bottega

abysmal. michael chiarello would have been mortified if he had witnessed the despicable service my party of 8 received at his restaurant this past saturday night. my husband and i were giving his place a second chance to redeem itself after our first experience there a couple years ago when we were made to wait for our reserved table for 45 minutes past our scheduled time then ignored by our servers for the balance of the evening only to experience an unremarkable dinner.

so, our group travelled from far and wide and just had to one of try yountville's big name restaurants. for starters, we brought our own magnum of joseph phelps backus cab ($400+ value). we asked for it to be placed on ice so it would be at the appropriate temp for serving after a few minutes. when the world's worst server, scott, finally greeted us after a solid 15 minutes of sitting with no offer of beverages, bread, etc., we had grown anxious about where our wine had gotten off to. scott sent for his wine guy to fetch it, and this chap was so young and inexperienced, it was pathetic. he had no awareness of our wine choice. upon showing us our bottle at our request, he then disappeared to the back of the restaurant with it and returned with two decanters containing our wine. we never saw our wine uncorked, never were offered a taste of the bottle, never were offered the option to decant only a portion of the magnum to keep the bottle at temp, etc. absolute disgrace for any restaurant to lack this etiquette, let alone one in the heart of napa.

our wine was fantastic no thanks to the restaurant, but the service continued to go down hill. no joke, it took 4 requests to finally get bread. the meal wasn't horrible, but left no lasting impressions either.

bottom line, skip this place napa goers. resist the temptation to tell your friends "we went to bottega" out of frommer's peer pressure. the reviewers are brain washed by the whole celebrity chef nonsense. try redd or a picnic from whole foods for that matter before you waste your time at this place for zero reward. please learn from my twice-made mistake. shame on you if you go anyway after my review. it is honestly that bad.

i don't think it was possible for this meal to have been any better. on a scale of 1 to 10, this was at least a 16.

the restaurant is large, but still warm and comforting. even during our mid-week visit the place was packed. we quickly ordered two quartinos of wine and were served a hearty bread with a garlicky olive oil for dipping. the bread was so good that we had to order more to eat with our entrees! looking over the menu, each of the dishes sounded better than the next. looking around the dining room only made it harder - each dish that went by was visually interesting and smelled even better! chiarello really has perfected the "micro-italian" cuisine. luckily, we got some first hand recommendations from the lovely couple next to us who were more than happy to recommend the heirloom tomato and burrata salad, which nick quickly ordered and was so happy he did. in a world where (i have heard) tomatos have lost a little flavor, these were bursting with it!

the dining room manages to give off an elegant but non-pretentious atmosphere, and the high ceilings and open kitchen were very inviting. i was excited when we were seated at a round table in the corner of the dining room. perfect for people watching and seeing what others had at their tables. the leather-bound menu. outdoor patio.  the dining room where we were seated. i loved that the ciabatta bread was served directly on the dining table! so rebellious, if you will. on the side, there is a parmesan chili garlic parsley olive oil and a pot of sea salt. thankfully, the parsley wasn't strong at all. (i despise parsley). insalata del uve, $11: organic greens, verjus vinaigrette, oven-dried grapes, candied hazelnuts, pecorino. a fancier salad with a great balance of citrus and sweet flavors.

this is the best restaurant in napa. the food is served just like in italy, the prices are affordable, and the service is outstanding. great open kitchen concept, busy bar, and outdoor seating.

we started with burrata autunnale (kambocha squash, caramelized mushrooms and shallots, and brown butter vinaigrette). the pesto complemented very nicely the sweetness of the winter squash. the burrata was so creamy and fresh, mouthwatering!

my husband got the goat milk braised pork orecchiette, served with chanterelles, cavalo nero pesto, pine nut gremolata, crispy savoy spinach, and pecorino. it

ate there today for lunch with my wife, it was amazing. from food to service everything was done the right way. the manager greeted us and made sure we were happy with our seats even tho it was a busy day. i have worked in the industry over 15 years and i was very impressed. after reading a few of these comments i was taken back by a few comments, people seem to be very over critical to say the least, why would you not ask for parmesan or pepper? people please don't be afraid to ask for something, or even ask to see a manager if they felt the food was not up to par and a server gives an explanation that you feel offended you. no manager wants to make the guest experience a bad one...sometimes there are just weird people..

bottega - awful customer service. my husband and i walked out because the foh manager treated us so badly.

we had a reservation booked. we arrived. hostess said we were early and was not seating anyone until the reservation time. it was for 1:30 p.m. since we were 7-8 minutes early, per the hostess, we went to the shops to kill some time. we returned right on time. the hostess and the foh manager looked at each other, looked at us and he said "make them wait 2 more minutes". i knew right then and there we were going to be seated by the kitchen door or by the bathroom. another server came up to the stand and was ready to escort us but the foh manager stopped him and said no another place was getting set up. the poor server looked stricken when he looked at us.

sure enough, the table we were shown to was in front of the kitchen door. i looked at the dining room, the number of available tables were numerous. this was on tuesday november 29th. i cannot believe such an insufferably snobby, non customer service manger is representing michael chiarello! i have worked in the restaurant industry for well over 10 years and have never been treated in this manner. if i had an emplolyee like this i would make sure he or she never worked in my employment or my colleague's. competition for every dollar is too fierce especially for restaurants.

my husband and i were looking forward to dining at bottega's when we knew we were going to be visiting san francisco. this was the only bad experience we had during our entire trip.

i will tell everyone to avoid bottega and give them our recommendations on the restaurants we patronized in the three days were were in napa valley.

absolutely great food. my wife and i had dinner here last week and enjoyed the tasty and imaginative menu and a fine wine list. highly recommend to foodies.

the short ribs were tender and i loved the glaze which gave it a rich flavor that brought out the smokiness of the meat. the polenta and speck polpette, which is an italian meatball, were a nice accompaniment to the dish.

bottega on urbanspoonin my mind, i had hyped bottega to an almost unrealistic level of expectations. and yet, bite after bite, it absolutely delivered. the food was beautiful and flavorful, and expertly crafted. often when ashley and i go out to eat we think about ways that we can go back and recreate some of the things we enjoyed. but as we walked out of bottega we knew that the only thing we had any chance of recreating was the simple dip that accompanied our bread. it was the perfect ending to a perfect day in the napa valley.

started out great.... we ordered several apps, bottle of nice wine, an that's where it ended. a couple sat down about a half hour after us and they were finished with their entree's before we were served.... instead of recognizing the error... the waiter wanted to small talk... i'm sure the food is great, we just had the wrong server....

wonderful. the food was amazing, balanced, fresh... the service was fantastic. given unlimited resources, i would eat there every night!!!

overall, we had a great time at bottega. the place definitely fills up fast and i can see why it's so popular. it's centrally located; the food is very good; and it's a fun atmosphere inside. although none of the dishes soared to any new heights to blow us away, all the dishes were very well executed.

celebrity chef michael chiarello’s restaurant has received accolades such as best newcomer by zagat, top 10 by forbes, and top 100 bay area by michael bauer at the san francisco chronicle. the food is amazing here, and recipes for popular dishes like the roasted beets, shaved brussels sprouts salad, and polenta under glass are all in chiarello’s bottega cookbook.

my favorite spot! great patio complete with fireplaces for those chilly wine country nights. great food and great experiences to be had here. top 3 restaurant ever for me!