Market Review
An ode to American comfort food in St. Helena using local ingredients from the local markets. Lunch menu does a better job in meeting their goal than the dinner menu. But still overall, good, hearty eating.
1347 Main Street
St. Helena, CA 94574
Phone: 707-963-3799
Open Daily 11:30am - 10:00pm
Market bills itself as an American restaurant, and its name is derived from the fact that it sources its ingredients from what Market can find at the local markets. It's designed to be more of a casual place without the fancy dressings (which for St. Helena means that I am likely to still be the only person wearing jeans.) You do see some families here though which you don't often see at other restaurants in the area.
Market food
It's really more American comfort food than American food although more comfort food than American. So, you'll have upscale versions of things like fried chicken, hamburgers, or macaroni for the more diner Americana feel. But plenty of not so American bits like calamari, fish-n-chips, or ravioli. We've been there for lunch and had the "very adult" macaroni cheese which had fiscalini cheddar, parmigiano-reggiano, and Hobb's Bacon. We thought it was very tasty albeit heart-attack inducing. The portion doesn't look that big until you start going through it and realize how heavy it is. Definitely for sharing. We also had the champaign-battered fish-n-chips which was solid. Crispy, light batter with tender ling cod inside. We like their lunch menu better than their dinner menu as I think they come closer to their goals of delicious Americana comfort food in lunch than dinner.
Here are some dishes that we've had from their dinner menu. Sorry for the crummy pics. I'm still getting used to taking pictures in areas with dark lighting, and hence, I'm still getting the solar flare effect. Not pictured here was the calamari with nopales and fresno chiles with chipotle aioli and tomatillo-avocado salsa. Maybe the calamari was a touch greasy, but well-seasoned and tender. The chipotle aioli was fine, but the tomatillo-avocado salsa was a nice touch that goes well with the calamari and aioli.
Pictured above is the crispy skin chicken breast with seasonal roasted root vegetables, wild mushrooms, and garlic tarragon jus. Unfortunately, this one was a disappointment. The crispiness of the skin was perfect, but the chicken was under-seasoned, especially for a breast piece of that size which means you're in trouble if you don't have some strongly flavored components to add some flavor to the chicken meat. But the jus is fairly mild. The roasted root vegetables don't have much punch in them either. So, the dish overall comes out fairly bland and underwhelming. Even if the seasoning were correct, Market should still consider adding some mashed potatoes or a stronger jus to help out a very large piece of chicken. Some cubes of roasted root potatos, two pieces of onions, and a few mushrooms won't cut it; the dish is totally dominated by the chicken. Angele had a much better version.
My wife's Painted Hills New York steak with creamed garlic, garlic fries, porcini butter and port reduction was more like how the chicken should've been. The steak was well-seasoned, and the additional ingredients stood up with the steak. Definitely not a cholesterol hater's dish, but if you like heavy comfot food, this was a pretty tasty offering. The steak was well-seasoned and it was a hearty jus, the fries had a good enough fry on them to not immediately get soggy in the jus, and the creamed spinach held up well too.
This mess of a photograph is supposed to be the banana split brulee where the bananas have a crispy caramelized coating to go along with the caramel, vanilla bean ice cream, and the homemade candied walnuts. It was very good, especially with the crunch provided by the brulee and candied walnuts.
One interesting thing about Market is that they have 3 course meals for lunch ($24) and dinner ($32). We haven't gotten around to trying them yet, but the descriptions from the chef were very tempting, and those prices seem really good.
Market setting and service
Market isn't an easily noticeable restaurant during the day. The entrance makes the restaurant look a lot smaller than it actually is. During the evening, they have this stencil setup overhead that they shine light through so that the restaurant name shines on the sidewalk. It's one of those somewhat narrow restaurants that gets bigger and deeper as you go in, mainly because of the large bar seating area at the front. You can take a look at the interior at Market's gallery page.
One problem is that there is very little room for a waiting area between the bar and the front of the restaurant seating. Since Market is fairly popular in the evening, what passes off as a waiting area can get crowded in a hurry. Sitting at the front of the restaurant might not be all that fun with people mashed up against you. The other problem with this setup is that the host doesn't have a designated spot which means (a) he can't find you easily because there's just this blob of potential customers waiting at the front and (b) you can't find him easily because he looks just like all the customers in his casual dress. But it feels much bigger once you get the front area.
Service overall is fine. One gets the impression that you can get lost in the crowd a bit. Market can get pretty busy during the evenings although it usually starts emptying out at about 8:15 pm. You'll want a reservation.
Price of our meal
Lunch with tax and tip (2 glasses of wine, appetizer, dessert): $69
Dinner with tax and tip (2 glasses of wine, appetizer, dessert): $101
