General Store Review
540 Main Street
Napa, CA 94559
Hours | Mon-Fri 9am-6pm | Sat-Sun 10am-7pm
General Store food
The General Store is part restaurant, part wine tasting bar, part general Napa tourist trap. As townies, we're not super keen on hangin' with the tourists, but we'll go anywhere for good food. The General Store Cafe is Napa cuisine with an Asian (more towards Vietnamese) twist. Sometimes the Napa-Asian marriage appears to be more of a shotgun wedding, though. We once had what was labeled a Peking Duck pizza which was pretty foul. Too much hoisin sauce, duck meat on top, bleh. This is too bad, because some styles of Vietnamese cuisine nicely mix Asian flavors with French thanks to the colonization (read: oppression) of Indochina. This cooking style would do very well here in the Valley; Annalien's success shows that. But very few Vietnamese restaurants seem to cook in this style, which is too bad really. If the people at the General Store could get that style down, they would do a lot better.
But we've had more traditional pizzas there, and they were fine. They are some of the better pizzas in the area (mushroom is pretty good) and unlike some of the other gourmet pizza places, they're not too stuffy to have something like pepperoni for the kids. I've had their grilled chicken sandwich, and it was fine but not great. I like going to the General Store for lighter meals, particularly lunch, and checking the store area occasionally to see if there's anything novel there. I'll bring home the occasional flavored olive oil or grape seed oil. You can also buy all sorts of picnic staples like breads, cheeses, and cold cuts.
Basically, the food isn't bad overall for lunch type food. There are much better places to eat in the area, but if you want a quick lunch and a chance to check out some regional foodstuffs, it's not a bad place to stop by, and you can stop by the Sweetie Pies and the Vintage Sweet Shoppe while you're there (so much for the "light" lunch.)
General Store setting and service
The store component has things like regional soaps, olive oils, maps, books on Napa and fine dining/wine, etc. It's the type of place you always see featured on travel shows or even food shows. You can buy all sorts of knick-knacks with "Napa" stamped all over them to prove to your neighbors and burglars that you've been to Napa. It's in a big ex-warehouse that maybe used to be a granary or something that a history buff might find interesting. It's located by Sweetie Pies, Angele, Celadon, and the Vintage Sweet Shoppe.
They have a general seating area outside where you could take a look at the Napa river. The seating area which shares space with the Napa River Inn sometimes has musicians providing a nice atmosphere while you eat your food or are just chilling out.
Service is sometimes spotty. Sometimes slow to take your order. Sometimes slow to get your food. Sometimes slow to come and check if you need anything mid-meal.
Price of our meal
Two lunch entrees, two glasses of wine, dessert $50
Other General store reviews
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