Ad Hoc (Yountville, CA) [2]

Ad Hoc
6476 Washington St
Yountville, CA 94599
Dining date: 7/2/16

There’s plenty of good restaurants in the Napa Valley, but for me a trip just doesn’t feel complete without a stop at a Thomas Keller establishment. There would be no French Laundry on this brief trip, but a stop here at the more casual Ad Hoc was in order. The restaurant serves a 4-course fixed menu for $52, although there’s regularly a supplemental dish offered as well. Since the menu isn’t published until the morning of the meal, it’s a little bit of a crapshoot depending on what you’re looking for. We lucked out this time as this evening’s menu featured steak – a ribeye to be exact.

Warm Potato Salad frisee, eggs mimosa, pickled red onions, beets, whole grain mustard dressing

Potato salad was the first course and surprisingly was a highlight. The potatoes were still slightly crispy, served warm, with fresh frisee and bright acidity from the dressing and pickled onions.

2012 Modicum St. Helena

We dipped into a half bottle of red wine to pair with the upcoming meat.

Double R Ranch Grilled Ribeye sauteed mushrooms & kale, creamy anson mills grits, a-4 sauce

The steak had good beef flavor, juicy and pretty tender. It was served with a beef and chicken jus sauce to add some extra depth. I thought the steak was a little on the fatty side though, with large pockets of fat, and a bit smaller than expected. The kale and grits sides were both good.

Shrimp Fra Diavolo spaghetti, spicy red sauce, parmesan

The supplement this evening, this pasta had a nice chew absorbing the spicy red tomato sauce. The sauce had a lot of olive flavor to it, which I didn’t really care much for. The prawns were great though – sweet and springy.

Cowgirl Creamery’s Mt. Tam stone fruit compote, focaccia

We moved into the cheese course with the creamy Mt. Tam balancing well with the fruit compote on crusty focaccia.

Peanut Butter Blondie toasted peanuts, chantilly

Blondies were served room temperature with a dollop of chantilly cream. There was a rich peanut flavor with added richness from the cream.

The meal at Ad Hoc had its ups and downs, but was pretty good overall. It probably missed high expectations though, I wanted a little more from the steak and pasta. The wine was damn good, though.