Boon Fly Cafe Review
Hearty casual dining fare with an upscale Napa Valley twist. You got a problem with buffalo wings and potato skins?
Boon Fly Cafe
4048 Sonoma Highway
Napa, CA
(707) 299-4963
Boon Fly Cafe menus: Breakfast | Weekend Brunch | Lunch | Dinner
Boon Fly Cafe website
Google Maps to Boon Fly Cafe
Hours:
6:30 am - 10 pm (breakfast, lunch, and dinner)
Boon Fly Cafe food
BoonFly's food is really good Napa style California casual dining fare. Its menu is more laid back than a lot of the restaurants in the area, but it's still high-end Napa Valley. Sort of like an upscale Chili's where they make their stuff from scratch, have a classy, earthy decor, and gave the food a Napa style makeover. I don't mean that as an insult. It's comfort food with hearty tastes but a refined edge.
Appetizers
I love their buffalo wings. Spicy and a nice scalding temperature with a crispy outside and a juicy inside with a blue
cheese dip. Some complain a little about the spiciness, but I thought
they were perfect (if it's too hot, that's what the dip is for!). We've had the Oven
Roasted Potato Skins with Bacon, Cheese, Tomatoes, Scallions and
Serrano Aïoli which was also pretty tasty. For those who are wrinkling their noses at this casual dining fare, feel free to play in the highway.
Entrees
We've had the Grilled Rib Eye with Garlic Fries, Watercress Salad and Blue Cheese-Herb Butter which was tasty all around. My meat was a little tough despite being medium, but the flavors and seasoning were good (plus the blue cheese herb butter) The Orange-Ginger Glazed Pork Chop with Crispy Polenta, Roasted Pepper-Red Onion Marmalade was also good. Maybe a little on the sweet side, but the pork itself was cooked great. We've also had the Steamed PEI Mussels with Garlic, Shallots, Olio Nuevo, Parsley and White Wine which was fine. The mussels were very good, but not as good as say Bistro Jeanty's mussels. One special one night was carbonara which came with some nice, thick, and hearty bacon rather than pancetta. Also with raw eggs like a carbonara should be. This was a pleasant surprise, since most American restaurants have ruined carbonara by substituting the egg with a heavy cream sauce. It could've used more ground pepper in it (it's carbonara!) But there's a fresh pepper grinder at the table, so it doesn't matter too much. If you can't tell, it's also quite heavy. One drawback was that there seemed to be too much oil which would puddle at the bottom. I've heard raves about their hamburgers, but we haven't had a chance to try them out yet.
Desserts
A little weaker here. We've had the strawberry shortcake which was good. We had the Lemon Pudding, Blueberry Pinot Noir Sauce which is a nice pick-me-up dessert after a heavy meal. But not too much comes to mind when thinking about their desserts.
Breakfast
Their breakfasts are pretty good as well and is one of our favorites. The Boon Fly Benedict is pretty good with a nice thick hearty slice of ham (I still like ABC Bakery's better) People talk about the homemade dougnuts (more like doughnut holes...well, actually more like doughnut hole churros...), but although they were fine, I can't say I'd go out of my way to get them (not that this stopped us from inhaling them as they are mmm...doughnuts....after all) Breakfast burrito was fine although it didn't quite have the hearty zip that I expect from their meals. They did have a pleasant breakfast pizza with mozzarella, two eggs over easy, some nice thick pieces of bacon, and caramelized onions. I enjoyed it but wished they added something like goat cheese and to help cut down on the sweetness of the caramelized onions and add a bit of punch to the pizza.
Here's the corned beef hash breakfast with onions, peppers, potatoes, two poached eggs and toast. Admittedly, I'm not a fan of corned beef hash, but I thought it was fine overall.
Boon Fly Cafe setting and service
One review I read about the Boon Fly described it as "roadhouse chic", and that's apt. Lots of wood and earthy tones, but splashes of metal and clean lines to try to give it a slight metro feel. The service is fine. I've read some reviews that complain about the Boon Fly's service about being slow, sloppy, etc. We've eaten there at least 3 times, and I can't say that I was peeved any one time. Mostly it was friendly, prompt, menu knowledgeable, etc. YMMV. One problem is that the tables are too close together. If you end up with loud neighbors, it could seriously put a damper on your meal. One time we were forced to listen to this conversation about this rich guy who was talking about how he was fretting retirement...and then talking about his exclusive winery membership which only makes 1000 bottles a year and has a multi-year waiting list. And then living in the same neighborhood as some former rock star. And how about Mr. so-and-so was unhappy as a VP. Or about being on TV.
Definitely not the most noticeable restaurant from the road. You'll have to pay attention because the Boon Fly is nestled within the Carneros Inn complex. It can be easy to pass on a fast road like Sonoma Highway that doesn't have much in the way of stop lights.
Price for our meal
Appetizer, 2 glasses of wine, entree, dessert = $93
