Fine dining without the pretense—that’s one of the ways La Toque positions itself, a tall order when one considers all the Napa restaurant has to offer. Welcoming and uber-efficient service, warm ambience, Michelin-level cuisine (it was awarded a star for 14 years straight through 2021). Heck, its wine cellar earned a Grand Award from Wine Spectator, recognizing restaurants with the finest curated wine programs, one of only 11 bestowed currently in the Bay Area. La Toque’s reputation as one of Napa’s destination restaurants is hard earned.
Still, there’s modesty to La Toque that’s refreshing among Wine Country’s many well-heeled restaurants. It’s calm. It’s cozy. And it doesn’t rest on its laurels. That no doubt starts with chef/owner Ken Frank, who founded the first incarnation of the restaurant in Los Angeles in 1979, before moving to Rutherford in 1998 and, a decade later, to its current location at the Westin Verasa hotel in downtown Napa. More than 45 years in, Frank still leads the kitchen—you’ll see him and the crew working away through the dining room windows to the kitchen—and chatting with guests when he finds a moment.
La Toque offers a choice of a tasting experience or ordering from the a la carte menu—where twice-cooked octopus and red snapper share space with tenderloin carpaccio and New York strip Wagyu. The tasting menu, which we sampled, kicks off with amuse bouches, including chickpea fries (with a tangy labneh dipping sauce), cauliflower velouté, bluefin tartare and pachuca pasty—delightful small bites to whet appetites for the six tasting courses to follow. The tastings on our visit began with matsutake mushrooms in a savory kombu broth, followed by roasted New England monkfish, the latter served in a decadent lobster sauce (the table sourdough from Acme Bread in Berkeley came in handy for polishing off the lobster sauce). A bowl of tagliatelle followed—bolstered by duck confit in a rich brown butter espuma, a foamy sauce that livens an already succulent dish.
While La Toque is known for its French-inspired cuisine, the restaurant’s wine program is among the most notable in wine country. With a current roster of about 2,300 selections, according to our server, choice is almost overwhelming—the wine list at the restaurant’s website breaks down into 38 separate category pages; and just for an example, the Napa AVA cabs number around 70 alone—and that’s just one of 13 cab AVAs from this area on the list (!) All of which means Wine Director Christina Stanley has a broad swath of selections to choose from in pairing the menu. Piedmont, Burgundy, Tokaj were all represented on our visit, though the highlight was an aromatic 2018 Napa cab from Neyers Vineyards in Oakville. (Our server mused about the time they removed Napa cab from the pairings menu and the regulars revolted.)
The Neyers cab was well paired with a cut of New Zealand red deer, the medallion of venison seared to savory perfection and served with a green peppercorn sauce that also blended well with accompanying stuffed cabbage and silky pureed potatoes, prepared in the signature style of late chef Joel Robuchon.
The meal rounded off with servings of fleur du maquis—a rich Corsican sheep’s milk cheese—and apple caramel Paris-Brest, a wheel-shaped pastry (first made in 1910 in honor of the renowned French bicycle race) filled with caramel cream and candied hazelnuts alongside a scoop of cookie-butter ice cream. You won’t leave hungry.
A lasting impression—aside from the quality of the cuisine—were of the minor details. Visits from servers were frequent, but brief and unobtrusive. Cutlery is designed with tiny disfigurements. Moist hand towels appear at just the right moment. Such small touches are the difference between a good meal and a great one.
In French, La Toque translates to chef’s hat. May Chef Frank don his for another 45.
La Toque
1314 McKinstry St.
Napa CA 94559
707-257-5157
Latoque.com
Hours: Wednesday through Sunday, opens at 5:30 p.m.
Did You Know?
The hazelnut-cream-filled Paris-Brest pastry was first made by chef Louis Durand in 1910 to commemorate the Paris-Brest-Paris bicycle race. Its circular shape is intended to mirror a bicycle wheel. The high sugar content of the treat was thought to provide energy for riders in the long-distance race—imagine today if Tour de France racers gobbled up a jelly donut every stage.
