Delish I went to Bottega for lunch and was surprised that the prices were pretty decent, considering this is was a "celebrity" chef's big restaurant. On to the food... We started with three appetizers: calamari, tuna w/ salmon tartare, and covered polenta. All three appetizers were great. The calamari was cooked perfectly. The octosquiddies were super tender. It's annoying when the octopus or squid is overcooked and rubbery. This was not the case here. +1. The tuna and salmon was good too. Although the tuna was prepared simply in the shashimi style, it was enhanced by the fried basil leaves atop. The salmon tar tar was quite tasty as well. There was a hint of fennel and other stuffs my amateur pallet couldn't pick up...but overall, still quite good. The polenta was probably the best preparation of polenta I'd ever had (although I'll have to preface that by saying I don't eat polenta that often). It was SUPER creamy...probably because it had a stick of butter in it with lots of heavy cream...but hey, you only live once, right? Atop the polenta were some cremini mushrooms and fried garlic. You drizzle some balsamic vinegar reduction on top and BAM, instant +1. Entrees were good. It was like eating dinner at lunch. My fiancee ordered the gnocchi. Wow. They were the softest gnocchi we had all ever had. My fiancee's mom had the chanterelle mushroom risotto w/ quail. The quail tasted like a gamier/nuttier fried chicken. I had the pork/olive sausage. In terms of wow factor, the gnocchi probably stood out the most in terms of texture, but every dish tasted great. Dessert - I'd have to say the chocolate cake provided for my fiancee's mom's bday was really good. I'm not a chocolate cake connoisseur, but my fiancee said it was probably one of the best, if not the best, chocolate cake she had ever had...so I'd probably defer to her comments and not mine on this topic. We also got the tiramisu, but that was just ok. It was more of an ice cream cake than tiramisu, which we weren't really expecting. All-in-all, the service was great, the food was excellent, and it wasn't too hard hit on the pocket book

I always have a lovely experience at Bottega! I love sitting by the fire on the patio, or the cozy dining room or belly up to the bar. There is not a bad table in the house and it seems like it is always the place to be. All the waitstaff and bartenders are extremely knowledgeable, professional and personable...not too stuffy. They've got personality, which I love. If you want a typical old style Italian restaurant with never-ending bowls of pasta and garlic bread, then this is not your place. If you want diverse flavors of extraordinary creativity with Italian roots, then you will love it. My absolute fave is the Polpette alla Griglia, which are fancy words for short rib meat balls. To-die-for. And who doesn't love truffle fries?? I always take visitors here as my go-to restaurant in the Valley. It's nice because it's in Yountville which isn't too far from Napa, but still amongst the vineyards. It's also got a lovely shop called Napa Style right across the path if you've got a home decor shopper in the group. All good stuff!

Quality is there, but proportions were way too small. The lamb was good, but was just two small 3x1 pieces on bone. Similar for the rest of the people in our group. Their gelato was very good as well as their chocolate lava soufflé.

The Polenta Under Glass was wonderful. You would never guess that something so simple would have such a range of flavors. Very balanced dish. My friend really enjoyed the Polpette alla Sicilia, but I was indifferent about it. It just didn't taste special. Cavatelli e Gamberoni was overcooked and lacked sauce. I mean that the entire dish just had barely enough sauce to lightly coat the pasta. This wouldn't be an issue if the sauce was strong, but unfortunately this was not the case. Prawns were NOT firm, sea urchin was broken up and didn't add to the dish, and the pasta was a mix of too soft and perfectly cooked. The waiter was super cool about taking the dish back. High marks for good service where it counts. The Costolette Brasate e Affumicate is a shortrib with a good smokey flavor. It was lightly glazed in sauce, so don't expect any extra to swaddle the meat in. The meat was more lean and firm for the section away from the bones and was more tender when you got closer to the bones. Overall it was an OK dish, no complaints, but I also wouldn't order it again. Bottom Line: an OK restaurant in a great location.

This was one of the most enjoyable meals I've had in wine country. We stopped in for a late lunch on a Sunday after and our group of 5 was quickly seated at a communal table. The crab special was too good to pass up and I had the squid ink pasta with shrimp and black garlic. The latter was perfectly balanced and the portion was just right! Dessert was the zeppole, Italian donuts with a caramel sauce. They were so dang off the charts, we ordered another basket. Considering the high level of service and celebrity of its chef, the price per person at Bottega, including a bottle of wine for the table was reasonable.