Best Contemporary American Restaurants in Santa Rosa

Great tasting foods. Portions are light so you may want an appetizer and/or salad in addition to the meal. Everything was really tasty and cooked perfectly. I’ve been in louder restaurants for sure but I would’ve preferred a little more quiet so that conversations at the table could be held without significant raising of the voice.

It is always a wonderful experience to dine at the Rotunda! Kathrine was so fun as our server and it is sweet to be remembered by Willie and Marian at the front desk. The food was great; I had to order the well reviewed burger and it was as good as they said!

I love the lack of pretentiousness and the relative quiet of this restaurant. Some of the dishes are outstanding (crab tacos, risotto). Some are fine but don't quite justify the cost (lobster bisque, chicken cordon blue). Seems like the French dishes are not really working as well. The small plates and appetizers are where they shine. I hope they find their wheelhouse and stick to that. But its a lovely place. And the Hansel wines are a good value.

If you are near Sebastopol, Goldfinch NEEDS to be on your list. I don't know where to begin on the food... - The pickled veggies were the right balance of acidic, herbaceous, slightly sweet, and crunchy - The Baby Gem lettuce, strawberry salad was beautiful, refreshing, an excellent amuse bouche. - The Roasted Carrots with honey mustard puree were tender, savory, slightly glazed, and an excellent counter to the baby gem salad. - The Hangar steak was lights-out--charred, beefy, and a fatty/richness, cut perfectly with bleu cheese and the red wine glaze. The Potato pave was something I will absolutely be trying to make at an upcoming steak dinner I'm hosting (think Potato gratin cooked slowly in butter, seasoned, cooled+ pressed in a pan, and then cut into squares and deep-fried for a super sexy crispy exterior with fluffy/creamy/buttery/salty potato interior) - The star of the show was ABSOLUTELY the Dungeness crab ravioli Rose... If that stays on the menu, it is a MUST ORDER. Since I was lucky enough to have my wife order that, I got to do the cheat code/perfect bite of the evening--a little hangar steak, ravioli, some of the crispy exterior of the potato pave, and a little red wine glaze. Absolutely divine--surf & turf of legend. We will now be making whatever excuse we can to get back to Goldfinch.

We got lucky getting the best table in the restaurant, across from the bar in a nook under the stairs, so we easily heard each other! We chose a plant forward menu and our waiter Kai (sp?) decided on the order of the dishes. I’d trust his judgment again because we had a great time. The pigs head hid a shaved fennel and pear salad underneath. I delightfully learned how different parts of fennel tastes when shaved so finely. The Hokkaido scallops were soooo good and fresh and compared to a sushi restaurant, a very good value. My partner normally doesn’t like shellfish but he loved the scallops. We ended the savory portion of the meal with the seaweed noodles and the grilled cabbage with dill pickle butter and roe. Both plates had amazing, complimentary sauces and Kai brought us some bread to savor the last drops. The One Punch Man cocktail complemented entire the meal so well with its fruity yet creamy flavor. We got the chocolate semifreddo for dessert for the texture. It had a toasted umeboshi meringue that tasted like dates if they were slightly pickled. I left food drunk and with very happy tastebuds. I loved the restraint in all the flavors. I think a lot of dishes could’ve easily gone sideways in less capable hands, or even the meal because this menu had a lot of citrus and pickled items, and instead they nailed it just right.