Fern Bar — Restaurant in Sebastopol

I had a fantastic happy hour experience at Fern Bar.

I stopped in late on a Monday afternoon with my fiancé. We were looking for somewhere to grab a quick bite and I had no problem making us a reservation as we were driving up. It was COVID time, so all reservations were outdoors. We were seated as soon as we arrived and the hostess immediately asked if we wanted the nearby heater on - yes please!

We ordered a coffee and a cocktail, and then a few small plates to split. My fiancé enjoyed his french press and I got a naught toddy, a boozy hot cider. It was perfect for the chilly day, and while it smelled boozy, it was actually quite well balanced.

We shared the chicken liver mousse, the pork bun, and the roasted broccoli. All three were fantastic. The chicken liver mousse was served with little teeny tiny biscuits, which were buttery and flaky and surprisingly perfectly prepared given the size. The mousse itself was very moussey - that is to say, a lot of times, chicken liver mousse is served in a jar and has a texture that's chunkier, more pate-type than mousse. This was definitely more of a smooth, creamy, whipped mousse texture. It was rich and it paired nicely with the biscuits. I was worried it'd be too much fat on fat, but it was actually a nice transport. The pork bun was a single bun in the serving, pretty big so easy to share amongst two people, but I definitely wouldn't recommend sharing with more than one other person. It had a very generous portion of pork, more of a pulled pork texture than the standard pork bun has, and less of the char siu type sauce, really just meat in a bun, very plain. The bun was sweet and pillowy. The meat was tender. I would have loved a chili oil or something to spice it up. Lastly, the broccoli was perfectly roasted, the harissa type sauce and sesame with it was addicting, and the whole dish was lightened up with pickled jalapeños and radishes.

Overall, we really enjoyed our experience. We arrived at 4:30pm and had to leave by 5pm on the dot and we had no problem doing so. Our server was kind, everything felt clean and safe. While the food was overpriced for what it was ($10 for the single pork bun, $16 for the roasted broccoli) the quality was great, the flavors were unique, and we left there planning to come back later that night for a real dinner. While that didn't happen, I'll...

We had appetizers and drinks here once before, and were excited to come back for a full meal. Overall, though our experience was enjoyable, for around $160 before adding the tip, we are less enthusiastic to come back again for another dinner.

We split two appetizers - the dumplings and what essentially was a massive “pancake” of different veggies and herbs. Both were very good. We also added an order of the pickles to take home as a snack - they were all well-made and crisp.

We split an entree - $35 for the roasted chicken and sausage with “fried rice” - that was good but felt very overpriced. The meat was a single chicken drumstick connected to a ball of spicy sausage stuffed into the connected skin from the chicken thigh (making it appear to be one big serving of chicken). Both chicken and sausage were tasty. The fried rice was served in square cakes that had decent flavor, but were literally squares of cooked rice that were then deep-fried until crunchy. They were so dry and hardened we had to coat them with the sautéed veggies to make them soft enough to be edible.

We had two drinks each - my wife had two alcoholic beverages and I had two of the NA cocktails made with seedlip. All four drinks were good, but added almost $70 (plus tax) to our tab.

Our server was attentive and helpful without being overbearing. The decor is warm, inviting, and has an almost home-like vibe.

For us, we’ll likely keep Fern Bar as a great spot to start a date night with a drink and app to share, then move on to get...

If I could give 0 stars I would.

While on a GNO we decided to try out Feen Bar. Big mistake.

Upon arrival, the place was packed (by packed, I mean like 30 people since the place is tiny). The hostess let us know that we could stand by this column and grab a drink while standing. A server came by after about 10 mins to take our drink order and then came back again about 10 mins later to take our order, already forgetting he forgot he did.

After about 15 mins we received our drinks and a table opened up which the hostess and server told us we could sit at with no problem or time constraints. The three girls and myself sat down and continued to enjoy our drinks. We were handed off to Jared who has about as much customer service skills as a rock. One of the girls asked if we could do shots and before she even finished the question he shouted “no” and she thought maybe he misheard so she asked again and he said “no”. We were given three inch tall water cups and drank them in one sip so we asked him for more, he brought the water pitcher over and refilled and we drank it all once again so to save him having to continue to fill up we just asked if he could leave the pitcher. You could immediately tell this pissed him off and assumed we wouldn’t be drinking because about 3 mins later he came back and said that we needed to leave as all the sudden they had a reservation they needed the table for. We said no problem, we don’t want to stay...