Napa Rose - Sunday Brunch - September 16, 2001

My husband and I had heard about the Sunday brunch a while back and had wanted to try it so decided to go last Sunday.  The restaurant wasn't very crowded, but given the week's events, I wasn't that surprised.  (When we walked by Storyteller Cafe on the way to Napa Rose, we looked in the windows and in one entire section, there didn't seem to be anyone there.  There were a few occupied tables in another section, but it looked like Napa Rose had more customers even though Storyteller is so much bigger.  But I digress.)

Napa Rose offers a Sunday brunch with varying prices depending on whether you order 2 courses, 3 courses or 4 courses.  They have four separate sections, and the intention is supposed to be that you order one course from each section (if you're ordering 4 courses), but our waiter explained that if we saw two dishes in one section that we liked, we could order 2 from the same section instead of one from each section.  I?m not positive, but I would presume that if you were ordering 2 or 3 courses, you would still have your pick of the menu.

As a starter, both of us had crepes filled with rock shrimp and spinach and some kind of cheese surrounded in a light butter sauce.  Very good.  I don't usually like my food dripping in butter, but the sauce was very light, and I?m not fond of spinach but forgot to ask them to omit it.  Oh well.  There wasn't a lot of spinach so I ate it anyway.

As a second course, we both had field greens in some kind of vinaigrette dressing.  Very tasty.

As a main course, my husband had poached egg on a dungeness crab cake (the dish came with two of them) with some kind of hollandaise sauce and asparagus on the side.  I had eggs any style (I had them over easy) with a German potato pancake and asparagus on the side.  Everything was very tasty.

For dessert, we shared the cappuccino chocolate croissant bread pudding and the fruit plate from the starter section.  The fruit plate is supposed to be a mixture of berries and melons, but since my husband isn't partial to particular berries, they made the plate with just melon (cantaloupe and honeydew) and mango slices.  It was a nice way to cut the bread pudding, which was just excellent.

Brunch doesn't include a beverage, but in addition to the regular beverage choices, you can have unlimited champagne or mimosa for an extra $10.

I've only been to Napa Rose one other time, for dinner back in March.  I loved the decor back then, and I still think it's quite pretty.  The roses on the table match the coloring of the restaurant, the murals of vineyards on the walls are very pretty, and the thornbush bread holder and vine leaf that holds the butter are just cool.  The place does look and feel very different in the daytime than at nighttime, though.  When we were there at dinner, it seemed much more elegant (even though we were dressed casually because we'd spent the day at the parks), and the lighting and ambience added to that feeling.  It's still a nice place in the daytime, but much less formal.

The food was excellent and the service terrific, and I would definitely recommend the Sunday brunch if the food choices are to your liking.  Some friends hadn't been interested in going because after reviewing the menu posted outside, they weren't interested in the items being offered.  I can't say I'd want to go to the brunch often as I pretty much ordered the only things on the menu that sounded good to me, but it's something I can see going to every once in a while.

For other Napa Rose reviews, please click here.

For the current dinner menu offerings, please click here.

For the current Sunday Brunch menu offerings, please click here.

For Napa Rose menu offerings from prior seasons, please click here.

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