It is rare that I like an American restaurant, much less one with a big name that requires me to drive 2 hours out of SF. But Thomas Keller, aka French Laundry founding chef, had a pop up restaurant in Napa called Ad Lib (mind you that link might not work in time, since the restaurant is shutting down in mid October.), and Metroman had been there earlier and raved about it. The background behind the story (I think) is that the French Laundry is adding an extension as a kitchen in its flagship restaurant in Yountville, and while it was (and still is) being built, the staff temporarily migrated to what used to be the Royal Oak at the Silverado Resort for this pop up late 2014 or early 2015. It was scheduled to end in March, but somehow it got extended to October. Good for us.
The country club itself seemed a bit stuffy and full of old people, as one would reasonably expect. There was a long circular driveway, and valet parking, but we opted to do self-park instead. The restaurant was not large, seating a maximum of 80 at any one time. We had an alright table, not by the large windows, but it is not like the view was spectacular or anything. The restaurant overlooked the golf course, and we could see a wedding dinner in the distance with nice string lighting. During dusk, it got really pretty, as are most of my favourite views of lights.
Our friends are big eaters. Sometimes it works to our advantage, and sometimes not. This time, I was hungry, and since I figure I'll probably not visit again before it shuts its doors for good, it was nice that we ate a lot. We also went with an Asian-style family meal, sharing pretty much everything. Totally my kind of thing.
We were started off with bread. And I'm totally a sucker for bread. It was a nice fluffy roll, kind of brioche-like, and came with lightly salted butter. Not my favourite bread ever, but not bad. There were 3 specials in the menu, and we got them all. The first was the burrata with almond-buttered bread, figs, some greens, whatever that other stuff is you see on the photo. The figs were really really good. Sweet, fresh, yum. The dish was overall stellar. We got crab cakes, with nice large chunks of crab meat which I like. For our mains, the ribeye, pork special (came with figs too!), salmon and filet mignon. I loved everything save the salmon, which was of great quality but rather ordinary for its kind. Since we each chose one, our friend who made his choice last thought it would have been unique to order the lamb for an all-meat dinner, but so be it. For the sides, we got the fried green beans special (super yummy), mac and cheese (super yummy too), crispy potatoes with bacon (not bad but not exactly very crispy) and wilted spinach (Lingon asked if wilted spinach meant bad spinach which was quite cute and funny).
For dessert, despite being extremely full, we got 4 desserts. Creme brulee, chocolate cake, banana split and coconut cake. The banana split was unanimously the favourite, and for me it was because of the caramelized banana, though the ice cream was just OK. The coconut cake seemed to be the least favourite, with around a third of it left on the plate.
I think it helped that the food was in a sense comfort food, just as is, not a lot of sauces, garnishes, very high quality and fresh. The one disappointment I had was the anticipation of the beef wellington, which I have never had, and looked amazing in the photos and received rave reviews on Yelp, and when we got there it was no mas. :-(
Otherwise, wow, great job Ad Lib.
The country club itself seemed a bit stuffy and full of old people, as one would reasonably expect. There was a long circular driveway, and valet parking, but we opted to do self-park instead. The restaurant was not large, seating a maximum of 80 at any one time. We had an alright table, not by the large windows, but it is not like the view was spectacular or anything. The restaurant overlooked the golf course, and we could see a wedding dinner in the distance with nice string lighting. During dusk, it got really pretty, as are most of my favourite views of lights.
Our friends are big eaters. Sometimes it works to our advantage, and sometimes not. This time, I was hungry, and since I figure I'll probably not visit again before it shuts its doors for good, it was nice that we ate a lot. We also went with an Asian-style family meal, sharing pretty much everything. Totally my kind of thing.
We were started off with bread. And I'm totally a sucker for bread. It was a nice fluffy roll, kind of brioche-like, and came with lightly salted butter. Not my favourite bread ever, but not bad. There were 3 specials in the menu, and we got them all. The first was the burrata with almond-buttered bread, figs, some greens, whatever that other stuff is you see on the photo. The figs were really really good. Sweet, fresh, yum. The dish was overall stellar. We got crab cakes, with nice large chunks of crab meat which I like. For our mains, the ribeye, pork special (came with figs too!), salmon and filet mignon. I loved everything save the salmon, which was of great quality but rather ordinary for its kind. Since we each chose one, our friend who made his choice last thought it would have been unique to order the lamb for an all-meat dinner, but so be it. For the sides, we got the fried green beans special (super yummy), mac and cheese (super yummy too), crispy potatoes with bacon (not bad but not exactly very crispy) and wilted spinach (Lingon asked if wilted spinach meant bad spinach which was quite cute and funny).
For dessert, despite being extremely full, we got 4 desserts. Creme brulee, chocolate cake, banana split and coconut cake. The banana split was unanimously the favourite, and for me it was because of the caramelized banana, though the ice cream was just OK. The coconut cake seemed to be the least favourite, with around a third of it left on the plate.
I think it helped that the food was in a sense comfort food, just as is, not a lot of sauces, garnishes, very high quality and fresh. The one disappointment I had was the anticipation of the beef wellington, which I have never had, and looked amazing in the photos and received rave reviews on Yelp, and when we got there it was no mas. :-(
Otherwise, wow, great job Ad Lib.
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