Advice for Petaluma,Novato and Sebastapol

[CabernetFrank]

Will be in the Petaluma,Novato and Sebastapol area for the upcoming Presidents Day Weekend and could use a few recommendations on favorite eateries. Thank you.

[CabernetFrank]

Thanks everyone for the kind assistance, but it looks like our trip has gone up in smoke, as a result of my wife getting the flu. Will use the suggestions for our next journey.

[MikeW]

What types of things are you looking to eat? Lunch, dinner, casual, type of foods, atmosphere?

In general, I would point to Della Fattoria and Central Market as some of the best Petaluma has to offer.

[Missmoo]

If you are looking for a casual lunch, I would recommend Ray's Tavern up on Western, they make excellent sandwiches and salads. You can eat it there and have a beer or glass of wine, or you can get it to go as it's a deli as well.

[Kathleen M]

In Petaluma, I strongly second Waterstreet Bistro. Very fresh ingredients, the baked goods are fabulous, soups are great. I also recently had some really delicious Himalayan food at Kumari Pass. If you like Mexican food, Mi Pueblo (either location, the menu is the same) is very good. I especially like the chicken mole enchiladas. Also, Lolita's Market and Taqueria for Mexican is pretty darn amazing. There's no atmosphere to speak of, it's a taqueria inside a Mexican market. But the food is great. I think their mole is even better than Mi Pueblo, but it's a close call.

In Sebastopol, I also strongly second Screamin' Mimi's. If they have lavendar ice cream, just get it. It's amazing. I recently ate a scoop of their fig ice cream that was almost as wonderful. The strawberry rose sorbet is so refreshing. I also love Sushi Hana (not the same as Hana Japenese in Rohnert Park). I know what Anthony Bourdain says about discount sushi, but the sushi specials on Saturday and Wednesday are really great and very very fresh because the turnover is so fast. I particularly recommend the hotate gai and the unagi. They also have a lot of speciality rolls that people keep recommending, but I'm so fond of the nigiri on the specials list that I always stick with that.

Do let us know where you ate and how you liked it!

[foodeye]

Wild Flour Bakery is worth a quick and beautiful detour from downtown Sebastopol, if you want to try another great bakery stop besides Della Fatoria in Petaluma (the latter of which you can also find at the SF Ferry Building's Saturdays Farmer's Market),

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Wild Flour Bread
140 Bohemian Hwy, Freestone, CA

[Civil Bear]

Roy's Chicago Doggery for a fun lunch in Petaluma. It's a diner inside the livestock auction grounds and serves great Chicago style dogs and awesome Italian roast beef. Everything they sell is Vienna brand. Nice folks too.

More advice: just say "no" to Boca Steak and Wild Fox in Novato. Ricky's is good though, if you don't mind eating poolside at the motel.

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Boca Steak
340 Ignacio Blvd, Novato, CA 94949

Wild Fox Mesquite Fired Kitchen
225 Alameda del Prado, Novato, CA

Roy's Chicago Doggery
84 Corona, Petaluma, CA 94954

[Robert Lauriston]

When passing through Petaluma I always stop at Della Fattoria if they're open. They make some of the best bread and pastries in the Bay Area and the sandwiches and pizzas are great. Cafe service is friendly but can be slow.

http://www.dellafattoria.com/menu/men...

[JennaJay]

There are a ton of awesome places to eat in Petaluma. I recommend: Taps Restaurant for Sunday Brunch, Lunch or Dinner and they have TONS of beer on tap if you're a beer lover; Waterstreet Bistro for Breakfast or Lunch is a must visit, french cafe, awesome coffee, house made baked goods and fabulous food; Cordoza's Deli for Breakfast or Lunch; Central Market for dinner, farm fresh ingredients, extreme awesomeness; Cucina Paradiso for dinner, awesome Italian food; Volpi's Ristorante for dinner, Italian family style eatery with HUGE portions, it's was a speakeasy and is still around from probation times. Actually that is just in Downtown Petaluma. There's SO many that are good. Check this site for a listing of restaurants and more info on the ones I've mentioned: http://visitpetaluma.com/petaluma-dining.

I'm not familiar with Novato, but Sebastopol has this ice cream shoppe, Screamin' Mimi's that is a must visit while in town. And Hop Monk tavern is really good... great beer too. Starlight is southern style food, its good but a bit pricey in my opinion, but the restaurant is an old train which is super cool.

Hope this helps you!

[DavidT]

Be sure to go to the upper right-hand corner of this page and do searches for all 3 towns. You should be able to find a number of past threads with many suggestions and recommendations.
Here is an example:

http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/704525

[wolfe]

Hole in the Wall, Sebastapol, breakfast and other meals
http://holeinthewall.chefsnet.net/

[Stephanie Wong]

Has service improved at Hole in the Wall? A friend went before the holidays -- loved the food at lunch or breakfast (I forget), but it was a 1-person operation & tremendously sloooooow.

"Food was good, but didn't justify the wait". He even talked to the cook/server/owner about it because as a local resident, he really wanted the place to succeed. Reply was that Hole in the Wall was trying to find some good permanent help. Did they?

[wolfe]

Haven't been since my last visit to Walker Apple farm when we had no serving difficulties. That would be early Fall. Don't get t\out there much so try to combine a little if everything, breakfast at Hole, apple pickup, snack at Roy's and for dessert a ginormus scone at Bovine Bakery in Petaluma, didn't like the bread I had a Della Fattoria.