Decided to take Theresa on an overnight trip to Sonoma to celebrate her birthday. Scouring the Internet and Yelp for restaurants around downtown Sonoma, The Girl and the Fig kept on popping up as a recommended one. Evidently, this restaurant was a hidden gem among locals and foodies in the know until it got famous because of the TV show, The Bachelor. One of the dates was held there and now regulars complain that getting a table is much more difficult now. And I would highly recommend reservations, as even for a Thursday night booking, there were very few open slots left when I booked them. They were also packed the night we went, so I imagine weekends are worse.
Apart from the main dining room, there is seating at the bar where you can order food and an area with couches where you can sit while waiting for your table to become available. The menu consists of French bistro fare made with ingredients sourced locally. A “plat du jour” prix fixe menu, which rotates on a roughly weekly basis, can be found on a chalk board as you walk in. They also make their own smoked meats and chaucterie, which is featured in its own section of the menu. Perfect if you just want to sit at the bar with a few glasses of wine sans a full meal.
Our server Esteban greeted us promptly and told us about the various dinner specials and was very knowledgeable about the extensive menu, giving us detailed descriptions about ingredients and preparation methods. Based on our preferences, he made several suggestions on what menu items we would enjoy including wine. Trusting him we ordered the steamed mussels and frites for an appetizer, the nightly scallop special and the wild flounder meunière for our entrees. For wine, we decided to share a 2010 Anaba viognier.
A mixed olive plate came shortly after ordering for us to munch on, and then the wine. The olives were of the artisan variety and not too briny, which was a good palette teaser for the meal to come. Shortly afterwards, the mussels came with toasted bread slices on top and a plate of pomme frites (french fries) with garlic aioli.
Steamed mussels are pretty ubiquitous at bistro, seafood, and Italian style restaurants, making the experience equally wide, from great to “hey, I could have done better at home with a pound of mussels from Costco”. The keys to a great dish of steamed mussels are the freshness of the mussels themselves and the balance of the steaming sauce. TG&TF did not disappoint. Mussels were fresh, with no hint of any earthy or “sea” taste. Texture was spot on with the mussels not being overly chewy.
The steaming sauce had garlic, white wine, and plenty of sliced fennel with the right amount of seasoning. Normally, I am not a huge fennel fan, especially when paired with seafood, as I feel the licorice taste can interfere with the delicate taste of the seafood, but TG&TF made it work. The fennel pieces soaked up the sauce, which made it great for munch on after all the mussels were gone. After soaking the sauce up with the bread, we even threw in the fries at the end to soak up even more of the delicious sauce. We ordered the full pound as an appetizer, but it can easily serve as a standalone meal.
When ordering scallops at restaurants, especially at “fancy” higher end ones, usually the entree is just scallops with some sauce, and perhaps sitting on a bed of something like risotto, creamed potatoes, mixed greens, etc. in other words, from a substance and portion point of view, pretty bare bones. TG&TF brought more of a country approach to it, accompanying the scallops with sauted fingerling potatoes, grilled asparagus and drizzled with a pesto-y sauce. Again, locally sourced scallops made a huge difference, as the scallops tasted fresh and were well cooked.
The wild flounder meunière sat a top a bed of pureed potatoes, sauteed cello spinach, topped with capers with meuniere/ lemon caper brown butter sauce along the outer rim. I was expecting a more battered and fried piece of fish, but it was pan sauteed and cooked nicely. The lemony sauce complimented the fish well. The portion was also fairly generous, and paired well with the viognier.
For dessert, Esteban suggested their salted fig caramel sundae with vanilla ice cream, brownie bites, and brandied cherries. Esteban even topped it with a lit candle to celebrate Theresa’s birthday. All the elements of the sundae worked well together, with the cherries providing a nice punch, cutting the richness of the other elements. What was nice was all the elements were not overly sweet, letting the flavors, rather than the sugary punchy, speak for the dessert.
The verdict:
Definitely satisfied with the whole experience and agree with most of the reviews that I had read on Yelp. Definitely a hidden gem. Service was spot on and definitely a strength. The location right off the main Sonoma square is big plus, especially if you are staying close by at a B&B or other inn/hotel in the area. Prices are relatively reasonable in this “resort” area, given the quality and quantity of the food you get. Definitely worth a drop by if you are in the area. Just make sure you make reservations.
