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Open: 5pm-10pm, Thursday - Monday. Also open for Sunday brunch 10am-1pm
Reservation required? Yes
Last barlinwine.com visit: 2011
Directions:
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The Meal:
Oh Thomas Keller, we were so excited to visit your latest restaurant creation! We had decided that for the foreseeable future that we weren't willing to spend $1000 on one dinner at the French Laundry, especially given that Greg is all about "good food" and not into tiny froo froo portions that look nice. However, I've continued to be intrigued by Thomas Keller, long considered one of the best, if not the best, chef in the country. So, it seemed like a perfect opportunity when he opened Ad Hoc. The restaurant was originally opened in 2007 as a temporary restaurant that would be open 5 days a week serving one four course meal for the community. The response was so positive that they decided to open permanently and have been serving Napa ever since. They are known for comfort food served family style with the buttermilk fried chicken being their most popular dish. But here's the catch: you have no idea what's going to be on the menu until some time the same day (click to see today's menu!). Given reservations need to be made days or weeks in advance, you leave your choice of meal completely in the hands of the restaurant.
The menu is normally posted online in the afternoon for the evening dinner. We were dying to know what we were going to be served and kept checking with no luck. So, after our tasting at Hope and Grace up the street we wandered down to Ad Hoc to look at the menu for the evening. We were really excited to see that we would be served the beef short rib. We had purchased some great wine at Baldacci earlier that day that would go perfect with slow cooked red meat for the $25 corkage.
We arrived and were seated right away and started on our wine. We were shown the menu and decided to add on one course of the fish of the day, the halibut. We had eaten some great short rib and halibut during the trip so were super excited to see what TK's kitchen would do with them. While waiting we commented on how we liked the feel of the restaurant - it is comfortable and open with lots of windows. The tables are pretty close together but you still feel like you have enough space to talk. The waitstaff wears work shirts and seems really relaxed and happy to be there, and the menu is a single sheet of paper fastened in a simple file folder. We felt quite at home.
After about 30 minutes of drinking wine and eating yummy fresh bread our waitress came to apologize for the delay in the arrival of our salad. We hadn't gotten worked up about the time and when it came it was worth the wait. The salad was romaine hearts with chicken salad, blue cheese and cherry tomatoes with a blue cheese dressing. It was delicious! Next came the short rib and halibut. The halibut was truly delicious. The short rib, on the other hand, fell quite short. It was sliced fairly thin -- almost like you would slice a ham -- and wasn't the fall apart tender meat we were used to. On top of that, it was almost cold! The sides it was served with, summer squash and oven browned potatoes were quite good but the meat itself was a complete disappointment. Luckily, after that the meal did improve. Our cheese course came with complimentary glasses of rose to make up for our wait and the dessert, the vanilla bean panna cotta, was my top dessert of the week-long trip.
Overall, Ad Hoc is a great deal for wine country. The four course menu was $52 a person plus and extra $15 or so for the fish course, and the quantity of food is massive. We left a bit let down by the cold short rib that fell well short of expectations, but at least we hadn't blown a French Laundry type budget on it. We'd love to go back for fried chicken night but since you never know what they'll serve, I think that next time we'll try Addendum for lunch. This add-on storefront next door offers boxed lunches of Ad Hoc's fried chicken or BBQ for $16.50 on Thursday - Saturday.
Ratings (out of 5):
The menu is normally posted online in the afternoon for the evening dinner. We were dying to know what we were going to be served and kept checking with no luck. So, after our tasting at Hope and Grace up the street we wandered down to Ad Hoc to look at the menu for the evening. We were really excited to see that we would be served the beef short rib. We had purchased some great wine at Baldacci earlier that day that would go perfect with slow cooked red meat for the $25 corkage.
After about 30 minutes of drinking wine and eating yummy fresh bread our waitress came to apologize for the delay in the arrival of our salad. We hadn't gotten worked up about the time and when it came it was worth the wait. The salad was romaine hearts with chicken salad, blue cheese and cherry tomatoes with a blue cheese dressing. It was delicious! Next came the short rib and halibut. The halibut was truly delicious. The short rib, on the other hand, fell quite short. It was sliced fairly thin -- almost like you would slice a ham -- and wasn't the fall apart tender meat we were used to. On top of that, it was almost cold! The sides it was served with, summer squash and oven browned potatoes were quite good but the meat itself was a complete disappointment. Luckily, after that the meal did improve. Our cheese course came with complimentary glasses of rose to make up for our wait and the dessert, the vanilla bean panna cotta, was my top dessert of the week-long trip.
Overall, Ad Hoc is a great deal for wine country. The four course menu was $52 a person plus and extra $15 or so for the fish course, and the quantity of food is massive. We left a bit let down by the cold short rib that fell well short of expectations, but at least we hadn't blown a French Laundry type budget on it. We'd love to go back for fried chicken night but since you never know what they'll serve, I think that next time we'll try Addendum for lunch. This add-on storefront next door offers boxed lunches of Ad Hoc's fried chicken or BBQ for $16.50 on Thursday - Saturday.
Recommended food:Given the nature of their menu, we only got to try the one meal, but the panna cotta was amazing.
Ratings (out of 5):
 FOOD | 4.00 |  SERVICE | 3.50 |
 ATMOSPHERE | 4.50 |  VALUE | 4.75 |
 OVERALL | 4.19 | ||
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