Solbar Calistoga

We were very ambitious during our Napa trip and ended up visiting two wineries in the morning after our large breakfast at The Chanric Inn. For lunch, we made reservations at Solbar, a Michelin-starred restaurant in the Solage Hotel:

It was getting hot that afternoon and we opted to sit inside in the shade instead of sitting outside by the pool, where it was too sunny (we didn’t wear enough sunscreen to sit outside!) The inside was still very nice and had high ceilings and a very open layout. We started with a refreshing Arnold Palmer:

I ordered the corn soup for an appetizer, which ended up being a really good choice because it was a light and refreshing chilled soup that had the perfect texture (I’m thinking it was a puree of fresh corn and potatoes):

Ken started with a beet salad that we shared:

For Ken’s main course, he ordered the soft shell crab sandwich with chips:

While I ordered the shrimp noodle wraps with a sweet and sour pomelo sauce:

I really enjoyed the shrimp wraps but they did a poor job removing the shrimp shells from the shrimp and I kept biting into shells that were secretly still on the other side of the shrimp! The waiter noticed how many shells I had removed and placed to the site of my plate and brought out the chef to apologize — and they even brought me more shrimp wraps because of their mistake!

After our lunch, we walked around the grounds of the hotel, which are like little separate houses perfect enough for a small family:

It was a super cute afternoon and just the right amount of food to tide us over until our dinner (and to help us get through the afternoon of more wine tastings!)