To celebrate our two year anniversary, Boyfriend took me to SolBar for dinner. It is the Solage Hotel restaurant in Calistoga and was recently awarded a Michelin star! Foodgasm much?? If not, you should go to SolBar and experience it for youself. The great thing about SolBar is they use the freshest ingredients from the area to make their menu for the day. The sad thing about that is you can’t expect to always see your favorites on the menu because they might be out of season.
I had such a difficult time deciding what to eat because everything on the menu looked exquisite! Boyfriend started out with the winter squash velouté. It had crispy sage leaves and granny smith apples in it. Although I usually detest cooked fruit, these added a wonderful sweetness to the soup that I couldn’t get enough of.
I went with the herb roasted chicken soup. All of the “guts” of the soup were brought out in the bowl and the broth was poured over it at the table. The vegetables were cooked perfectly. Not too soft, not too hard. The chicken must’ve been pan seared before put in the soup because I could taste the specific cooked chicken flavor when I ate it. And the gnocci. Oh yes, the handmade gnocci was to die for.
Besides the chicken soup, I also wanted to try the house-made ricotta agnolotti. Boyfriend offered to share them with me so we ordered them. They were baby raviolis with seared wild mushrooms and two year old parmiggiano cheese. These were absolutely divine!!! They practically melted in your mouth. The ONLY regret I have about dinner was not ordering this as my main dish. It had two prices next to it so it could be ordered as a starter or as a main and Jeff (our server) talked me into getting it as an appetizer and ordering another main on it’s own.
I had also just pigged out on the warm cornbread muffins they bring out so I should’ve known I would’ve been okay with just these agnolotti. Those cornbread muffins sent me to heaven for a little bit too!
Boyfriend went with the Bavette steak for his main dish. It came with potato rösti and cranberry and garlic creamed leeks. I had a bite of the meat and it was a perfectly cooked medium rare.
I got talked into this beef shortrib dish with polenta and a wine au jus. The meat was so tender that I could poke at it with my fork and it would fall apart. The polenta was a nice touch too. But I was still craving those agnolotti!
Can you believe that after all the food we ate, I still wanted to order dessert?!?! I was totally and absolutely stuffed but when I saw buttermilk panna cotta on the menu, I knew I wanted to try it. It had a mango sauce, pomegranate, kiwi and an oatmeal cookie on top. (Please excuse the poor picture, I forgot to turn on my macro and was in a rush to begin eating and must’ve blurred the photo.)
Everything was executed perfectly and it was a wonderful experience being there! Jeff gave us perfect wine suggestions to pair with our meals and we went back to our hotel very full and happy that night.
at the Solage Hotel 755 Silverado Trail Calistoga, CA
For the Love of Food 
