Farmstead at Long Meadow Ranch
738 Main St.
St. Helena, CA 94574
Yelp

Overlord, Carnivorous Lush, and myself had been to Farmstead at Long Meadow Ranch for Weener’s wedding a few years back.  I thought the wedding food was excellent, albeit small portioned.   I was looking forward to coming back one of these days.  St. Helena is definitely a little further north in the Napa Valley.  Fortunately we were staying at the Silverado Resort, which is sort of in the middle of where you want to be.

Cheddar Biscuits honey butter
By checking into Yelp, we scored these on the house!  They were fluffy, and only slightly cheesy.  They went great with the honey butter.

Grass-fed Steak Tartare farm egg, capers, cornichons, hot sauce, toast
The steak tartare was bright and balanced.  If you don’t like pickled flavors, you best stay away from this one.  The capers, cornichons, side of pickles and pickled red onions made for extremely tart flavors that were only mildly tempered by the runny egg.

Farmstead Benedict 62 degree eggs, smoked pork, hot sauce hollandaise, crispy potatoes
Benedicts are always The Annoyer’s choice.  This was not bad, but I thought the bread was a bit tough even after all the sauce, egg, and pork fat soaked through it.

Grass-fed Beef Hash onions, hedgehog mushrooms, crispy potatoes, sunny side up egg, chimichuri
Overlord took one look at the vegetables on this dish and exclaimed “Yuck!”    That aside, it was Overlord’s favorite dish of the bunch.  I think he enjoyed the well balanced combination of beef, mushrooms, potatoes, runny egg, and herbaceous chimichuri.

12 hour Pulled Pork Sandwich farm egg, crispy potatoes
I had really high hopes for this.  The last pulled pork sandwich I had at Screendoor in Portland, was probably the best pulled pork sandwich of my life.  I’ve been in search for something as good, but have been sorely disappointed.  This was good, but not great.  The bun was a tad dry, and I would have appreciated a much juicier and saucier pork.  I loved the crispy potatoes.

The menu filled us with so much excitement and potential for something really spectacular.  I really wanted everything on the menu, but our waiter kept me in check.  Unfortunately, I found the food to be a tad short of my expectations.  Everything sounded better than it tasted.  Nothing was bad per se, but nothing was great.  I enjoyed the wedding food I had here better than the brunch we just ate.  I can’t really pinpoint where they went wrong.  I know the people at Farmstead are really passionate about the food and maintaining the quality and integrity of ingredients.  Everything is house made.  Everything is sourced from their own farms.  Even the cattle are raised on their own ranch.  I would be open to coming back, but maybe for dinner next time.

10 – You NEED to eat here
9 – Awesome
8 – Very good
7 – Good
6 – OK
5 – Average
4 – Not bad
3 – Not good
2 – Terrible
1 – Do NOT eat here