Wine Spectator Greystone - SAINT HELENA

Fabulous food and service. The waiter was attentive and knowledgeable. Great experience again.

1/23/16: Nestled in wine country, and taught in what looks to be a castle, you can only expect to experience the best from the students at this chef school. Or so I thought. My gf has been looking into schools for a while, and so while we were really looking forward to eating here, we also wanted to see the potential of school. Sadly, we were far from impressed. I wanted to give this place more stars just for the clear effort of the student chefs and servers. However, if this place is meant to be a taste of the real world, I decided I should stay true to my purpose and give them what they deserve. Two stars. That 's it. $85 each person. Plus $50 for each wine pairing. The meal was expensive, and thus I expect that level of excellence. For instance, compared to Terra, a Michelin starred restaurant, I could have paid a tad more and gotten substantially far better executed food. But here, it definitely felt like I was eating the food of students still learning. Here 's what we had: Amuse: Local Swordfish Ceviche watermelon radish, Hakurei turnips salad burnet, Seneca blue dancing bear tortilla : As I took my first bite, at first I thought they got some sand in there, but I quickly realized that fancy tortilla was rock hard. Also, the fancy ceviche had no distinctive flavor. 2/10 First Course: 'Just Dug ' Carrots 3-Ways Chantanay carrot-ginger-cardamom soup... Nantes carrot flan, spiced pepitas... rainbow carrot chips homemade goat cheese : This one actually tasted good, though again, despite the amazing sounding ingredients, it just wasn 't that great. The soup was spicy and tasty. The flan was a nice idea. The chips and homemade cheese was alright. But one problem: where 's the carrot!? Can 't taste any at all. 5/10 Second Course: Seared Wild Quinault River Steelhead wilted swisshchard, preserved tomato-sorrel sauce, lightly pickled chard stems : Skin was mushy. Mine was mostly raw while my gf 's was medium-well. Need I say more? 3/10 Third Course: Asian Egg Noodles Braised Short Rib vegetable slaw, spicy broth, micro cilantro : Plating looked like something my mom would plop in front of me, but anyway, it tasted alright. The noodles were ultra al dente, but my gf liked it that way. The short rib was actually quite good--very tender and juicy. However, it lacked flavor. Overall it didn 't taste Asian either. 5/10 Main Course: Pan Roasted Sonoma Duck Breast orange braised leeks, sauteed fava leaves toasted hazelnuts, winter squash puree and rutabaga 'pomme fondant ' : This was actually very good. Duck was super ultra tender and flavorful. I would have to take a few points though for the mushy skin. No crispness at all. I really liked the gravy too--lots of flavor. The rest was interesting and cool 8/10 Tisane: Campus Oroblanco Grapefruit, Lemon Verbena Wild Flower Honey: Never had a tisane course before! I like it. Refreshing, both to my palate and also to the meal. 7/10 Dessert: Preserved Campus Grown Pink Pearl Apple Cake farm celery root mousse, red beet homemade fromage blanc ice cream : Like a lot here, had potential but execution failed the ingredients and idea. The cake was yummy, but served cold it felt harder than it was, and didn 't let the fancy ingredients blossom. I didn 't share her enthusiasm for the ice cream, but my gf the not too sweet girl like it. Did taste some beet, and it wasn 't bad. That chip thing on top was great--an original way to add some savoriness to dessert. 5/10 You have a long way to go CIA students. I just wish I wasn 't charged a Michelin star price to be a guinea pig. Food aside, the place has a beautiful ambiance and the entire staff is very pleasant and attentive. Everyone from the chefs, to waiters, to even the hostess are students in training. Only the main chef is a professional, and even he attended to us. Great job on the service. Oh! And a particularly nice touch was that they gave a departing gift of Locally Foraged Persimmon Roasted Winter Squash Muffins with walnuts. Ate them the next morning for breakfast--yummy! Thanks, really nice of you Conservatory! 2/5 #american #americanfusion #sainthelena #napa

We ended up in St Helena for knee surgery (f you need it check out Coons Joint Replacement Institute, they are really good). Anyway ended up eating at the CIA restaurant. We were there in winter so not too busy, but meals were quite good. We would be happy to go back (if no new knee replacements were involved). Go during the day too. They have a fabulous kitchen shop and an amazing museum of corkscrews, the building itself is amazing. Hey, they're not paying me, that's what we experienced.

I'm only giving a two star review because they're closing! I'm so disappointed... After many years of enjoying this restaurant every time we visited Napa I cannot believe they are closing. It was obviously a financial success, I don't know why the New York executives decided it was a good idea to close just to open their other restaurant in downtown Napa. It really would make more sense to have this restaurant to send people to the other location as it was much better known. Part of the magic of visiting CIA is to have students prepare a meal as we brought friends to enjoy, I no doubt that we will be stopping at CIA at all in the future.

What trip wouldn't be complete without going to the CIA? And when I say CIA, I actually mean the Culinary Institute of America. Though I didn't see any international spies here I did get some tasty food from today's young and rising stars. If you happen to be in Napa Valley, I definitely recommend going to Wine Spectator Greystone if you get a chance to stop by their campus. Here are the pros: Pretty tasty and flavorful food Great customer service; the wait staff was super friendly You're helping a great organization. No tipping, but the automatic service charge ~18% on top of the bill goes to a good cause scholarships for students at the Culinary Institute Price is fairly reasonable $15 $26 per dish for Napa Valley prices Here are some cons: Limited hours: They're only open for lunch Mon to Sat, from 11:30 am 2 pm . Though it was definitely not busy at 11:30 am on a Monday, it's still best to plan ahead and book a table online Portion sizes were a tad small but the plating was very pretty Details on my food order: Game Hen, Brussels sprouts with bacon, gnocchi $26 : The game hen was cooked perfectly! The meat was tender and juicy the epitome of savory goodness. The shredded brussel sprouts added a nice, crunchy bitterness, too. Additionally, the gnocchi was pretty good and fairly fluffy Glass of White Wine $14 : Light and refreshing with my meal I guess the saying goes: When in Rome aka. Napa Valley in this scenario , get at least a glass of wine! If I ever return to Napa Valley in the future, I would try out some of their other dishes.