Bistro Don Giovanni

Napa, CA

Truth be told, we were at Bistro Don Giovanni because they accept dogs on their patio, or in other words, Shaddy Approved. We had read on dogfriendly.com that Etoile accepted pets, but they don't, damn them. So this was our backup plan. We've must have driven by the inconspicuous establishment dozens of time on our way to well known restaurants of Yountville but didn't really think much of it. The yelp reviews are good and its consistently on the top 100 list in the Bay, so it showed some promise. When driving up, its tucked away off of Highway 29 and had to make a pretty sharp turn not to miss it. 

The Patio

The layout of the patio is really nice, and it's a much nicer restaurant than I expected it to be. We were seated at the community table by ourselves, a perfect place out of the way from the rest of the patrons. Soon after they provided us our menus, they also brought a water bowl out for Shadow, a well appreciated touch of service. They also started by starting us off with Focaccia bread, oily and cold. Chu-Toro also had a strawberry lemonade with a spritz of carbonation which was so good, we ordered another.

Foccocia

Strawberry Leomonade

We started off with the Frito Misto which included Calamari, Rock Shirmp, Fennel, Onions, Green Beans and a spicy aioli.

Before

After

The lightly battered items were beautifully done, not overly salted and cooked perfectly. The seafood was not over cooked and tasted great with the creamy, spicy aioli. We'd never had fennel frito before and it turned out superb. This was the best dish of the meal.

Frito Misto

We selected two entrées, the sausage, olive and broccolini pizza and risotto of the day, which had scallops and mushrooms.

Sausage Pizza

I guess I'm spoiled when I read sausage on a Italian menu, but I usually expect real Italian sausage. This was more like Hillshire farms Kielbasa. A sharp disappointment to say the least. The crust was burnt on the bottom, thus pretty much inedible and the middle of the pie soggy by the topping. I'm probably very tough on pizza because I love it so much, but it was really disheartening.  

Risotto with Corn and Scallops

We were kinda sold on the risotto over the pastas because it is the item of the day that always changes. To me that means a specialty that they are pretty confident with. Well, it wasn't bad. It's a lot better than I could ever make it, but it lacked depth of flavor really tasting like chicken broth and creamy corn rice. The scallops were well executed and not overcooked. But this risotto is not even in the same conversation as the best one I've had at Redd.

Overall, the meal was okay. It was nice to have a place to sit in the beautiful Napa Valley that accepted Shadow and had good service. The frito misto was the highlight and that's about it. 

Rating 5/10

July 31, 2010

Shaddy Approved