Bottega Napa Valley

"As I'm reading the other reviews I wonder if we're talking about the same restaurant? We only had one night in Napa so we wanted to make it special. We we decided to go here based on other reviews. It was a complete and total let down, I'm very sorry to have to say that. There were six of us in our group. We had a reservation and spent no time waiting at all after we entered they had our table ready. The waiter was friendly but definitely tired and just not in the mood. But I was okay with the delay ... we sat there for about 20 minutes before he came to take our order. I'm trying to remember all of our plates but mine was a single ravioli about the size of a dessert plate. But it was probably the worst tasting ravioli I have ever experienced. The dough was mushy and the inside was completely off on flavor. After about three bites I left that plate and didn't continue. One of my daughters had the pasta with seafood... With safron. Again I couldn't believe the flavors I was experiencing and none of us could take more than two or three bites. My wife ordered the vegetable lasagna, and again nobody liked it. The one plate that was actually not bad what's the pasta with just simple tomato sauce. I actually wanted to quit at that point and not order anything more, but it occurred to everyone to get the desert, the chocolate Volcan. And again very surprisingly it was a terrible experience... The chocolate tasted like it had no sugar, but the sauce on top what's something none of us could describe.... Maybe a bit of cheese was in it, but still nobody wanted to eat it. I think we all have wide ranges of palates... But this night out of six of us not one was satisfied with what they ordered. At the time we didn't say anything, and my purpose here is not to insult or damage the image of anybody but rather to try to encourage some improvement. Something happened that night... maybe the chef was replaced at the last minute?"

"The food here is a hit and miss with flavors. The Gnocchi Della Nonna is a delightful appetizer that has gnocchi that compares to donut-like pillows. They were wrapped in prosciutto zested with Pecorino Romano that rests on a delicious, velvety old hen sauce. The spaghetti Alla Sophia Loren is homemade pasta very lightly salted with heirloom tomatoes. The prawn special was two colossal prawns on the same spaghetti as the Sophia Alla Loren, with a prawn head and no prawn added on the plate for decoration. The service is great. However, we were sat by the large glass doors and were constantly pestered by flies - yuck! It was so bad that we had to move to the dark end of the dining room. If you choose to go here for lunch- sit away from the farthest glass window/doors from the bar to avoid the flies."

"The restaurant, servers, and ambiance were great. My only problems were, 1- on a relatively empty patio we got seated next to a group of very boisterous women and it kinda ruined our date...well, not ruined, but it was not pleasant. And 2- the servers were a little too on the ball. The food came too fast, someone was always there filling our water, taking plates, and I feel this is unpleasant when you want some quiet conversation. On a positive note, the restaurant was beautiful. The food was amazing. The bread was the best I've had since I'd been to Europe. And I especially liked my Italian Gin&Tonic. Delicious."

"Person feeling: The roasted chicken was not so juicy. The pasta was a little bit too salty. We were not so hungry when we were at the restaurant. We only ordered two entries. The server kept checking our status and kept asking us whether to order more food. We told the server the reason, but still felt pushed for ordering more stuff. That made us feel not that good. Also when the server talked to us, the server’s mouth too close to our food. When the server added water, the water jar was right above our food and water dropped in our food. The good point was that the server was really friendly and we felt welcomed."