Napa and Sonoma Wine Tasting: Cyrus (4.63)

http://www.cyrusrestaurant.com/

Open: Dinner Thursday-Monday starting at 5:30pm. Lunch is served now on Saturdays as well.

Reservation required? Yes for the dining room, no for the bar. Click below to reserve a table:

Last barlinwine.com visit: 2011

Directions:

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The Meal:

We first ate at Cyrus, a two Michelin star-rated restaurant, two years ago. We had contemplated French Laundry but felt there were so many good places to eat in wine country that we didn’t want to spend our whole eating budget at one place. That being said, Cyrus isn’t cheap. However, we think that for the quality and experience it is well worth the money. One month following our visit to Cyrus we ate at Chicago’s famed Charlie Trotter’s and felt that Cyrus was above and beyond better food and value.

Cyrus is located in Healdsburg and shares a building (but has its own entrance) with the Hotel Les Mars. Diners enter into the bar, where the maître d' stands before a curtain that shields the fine dining room from prying eyes. Tables are closely set together in the French dining style, and the dining room is impeccably lit. On our first visit, we learned that the owner also has either a background or an interest (the wine makes the end of night conversation somewhat hazy) in theater lighting, and he had the restaurant lit the same way. Each table is subtley highlighted, leaving the areas between tables noticeably darker and creating a mini "island of light" for your dining experience.

Cyrus offers two tasting options: an eight course or five course degustation menu for $130pp or $105pp respectively. There are also vegetarian options for each and a wine pairing for an additional $130 for the 8-course menu. Within each tasting menu are choices: e.g. short rib or lamb remoulade for the meat course. Assuming you're not dining at Cyrus alone, or you don't have an aversion to sharing (that means you, Ben Miraski), I recommend getting one of each choice between two people and sharing so you can try everything on the menu.

The food and presentation is always exquisite. Highlights of our most recent visit include the 46 hour slow cooked short rib and the chicken served over a sweet onion compote. My favorite part of the meal are the carts. On arriving you are greeted with the caviar and champagne cart and are given the option of adding this as a starter to your meal for an additional cost. After the meat course comes the cheese cart consisting of probably 20 cheeses from both local and international farms. Your server prepares you a plate of three cheeses with a tray of accompaniments. Following two more dessert courses comes the candy tray. On leaving Cyrus you are given a cute box with a homemade brownie to take home. You can add anything from the candy tray to eat then or take with you. We opted for a dark chocolate salted caramel, toffee and coconut macaroon to go.

The service is always impeccable. We mentioned that we were celebrating my husband’s birthday so between our cheese and dessert courses they brought out two chocolate chip cookies under a glass dome attached to a valve with an inflated balloon. They asked Greg to turn the valve and the balloon deflated, showering chocolate shaving confetti inside the dome. On leaving, we were also presented with a copy of the menu. Our 8-course meal for two with two glasses of white wine, one bottle of WesMar Balletto Pinot Noir, one glass of Madeira and one decaf cappuccino was just over $500. Quite pricey but we felt it was still pretty wonderful and worth the expense. Cyrus is certainly a special occasion spot and worth the visit at least once.