The fig cafe & winebar



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Napa & Sonoma Reviews

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A Caveat

Summary: Good food, good service, great wine country experience.

Lola and I were driving through the wine country during our yearly girls-weekend-out (May 2009) when we decided we really needed some coffee. We had no idea where we were, but decided to stop at the next coffee house we could find, which turned out to be The Fig Cafe in Glen Ellen. Not, mind you, that the Fig Cafe is actually a coffee house; it's actually a small, casual restaurant, serving weekend brunch and daily dinner. As we both realized we were actually hungry when we got there - that turned out to be a good thing.

The Fig Cafe is pretty stylish, in a wine country way. The impossibly thin waitresses were casually but nicely dressed (not wearing uniforms, which I appreciate), and very friendly and efficient. We definitely felt taken care of. Water came, bread came, drinks came, everything came when it should.

The brunch menu includes omelettes, salads, soups, pizzas and a few heartier dishes. I decided to go with the "top sirloin burger", which came with a choice of white cheddar or cambozola cheese and fries ($12). I went for the cambozola cheese, a mixture of camembert and gorgonzola, which was probably not a good call. While the burger was sick and juicy, it wasn't aggressively seasoned, and was not match for the strong-tasting cheese. It was good, and huge, but I think it'd be better with the white cheddar. The crunchy, skinny, seasoned fries were delicious, specially with the side mustard dressing. The portion was also huge, as much as I wanted, I couldn't eat all the fries.

Lola hesitated among all the great sounding pizzas, but finally decided on the house-made chorizo.pizza, with red onions and Asiago cheese ($13). The thinly crusted pizza, was also probably large enough to share (if you aren't goo hungry), and I felt was absolutely delicious. I was particularly impressed with the homemade chorizo which tasted as if it had been made by a Spanish charcutier. Lola thought the cheese was too oily, but I was perfectly fine with that.

The Fig Cafe doesn't serve any "regular" soft drinks, so I went for a tangerine Fizzy Lizzy ($3) - Lola just had water.

On a final note, the bread and water were also excellent. Both tasted fresh and full of flavor, in, yes, a European sort of way.

In all, we had a very nice lunch, and I'd return - though now I'd like to try the Girl and the Fig restaurant in Sonoma - given how good its younger sibling is, I can only imagine the main restaurant lives to its reputation.

The fig cafe & winebar
13690 Arnold Dr.
Glen Ellen, CA
707.938.2130
http://www.thefigcafe.com