were, but it reminded me of red cabbage.

- Sweet butter poached Stonington Maine Lobster - Globe artichokes, garden sunchokes, picholine olives, and "Barigoule Emulsion" - This was probably my second favorite dish - it's a close tie with the steak that came after this.  Four pieces of lobster are poached in a rich butter emulsion.  A single bite of artichoke, a roasted sunchoke, and a quarter of a picholine olive also sit in the emultion. While the butter itself is too rich/salty to drink like a soup, it's really tasty to dip a piece of bread into this.  I felt awkward about dipping too much bread, but did get to try it with a couple of pieces.  The lobster was tender and perfectly cooked - so lovely. The sunchoke was also flavorful and had a perfect texture.

- Salmon Creek Farm Kurobuta Pork Jowl - Garden cauliflower, preserved Meyer lemon, watercress, and caper-brown butter jus.  If you like pork belly, you'll appreciate the texture of this pork jowl - just enough fat to make it extra juicy.  The pork was also amazingly tender.  There wasn't a whole lot of cauliflower visible on top of the pork (a little green piece here and a little white piece there) because most of it is in the quinelle of cauliflower puree next to the pork which was super smooth, but pretty bland tasting.  It's a good offset to the caper brown butter jus which was pretty rich and strong.  The preserved meyer lemon quarter slice was perfect between bites to freshen your palate with just a bit of tartness.

- Charcoal grilled Snake River Farms "Calotte de boeuf" - Yukon gold potato "latke," roasted broccoli "panade," garden spinach, and "steak sauce."  I didn't know what a calotte is, but after further research, I learned that it's the ribeye cap which Snake River Farms sells for $99 for 18 ounces.  It's wet aged 28 days and is considered the tastiest cut of the cow.  You can't see from my photo, but this piece is perfectly cooked - medium rare in the center.  Also referred to as TFL's take on steak and potatoes, you can easily taste hints of the charcoal with each bite.  Another piece of perfection when it came to the marbling - you could easily see the layers of meat and fat that made every bite so juicy.  The broccoli panade was okay, but not that exciting.  The rings of potatoes were crispy. The bordelaise sauce went well with the steak, but would be too salty by itself. As I mentioned earlier, this beef was a close tie with the lobster as my second favorite dish.    

- Spring Brook Farm "Ashbrook" - Navel orange mostarda, Marcona Almond "pudding" and Tellicherry Peppercorn Shortbread.  I wasn't too crazy about the shortbread because it wasn't as flaky as sweet shortbread, but I enjoyed this cow's milk cheese from Vermont which was creamy and at first, fruity with tones of a little bit of funky mixed into it as you had more bites. The almond pudding didn't add much to the cheese for me and was very light on its own, but the orange mostarda was a great accompaniment which brought me back to sweet and fruity again as I had my next bite of cheese.

Assortment of Desserts

The tasting of desserts is so impressive as individual servings of four of the desserts are placed before each person and then all of the other items are served family style.  While your eyes are still taking in the abundance of sweets before you, they bring over a beautiful wood box which contains multiple flavors of chocolate truffles for your choosing - it's as though the crown jewels are being presented as each truffle looks like a lovely work of art with its beautiful colors.

- Cream cheese sorbet with whipped mil chocolate and cookie crumble.  This cream cheese sorbet was so tasty with sweet and tart in each bite.  I wish I could get this regularly.  The whipped hot chocolate was creamy and the cookie crumble gave each bite more texture.  Wonderful.

- Panna cotta with cucumber and Aptos kiwi - This was an unexpected dessert because although it was refreshing, it was savory, not sweet.  The panna cotta sat on top of a cake and the cucumbers topping the panna cotta were sliced super thin.  I felt like I was eating more of a finger sandwich than a panna cotta.  The kiwi tasted like they had been salted and this seemed to me more like a palate cleanser than dessert.  Had I known, I would have had this dessert first before transitioning to the sweet items.

- Chocolate Bombe with oil and balsamic vinegar base, and salted caramel ganache - On the website it says that no two flavors are repeated - well, the preserved meyer lemon here was a repeat.  Nevertheless, the oil and balsamic vinegar base was a nice and unusual contrast against the sweet chocolate custard.  The lemon was another offset against the sweetness.  Although the presentation was lovely, this was just ok because it wasn't as special as some of the other items.

- Donuts with cinnamon and sugar - Still warm, these donut holes were light, simple, and delicious.  They paired well with the cappucino semifreddo.  While you can get this type of dessert elsewhere, you can't go wrong with fried dough especially when it's this light - they're reminiscent of Leonard's malasadas in Hawaii.  Very good.

- Cappucino Semifreddo - This was a sweet treat.  Presented like an actual cappucino, this cold dessert was full of coffee flavor and the foam makes it look like an actual cappucino.  You don't really need to order a coffee when you have this instead.  Very good.

- Pineapple Macaroons - These tiny macaroons were pretty much perfect in execution and tasted like pineapple, but fairly standard compared to all of the other items before me. Each person is given one.  You can get a larger version of these at Bouchon Bakery down the street (more info below).

- Chocolate covered macadamia nuts - Who knew that a chocolate covered macadamia nut could be so amazing!  This was my favorite dessert.  Each person is given two, probably because you can't have just one.  A jumbo macadamia nut is roasted and caramelized and roasted.  It's coated in milk chocolate followed by a layer of crunchy feuilletine flakes which gives it a crunchy wafer-like texture, and it's then coated in dark chocolate and chocolate powder. This is the best chocolate covered macadamia nut I have ever had!  The feuilletine flakes are used in French pastries - essentially crunchy pieces of sweetness - typically used in praline recipes - Genius!  Amazing!  After my visit, I found out these can be purchased online or at a store down the street from the restaurant.

- Chocolate truffles - shown here are black sesame in front and pistachio in the rear.  Other flavors included peanut butter and jelly, green tea with passionfruit, and there were probably four other flavors available to select from.  While my black sesame truffle was nicely done, I expected a much stronger black sesame flavor than what I got, but I heard the pistachio one was stronger.

It's easy to say that some of the dishes are salty, but one needs to pair everything with the provided sauce or side to offset the salt. Also, by the time you enjoy dessert, dessert itself is probably an offset.

While you're in Yountville, I would recommend picking up some pastries at Bouchon Bakery.  This too is a Thomas Keller establishment and the line is pretty long any time of day, so get there early and grab some pastries.  By the end of your meal, you'll be so full that you probably won't be thinking about this.  The bread from your meal will also come from Bouchon and if you arrive at the right time, you'll see the bicycle and cart used for delivering the bread.

Tour the French Laundry garden across the street from the restaurant before your meal.  There's a map to show you where everything is located and you're bound to have something from the garden if you dine at the restaurant.


Lastly, if it's of any interest to you, ask for a tour of the kitchen.  You'll see the video feed to Per Se, Thomas Keller's restaurant in New York, and also get a chance to meet the chef and see the different food stations - caviar station, fish station, meat station etc.  It's great if you love operations and food like me.

As we left, we were given a copy of today's menu and a booklet listing French Laundry's purveyors. You can learn about many of the farms and vendors they use.  Note that the lunch menu and dinner menu may not match - the dinner menu is typically what is published online.  We were also given a tin of sweet shortbread for each diner as a souvenir to take home.  It was an amazing once in a lifetime experience that I will certainly remember with fondness.