Napkins Bar and Grill — Restaurant in Napa

We had booked a Valentine's day dinner at another restaurant, but when we arrived, we found the restaurant was closed due to a plumbing problem. Where to find another Valentine's dinner on a Friday night??? Most good restaurants were already fully booked for the evening. The closed restaurant's barman suggested some places and texted a friend at Napkins (Napkins Bar & Grille). I then called and found that they would take us immediately, so we quickly drove there.

We wound up having a much better time than had we actually eaten at the other place (which shall remain nameless). First, we got a table outside overlooking Napa's Main Street and the Napa River - great people watching and view, especially on Valentine's day! While it was quite cool, the heaters on the patio kept us comfortable. Second, our server - Josh N - was excellent. He was friendly, informative, and was always there when we wanted something.

He started us with a serving of cornbread, which was denser than I am used to but was quite tasty. I started with the Ahi Poke, which was plenty of large tuna chunks in a very good seasoned and attractive poke mix and followed with the scallops, which were very good and served on a bed of orzo, cauliflower, corn, and "beech mushrooms" (which I had to look up). The mixture went well with the scallops. Others had the filet mignon and the ribeye steaks, and pronounced their meals excellent. The others shared a bottle of Belle Glos Pinot Noir and all enjoyed it with their meals. I prefer Cabernet, so I tried a local Napa Cellars vintage, which was very good. (yes, a Cabernet with scallops - so sue me...)

Unfortunately, due to a large (and wonderful) lunch earlier at KIN Windsor (reviewed elsewhere), we were all too full to try any of the desserts, which looked quite appetizing.

Highly recommended - great location for people viewing, very good food, excellent service. And another shout-out to our server - Josh N, for great service. What could have been a Valentine's dinner disaster wound up being a fun and very...

Unfortunately this place did not live up to the hype for me. After we left, my husband and I agreed it was little more than a glorified Applebees. For us, it was the wait staff that killed it. We had a reservation for our party of 8 and arrived promptly. Our waitress brought my plate after half of our table had finished their meals. To their credit, the rest of my party had waited 5 minutes with their meals in front of them, politely not wanting to begin eating without me. This was given up when our waitress announced it would be an even longer wait to get my shrimp linguine. When my plate finally arrived, it was much hotter than a plate of shrimp should have been, which leads me to believe it spent the 20 minutes I was waiting on the warming plate. The shrimp was rubbery and overcooked. The garlic bread I ordered arrived 5 minimum after my meal (along with the dessert menus for the rest of my table). It felt a bit personal at this point. The table bussers we’re watching us like hawks and repeatedly tried to take our plates away before we were finished. I counted 3 to 4 times and it was evident they were trying to speed us all thru. When the bill came, I noticed that my meal was actually on the bill, it took my husband 10 minutes to flag down someone. We wanted to speak to the manager, who never came but at that point it really put a damper on the evening for me and unfortunately our whole table. The manager never even came to the table. I’m happy for everyone who has enjoyed a nice meal here but I will never go back. On a side note, the bathrooms were totally disgusting with trash and graffiti. The ladies at our table were all trying to warn each other about which bathrooms to avoid or try....

My husband and I were craving oysters with wine. This was the only restaurant opened late that had oysters or at least that we could find. At the time it was freezing cold and the inside was crowded. We came with our 6 mo baby. Thankfully the gentleman in the entrance told us that he did not feel comfortable of us dinning in the cold with our baby. He and the pretty girl in the front managed in minutes to get us a seat inside, for us to dine. Thinking that was an amazing service to find someone that actually cared. Next Our server I forgot his name but it’s started with the letter f, lol it was not an easy name. But the guys service was amazing. He was very amicable, knew about the foods , and wines. He just kept asking us if everything was fine, if there is anything he can get us. All I can say the service was amazing I don’t think I’ve ever had someone serve us so well. The food, well we weren’t too hungry to say we were just craving oysters, so we ordered. along with fried calamari and guacamole with chips. The oysters were freaking fresh and the add ons on the oysters made it taste soooo good. we just had to order another round of oysters. The fried calamaris had some hint of lemon, lol hands down to the calamaris I’ve never tasted such delicious calamaris. Other places, u can taste more of the oil and the seafood taste in calamaris. It’s was a great experience coming to this place. So great that my husband and I plan to come back for one of our future celebrations. The ambient, SERVICE , and food all together made it an...