Vegetarian Restaurant in Downtown Napa
Last night we joined a couple of friends for dinner in Downtown Napa. It’s been over 10 years since I’ve been to downtown Napa and it has changed a lot! The town has really developed in to a charming, friendly downtown. Downtown Napa has lots of public parking and is very pedestrian friendly. It’s the kind of downtown that makes me just want to stroll around and window shop.
We met our friends at Ubuntu which happens to be a vegetarian restaurant / yoga studio. I was expecting to walk in to a new-agey-hippy-dippy place (please note I have nothing against new-agey-hippy-dippy places) but was surprised to find it felt almost like a big city metropolitan restaurant: high ceilings, sculptures throughout, art hanging on the wall, modern architecture.
It seems Ubuntu’s menu changes so you don’t always get the same thing. The waitress informed us that tonight was a small plate night and she recommended we ordered a variety of plates to share.
We started with a salad. I think it was the Cool Garden Greens and Lemongrass Salad (our friend ordered and I forget to write down the names). This salad was amazing! It was served on top of some kind of crispy very thin flat bread type thing and was made up of flowers and herbs. We joked that maybe it was the centerpiece for the table and not really the salad. We were pleasantly surprised how sweet and crisp it was. My past experience with any flowers in salads has always been kind of a bitter taste but not this! This salad was absolutely delicious!
The next dish was the English Peas with White Chocolate. This also sounded strange to me but OMG it was amazing!
Unfortunately, I forgot my camera (again) but the food was so beautifully displayed I took some photos with my iPhone that just don’t do it justice but hopefully you get the idea of how beautiful this food was displayed.
We ordered a few additional, heartier dishes: The rustic Rancho Gordo Yellow Eyed Bean Stew and the Mushroom Pizza Bianco with Hand Pulled Mozerella. Both were scrumptious and filling.
After dinner we decided to stroll around town for a bit and have some Port. I’ll leave our adventures in Port for another day…
PS. I’m always looking for suggestions of new places to try. If you have a favorite restaurant anywhere in the Bay Area please let me know.
Ubuntu is located at:
1140 Main Street
Napa, California 94559
www.ubuntunapa.com
707.251.5656
Hi Sally,
Great site, great post, and an alluring avatar! If you have an opportunity you might want to take a dog to Poggio’s on Bridgeway in Sausalito – they’re dog friendly. Not much of a park, but great food! Human food that is…
All the best,
Mark
Thanks Mark. I will have to check out Poggio’s! Poncho loves new adventures (and so do I).