The Plaza Bistro: Sonoma

The downtown square is a hot spot for dining in Sonoma. If you're looking for a great bar for cocktails, small bites, or dessert, this is a good place to stop. The Plaza Bistro serves excellent calamari, and their lemon crepes are the best.


Calamari

Crepes

Last night we visited for dinner since they were having a jazz group, the Dick Conti Trio. The music was fantastic, and dinner was pretty good. The roasted baby beet salad was just about perfect, except I would have used a fresher goat cheese, it tasted a hint sour. I did enjoy the duck confit over mashed potatoes with delicious red chard; the duck was braised to perfection. One side note: there was no mention of the curry flavor in the menu's description of the duck, and the curry flavor was quite strong in the fruited chutney glaze. Mr. WCC had the lamb chops with fennel salad. He loved the flavors but felt the meat was cut too thick and he had to "wrestle" with it. All was redeemed with the crepes with lemon mascarpone and strawberry champagne sauce. Those were heavenly. I'm definitely coming back in the summer for those crepes.

My one complaint about the atmosphere was that the Bistro's back room where we were seated was quite cold. I had to wear my overcoat throughout the meal, but then again, it is February.


The Plaza Bistro has live music every Friday night. It is located at 420 First Street East in Sonoma, California. For dinner reservations, call 707.996.4466.