Bouchon Bistro @ Napa

When you cannot get a table at the French Laundry, the alternative has to be Bouchon.

In October 1998, four years after his successful debut in Napa Valley with The French Laundry, Owner/Chef Thomas Keller introduced Bouchon, offering authentic French bistro fare with Keller’s unfailing attention to detail in both ingredients and presentation.

The restaurant is located on Washington Street in Yountville in Napa Valley, just steps from The French Laundry. Since its opening, Bouchon has consistently received the highest of accolades from both the food industry and international press. The Yountville location was awarded a star by the Michelin Guide for its 2007 edition, but lost it fifteen years later with the 2022 update. But it still remains in the guide a Selected restaurant.

Keller enlisted renowned designer Adam D. Tihany to create Bouchon’s interior featuring a French zinc bar, a vibrant mosaic floor, antique light fixtures, and an expansive mural, handpainted by French artist Paulin Paris. Guests may also dine outdoors on Bouchon’s patio, while enjoying a picturesque view of Yountville.

Beside the bistro, there’s another one of Bouchon’s eateries in the area. Bouchon Bakery is a highly-regarded bakery known for its artisanal breads, traditional French pastries, and classic American sweets. The bread in the bistro is baked here daily.

Bouchon’s seasonal menu and raw bar selections change throughout the year, while staples like seafood on ice and leg of lamb remain as consistent, year-round favourites.

Right after the waiter took our orders, he promptly brought a warm loaf of pain d’epi, or wheat stalk baguette, and put it on the table. Hopefully the white table cloth was clean. It was one of the best baguette I have eaten, including those from Paris. The artisan butter was nice, creamy and salted just like in France. But what surprised me was the roasted California pistachios, hit the spot!

Petit Plateau

½ lobster, 8 oysters, 2 shrimp, 4 clams, 8 mussels

First up, Petit Plateau (“small platter”) of fruits de mer on ice. It came with half a boiled Maine lobster, 8 freshly shucked huîtres (oysters) (four different varietals), 2 shelled crevettes (tiger prawns), 4 live palourdes (grooved carpet shell clams) (CUE: shocked face on Darling) and 8 boiled moules (mussels).

The oysters were great – a couple of Fine de Claire, a couple of Belons, a couple of Gillardeau with a couple of WA ones (which I couldn’t recognised) thrown in. Nice liquor, but there were bits of broken shell, something I didn’t expect from a restaurant of this calibre. The boiled seafood still retained their sweetness, and the clams were absolute sweet and delicious.

Pâté de Campagne

country style pâté with watercress, cornichons & radishes

Darling is a fan of pâté and ordered the pâté de campagne (country pate) which is traditionally made from whatever meat that was leftover. It was like a haute cuisine version of Spam, less salty though, served with toasts made from bread from the bakery, and accompanies with the usual pickles and mustard. Finished everything on the plate, wanted to ask for more toast but gave up.

Escargots de Bourgogne

Burgundy snails, parsley-garlic butter & Bouchon Bakery puff pastry

The crowd-favourite escargots de Bourgogne (Burgundy snails) cooked in the classic style of over-roasted on a cast iron escargot pan with parsley-garlic butter and topped with puff pastry from their bakery. I love the melted garlic butter, could do with a bit more parsley, but still the butter was perfect with the pastry and the baguette. At this point, the escargots didn’t matter.

Gigot d’Agneau

roasted leg of lamb with brown butter flageolet beans, garlic confit & lamb jus

The main course was four sliced loins of roasted gigot d’agneau (leg of lamb) served in a bed of brown butter flageolet beans that had lamb jus incorporated with bits of garlic confit and bacon cubes. The lamb was so much more than I expected – it was extremely tender, fatty, juicy, and flavourful. 

Épinards

sautéed spinach

Haricots Verts

glazed French green beans

As we only had one main and two appetisers, and starter, I ordered some greens as well. Wrong, there was so much food that we left most of the greens.

Profiteroles

with vanilla ice cream and chocolate sauce

The Bouchon profiteroles were little bundles of crispy hollow choux pastry balls filled with vanilla ice cream drizzled with a huge amount of dark chocolate sauce. Because it was my birthday celebration, it came with a candle. First time I saw Darling ate as much of the dessert as me. It’s that good.

Bouchon is a consolation prize from the same chef, and they know the people here come because they couldn’t get a table at French Laundry. Extremely crowded restaurant with very small tables and generally inattentive service. The noise in the restaurant was deafening, do they even allow that? The high quality of the food cannot make up for the poor service, poor ambiance and unfriendly price. Not coming back.

Bouchon Bistro
6534 Washington St, Yountville, CA 94599
Tel : +1 (707) 944 8037 (Reservations)

Visited Apr 2025

Michelin California Guide 1 Star 2007-2021, Selected 2024