LaSalette Restaurant — Restaurant in Sonoma

I have mixed feelings about my experience at LaSalette. On one hand, the food was REALLY really good. But the circumstances of our dinner and the service just made it an awkward experience.

We had a 7pm reservation but was in the area early so wanted to know if we can get seated early. The hostess was nice about it but couldn't accommodate us. When 7pm came around, she came to tell us that they couldn't seat us because the people before us were still on their entrees. She apologized profusely because they arrived late for their reservation but she sat them anyway. She offered to give us a table outside, turn the heat lamp on (it was windy and about to rain), and move us in as soon as possible. After about 40 minutes, it started raining too much to be sitting outside, so we went to wait inside. We finally got seated at an inside table after about an hour after our reservation.

This by itself wouldn't have bothered me too much. But the service otherwise was very spotty. Our waitress was rarely seen. Our wine glasses sat empty on several occasions. She took forever to come around to check in on us. I'm not sure if this is entirely her fault - it could have just been the fact that they're severely understaffed. But there aren't that many tables in the restaurant, so maybe it's just an operations management problem.

Anyway, the food:

3 item tasting plate: we got the baby octopus, pig's ear salad, and blood sausage. They were all delicious. My favorite was the blood sausage, but the others were very good too. The pig's ear salad was light and refreshing, and I love the texture of pig's ear. There's a similar dish in Chinese cuisine, which I love, so this reminded me of that homey dish. The baby octopus was very flavorful.

Caldo verde: I love soup! This was perfect for the cold rainy day. The consomme is thickened with some potato, so it was a hearty soup, but it wasn't heavy. I liked the linguica, but wished there was a little more in my bowl.

Romaine salad: this was a simple salad, and was probably the most plain dish of the evening. The white anchovies were flavorful and very acidic.

Scallop appetizer: this was AMAZING! The puree was hearty and citrusy. It went really well with the scallop. After eating the scallop, I wiped the bowl clean of the puree with their bread (which is also amazing!).

Fisherman's stew: this is a very hearty seafood stew. The broth is VERY flavorful. It was slightly salty for my taste, but with bread, it went very well. The fish was slightly overcooked. All of the seafood was very fresh. It was a delicious savory stew!

Fish special - whole branzino: this was wood oven roasted with olives, red peppers and finished with a parsley vinegar sauce. This was absolutely wonderful! I'm very snobby about fish and usually find that restaurants overcook fish and ruin it. But the branzino was both fresh and cooked perfectly. The other gripe I usually have with fish is that it's flavorless. But the parsley vinegar sauce was very flavorful, without being heavy, and made the fish really easy to eat, despite its size.

All in all, the food at LaSalette is amazing. I just hope their service issues are a rare problem. It's definitely a great place to eat, with good value...

We wanted to get out of SF to enjoy some nicer weather and found ourselves enjoying a beautiful day in Sonoma. After checking out the restaurants around the main square, we decided to try La Salette, as its Portuguese menu stood out with its unique offerings and tasty options.

Shortly after ordering, we were provided with a free amuse bouche from the chef, shrimp croquettes with a slightly tangy sauce and salsa brava. The shrimp croquettes were crispy, yet also light and zesty; a beautiful start to the meal.

I also ordered a caipirinha, my go-to cocktail when I lived in Brazil. La Salette's caipirinha was extremely delicious, with a healthy dose of lime and mint that washed down nicely with the cachaça.

For starters, we began with the grilled octopus and tomato salad.

The grilled octopus was cooked perfectly and paired nicely with the red wine vinegar, fingerling potatoes, and pickled seaweed.

The heirloom tomato salad was absolutely fantastic, as the tomatoes were perfectly ripe and were complemented nicely with the chickpea puree and feta cheese. This was my favorite bite of the night.

For entrees, we tried the bacalhau no forno, the caldeirada, and the açorda de Trigo.

My mom loved the bacalhau no forno, which was a bit lighter than she was expecting but had a great punch of flavor between the salted cod, potatoes, onions and olives.

My dad and I also really enjoyed the caldeirada, which had a generous portion of sea bass, scallops, clams, mussels, potatoes, shrimp, and linguiça in a flavorful broth. This reminded me a little bit of cioppino given the copious amount of seafood, although it had more of a velvety tasting broth without the flavor of tomatoes.

Finally, my partner really enjoyed the açorda de Trigo, which had a perfectly poached egg that created a velvety sauce over the farro, mushrooms, and pine nuts.

For dessert, we all split the fruit plate, which was the highlight of the meal. We really loved how the dessert was more of an assortment of tasty dishes that complemented each other nicely, rather than one single dish.

All of the components of the dessert were fantastic: the poached pear had a nice spiced taste, the macerated mango was super sweet and tangy, and the pineapple semifreddo was velvety and tangy. But, the passion fruit cannoli was truly unreal. The tang of the passion fruit and light crisp of the cannoli shell were incredible. Would highly recommend trying this or their other desserts, as they all looked incredible.

All in all, given the fantastic restaurants in Sonoma, La Salette is a great choice if you're looking for something unique that highlights local fruit and produce, as well as meat and seafood options. We would definitely come back here the next time we're in Sonoma!

EDIT: Forgot to mention that the service was incredible and very attentive. Everyone was super nice, friendly and helpful, and made sure every part of our meal was enjoyable and to our...

As an African American professional business woman, I am applaud at the way my friends and I were treated yesterday at LaSalette Restaurant in Sonoma. One of my colleagues made reservations to accommodate six people for dinner last evening. During the day, that number grew and she attempted to contact the restaurant several times to adjust the number. The restaurant NEVER picked up the phone but she left several messages to see if she could increase her party dinner number. When she finally reached the restaurant, she was told they could not accommodate additional people and if the reservation was cancelled there would be a $40 charge for each person in her original party (6) charged to her credit card used for securing the reservation.

We decided to go to the restaurant, have a drink and possibly horse d’oeuvres to help offset the $40 charge. Upon arrival, we were asked if we wanted to see the manager/owner. To our disbelief, a young lady in a brown dress, whose name I did not get, made it clear the restaurant’s policy was to charge for cancellations and there was not any adjustment to that policy. She went on to say “this was not the time to deal with this and we should go home to deal with the dispute process.” She asked us to LEAVE, with a smirky smile on her face.

This was a surreal experience. I could not believe 4 professional black women (a physician, the former president of a national voluntary health agency, and two entrepreneurs in the luxury wine world was asked to leave a dining establishment for such a ridiculous reason.

I truly hope the owner/manager of LaSalette Restaurant takes a look at their staff and their model of training. I have many friends that frequent Sonoma/Nappa and I would NEVER recommend they visit this restaurant....