Cuvee Napa Review

Cuvee's food goes down the Napa Valley global comfort food route with mostly Mediterranean (Portuguese, Spanish, Italian) flavors although you'll find Asian elements as well.

Cuvee Napa food

Appetizers

We've had their calamari which was overall fine, but we like their Chipotle and honey bbq ribs with orange and jicama salad more. At its best, it's a spicy, sweet dish that falls off the bone that goes really well with the jicama and orange salad that helps cleanse your palate a bit. Although the first few times we had it, they were solid enough that we were tempted to just make a meal of ribs appetizers, the last time we went, the ribs were surprisingly bland so I'm hoping they haven't lost their touch here.

We've also had their  Crispy duck lettuce cups which was a bit of a pan Asian mess. Too much hoisin sauce, shiitake mushrooms, cashews, etc. collectively overpowered the duck which wasn't crispy at all. Bleh.

Entrees

Cuvee's entrees are a bit stronger. I had a nice, well-seasoned piece of halibut on top of a risotto. Nice crispness on the outside of halibut, moist and delicate on the inside. The risotto wasn't too heavy and didn't overpower the fish. I was looking for a nice fish dish for a lighter dinner (yeah, yeah, I know risotto ain't light.), and this was just what I was looking for.

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We've had their handcut pasta which had wild mushrooms, hazelnuts, and greens in a gorgonzola cream sauce.  This dish was also very nice and surprisingly light for a gorgonzola cream sauce. The hazelnuts were a nice touch. The spice rubbed skirt steak with roasted garlic and olive oil fried potatoes and herb butter is also a nice change of pace from your typical steak frites meal if you don't mind a spiced steak. The potatoes were delicious too.

Dessert

Desserts are a relative weak point for Cuvee Napa. We've had the Annette's Ice Cream Sundae which was just ok. Sort of a generic vanilla sundae with ice cream from Annette's Chocolates in Napa. If they're going to crib from Annette's, at least bring over some of their yummy chocolate sauces or some other flavors besides vanilla. They have a strawberry shortcake with lemon pound cake that's the better deal with strawberries when they're in season. But in any case, we won't go out of our way to save room for dessert if confronted with a solid entree (not surprisingly, we frequently don't have to make these type of Sophie's Choice decisions.)

Overall, Cuvee is a solid place to eat, and the prices are a bit less expensive than the prices that you usually see for this sort of food. It no doubt gets a steady stream of customers from the River Terrace Inn behind it. The owner pretty quickly figured out that the city of Napa doesn't really have enough people that will go through a 5+ course pan-Asian tasting menu of Cuvee's predecessor, Budo, (we did our part, but alas) and switched gears quickly (Budo lasted less than a year)  to Cuvee to go with something more "affordable."

Cuvee Napa setting and service

Cuvee actually sits in a relatively swanky building which benefitted from the money that the owner sank into Budo which tried to cater to the rich fabulous crowd. It has a much more metropolitan look than most of the restaurants in Napa proper despite the dark brown, earthy tones.  The bar area is pretty roomy and plush as well and often has a number of the pretty people just lounging around. The bar, dining area, and kitchen form a horseshoe of sorts that also encloses the outside seating area. On a nice summer night, it's fairly nice out there. Before, Budo and its building fit each other stylistically but since economics tends to win out over style, Cuvee's simpler more accessible offerings are at a slight disconnect to its snazzy interior. Service overall is fine.

A quick meaningless story…Our first visit to Cuvee came from when we were driving by during a weeknight on our way to probably a Wendy's or something and noticed a banner over the departed Budo building and stopped in to check things out. We were assigned an outdoor seat, and we couldn't get over how much attention all the customers got although there weren't many of them. A huge amount of staff went out to greet the various tables. Hug them. Kiss them. But we didn't get any love. Not that we were looking for any (we were just there for the food. Not the hugging and kissing.), but were curious why we were being left out. It turns out that they had only been open for a few days and the only people there besides us were friends and family. We might have been their first real customers. As the story goes, a group of Bistro Don Giovanni staff thought they'd strike out on their own and voila, Cuvee.

Price of our meal

1 appetizer, 2 entrees, 2 glasses of wine, 1 dessert, tax & tip: $100 - $125

Other Cuvee Napa reviews and links

• TripAdvisor reviews
• Yelp reviews
• San Francisco Chronicle review
• Interview with Cuvee Napa head chef, Octavio Barrera, at the Bohemian
• Napa Valley Marketplace review