The French Laundry - Yountville
The main downstairs dining room
Rating: 18/20
Where: Yountville, California
When: Dinner for 4 on 19 October 2023
Cost per Person: Tasting menu $390
Accolades: 3 Michelin Stars, #1 on Top 50 Restaurants list (2003, 2004)
Why: American cuisine reimagined using French techniques, consistently high quality execution, great service
“The French Laundry” is probably the most famous fine-dining restaurant in the United States. Owned by chef Thomas Keller since 1994, it has held three stars continuously since the Michelin Guide came to California in 2006.
The restaurant is located in Yountville in the heart of the wine growing region of Napa Valley, about an hour’s drive north of San Francisco. Several nearby boutique hotels and upscale restaurants cater to well-heeled tourists, and it’s likely that The French Laundry (TFL) blazed the trail for many of them.
Searching Google for “french laundry review” shows over 100 million hits, so it's fair to assume that the world doesn't really need another one. And given how notoriously difficult it is to get a reservation, TFL is probably review-proof anyway. But the restaurant has a special place in my heart - it was the first three-starred restaurant I ever went to (in 2007) and I've returned about a dozen times since. So while this is not my usual wide-eyed take on a first visit to a restaurant, I can comment on consistency and changes over time.
The restaurant offers two tasting menus, one of them vegetarian, that change slightly every day. There is also an extended menu that used to be semi-secret, but can now be booked directly on Tock. I've never been tempted to order the longer menu since the regular one already left me feeling fairly full. Maybe after running a marathon one day... A couple of courses on the menu have upgrade options available for an additional charge, for example a truffle dish or wagyu beef. But what might not be immediately apparent is that the menu is even more customizable. One can choose dishes from both menus, or if one doesn't like a particular course, there are plenty of off-menu options as well - it really doesn't hurt to ask. One of us received an unlisted shima aji dish that reportedly was excellent. With this much flexibility, it's (almost) no surprise that there is no fixed wine pairing. But the sommeliers are happy to create one on the fly, based on how much one wants to drink, any personal preferences, and (somewhat importantly) how much money one intends to spend. TFL has one of the most extensive selections of half-bottles I've ever seen in a restaurant, so opening a bottle or two makes sense even for a party of two. That way, we’ve frequently been introduced to excellent Napa wine producers that we hadn't heard of before. Recommended.
At first glance, the French Laundry and its sibling Per Se are the most conservative among the three-Michelin-starred restaurants in the United States. The menu follows a very rigid, traditional French course progression: amuse bouche, salad, fish, seafood, white meat, red meat, cheese, dessert. The un-Californian “jacket required” dress code was abandoned only recently.
But looking a bit more carefully, one notices small signs of whimsy. It's called the French Laundry, after the building's function before it became a restaurant. The napkin is held by a wooden clothespin, the lamps in the dining room have laundry symbols embossed on them, and the bill is hand-written on a laundry tag.
And what makes the TFL decidedly not-old-school-French are the inspirations it takes from traditional American cooking. Anyone grown up in the United States will recognize dishes from their childhood, albeit with a fine-dining twist. Some examples from prior visits: “Mac and Cheese” was reimagined with hand-made pasta and shaved truffles. “Peas and Carrots” was the name of a dish where the vegetables came with rabbit. A halibut in tomato sauce felt like a fancy version of Campbell's Tomato Soup with fish. And you're unlikely to find a “peanut butter and jelly” macaroon in a restaurant in France. This is what gives the restaurant a sense of place.
The American connection is done subtly, so it's entirely possible to enjoy a meal here without noticing it. In fact, today's meal had fewer overt adaptions of American dishes than usual. I’m not sure whether that's an outlier or a new direction for the kitchen. The only blatantly obvious such dish was a “meatloaf [with] mashed potatoes” on the vegetarian menu of all places, so clearly not a literal adaptation.
Every meal at the French Laundry begins the same way. First, we received a cornet filled with a smoked salmon mousse, creme fraiche and an “everything bagel” seasoning. Playfully called “bagels and lox”, it was quite good. The first bite tasted primarily of smoked salmon with “everything” seasoning. On succeeding bites, the creme fraiche and slightly sweet cracker dominated. Many restaurants around the world serve some version of this dish that looks deceptively like an ice cream cone, and TFL's is among the best there is. It was creamy, crunchy, savory, sweet, fishy, and balancing all of these without letting one taste or texture dominate. Also, the ratio of cracker to filling was perfect. But there were some nitpicks: the original pure salmon version is better - I found the smoked salmon mousse a bit too creamy, giving it not enough contrast to the creme fraiche. Good, but not great 18. It also doesn't help that I finally encountered a superior version of this dish halfway around the world.
Next to the cornice came a “cheese cracker”, made to resemble a Ritz cracker filled with cream cheese. Unlike the original, this one was crusted with crispy shallots. Its great crunch and nice onion flavor made this another winner 18.
Third in TFL’s unchangeable opening sequence was Keller's signature dish “Oysters and Pearls”. Two butter-poached oysters were served with a sabayon containing tapioca pearls and caviar. Rightfully a signature dish, it started the tasting menu with a bang. Full of flavor, it balanced the heavier, buttery custard with the lighter oysters and caviar. Some acidity helped in making this dish seem less heavy. Whereas these days one might associate tapioca pearls mainly with boba tea, their texture here was much softer, and the pearls quite small, giving the dish more creaminess without adding any fat. Very good 19. In the past I've seen caviar preparations available to replace this dish (for a surcharge), but trust me, stick with the original.
Next, a salad course: chicories, pomegranate seeds, roasted pumpkins, a buttermilk panna cotta, a pumpkin vinaigrette and a cracker tuile. When hearing “pumpkins” in the fall in the United States, one can be forgiven for expecting a sweet-ish dish. This course made an unexpected flip: the salad portion of the dish turned out to be quite savory, while the cracker on the side was sweet. An interesting choice, but while the cracker was nicely crunchy, in my mind it almost seemed to belong to a different dish, possibly even a dessert - it was just that sweet. Equally questionable was the little panna cotta, which had a nice texture, but not much taste besides a hint of sweetness. The salad itself, however, was very good, among the best second courses I've ever had at TFL. I used to half-jokingly suggest that the salad course was purposefully underwhelming so that people would be forced to upgrade to the (usually superior) foie gras alternative. Well, foie gras is now illegal in California, so there is no more reason to treat the salad course as a second citizen, and it showed. Nicely sauced, with a not-too-sweet pumpkin in various textures, it was very good indeed 18.
Following the traditional TFL menu pattern, two seafood courses came next. First, a tuna tartare served with an avocado mousse, cucumbers (pickled and raw) and a nicoise olive vinaigrette. The chopped tuna was lovely, and the creamy, flavorful avocado downright amazing. Interestingly, the vinaigrette was not only salty, but also slightly spicy with a hint of jalapenos, enhancing the flavors of the other ingredients. The pickles added a bit of acidity and crunch to the dish - quite interesting. Yes, this was based on a traditional tuna tartare with avocados, but the pickles faintly suggested a tuna sandwich, and the olives a Mediterranean salad. Whatever the influences, this dish stood on its own, and quite successfully so. Delicious 19.
Butter-poached lobster from Nova Scotia was served with a small carrot, a carrot puree, a saffron-carrot butter and a chickpea panisse. The lobster had a lovely buttery flavor, but was a bit too chewy for my taste - however, not everybody at our table agreed on the chewiness, so maybe I just had a bad piece. The saffron-carrot sauce was also very nice and went great with the lobster. Less impressive was the carrot mousse - it was ok, but reminded me a bit too much of infant-style carrot puree, nothing special in other words. Out of the world was the perfectly cooked carrot, not too sweet but bursting with carrot flavor (20 by itself). Overall 18.
TFL's stand-alone bread course was a brioche laminated with bitter cocoa, baked by Keller's Bouchon Bakery just down the street. Served warm, this was a nice enough brioche, but maybe a tad too fatty 17. A bit of a head-scratcher is that this bread course hasn't changed one bit since it was introduced a few years ago. Surely the bakery is able to make other kinds of bread besides a cocoa-swirl brioche?
On to the first of two meat courses. A chicken rillette (similar to ground, compressed chicken meat) was paired with a fried slice of a chanterelle mushroom, Arrowhead spinach and a matsutake mushroom remoulade. The chicken was nicely spiced, the chanterelle mushroom delicate - lighter in texture than I had expected -, and the matsutake mousse light in consistency, but full of flavor. Only the ball of spinach was a bit plain compared to the rest of the dish 18. There was an option to replace this dish with a risotto incorporating white Alba truffles - maybe a superior dish, but at an additional cost of $220 also prohibitively expensive, so we passed on it.
The final savory course for me was a charcoal grilled wagyu steak served with a bordelaise sauce, a potato puree, an onion ring and a slice of wagyu kilbasa sausage. This particular example of wagyu fell in the “good, not great” category - the flavor was quite nice, but the texture was unfortunately a bit stringy. Much better was the kilbasa - an amazingly flavorful slice of sausage. Also great: the potato puree. With this much to like, it was almost possible to overlook the overly fried onion ring 18. The wagyu was a $135 upgrade over a lamb dish. Based on a bite of the excellent lamb, I’m not sure it was worth splurging for the beef. Which is interesting, since in the past I've found the upgrades generally to be far superior to what they replace.
The “cheese course” was a gougere filled with comte cheese and surrounded by a cheese fondue seasoned with black truffles. A fine dish - cheesy, but with hardly any truffle flavor. Oddly, just like the bread, this course doesn't seem to change over time. I've had far superior cheese courses at TFL in the (more distant) past, so I wonder why the kitchen has been stuck with this one for so long 16.
Then, a fireworks of mini-desserts, all served in short succession. Hojicha tea ice cream was topped with popped forbidden rice and had both a wonderful hojicha flavor and a nice crunch thanks to the rice 18. Poached pears with vanilla were light in flavor, and a toasted brioche added a pleasantly crunchy texture 16. TFL's version of a Ferrero Rocher was filled with chocolate mousse, but sadly the nuts and chocolate coating had less crunch than in its famous inspiration 17. “Coffee and Donuts” was an excellent coffee ice cream paired with decent cinnamon dusted donut holes 17.
Several smaller bites were served on the side. Maple macaroons reminded me more of chocolate macaroons, and were a bit plain 15. Caramelized and chocolate-covered macadamia nuts were excellent though, with a great crunch. I miss the times when you got to take some home 19. Equally good was a caramel bonbon that had a bit of an acidic fruit flavor (passion fruit maybe?) 19.
Finally, a collection of eight chocolate pralines. When given such a wide choice, the correct answer is to pick all of them, and take home whatever one can’t finish. A white chocolate/guava/passion fruit/macadamia praline had a light crunch, and its sweetness was nicely balanced by some acidity 18. I'm not generally a fan of peanut butter, but the peanut butter/jelly praline was amazing: nutty, salty, sweet, crunchy, I wouldn't know how to improve on this one 20. Caramelized hazelnuts led to a delicate crunch 19. The cracker at the base of the s'mores praline was a bit too cinnamony for my taste 16. A mint praline was filled with a relatively lightly flavored mint mousse 16. The salted caramel praline was oddly more chocolaty than caramelly 17. Caramelized pistachios were not my thing 15. But my least favorite praline came last: white chocolate with olive oil was a bit too strong on the olive oil 14.
Overall: The French Laundry served delicious food, no doubt. French cuisine that was often inspired by American food staples. Flavors were bold, but nicely balanced, the produce was top-notch, and the execution very reliable. In fact, the consistency of The French Laundry is amazing - I've eaten there over a dozen times, and the food quality (almost) never wavered. Add to that a fantastic service team that is professional, but can also be appropriately goofy, creating a relaxed atmosphere. So what's not to like? Well, with consistency also comes a certain predictability. I've already mentioned that several dishes never seem to change, so after a while there won't be (m)any true “surprises” for a returning diner. Also, at a time where many kitchens experiment with novel preparation techniques or incorporating foreign cuisines, TFL pretty much stays the traditional course. The hard-core foodie crowd might not be impressed, but this is still stellar cooking and very delicious. Definitely worth the trip to Napa Valley 18.
