Digest

Ubuntu is so good, it makes Carrie 218 regret moving away from Napa. It impressed CHOW wine blogger Daniel Duane to the point of giddiness. And hi standards went a little crazy with deliciousness.

Ignore the fact that it’s surrounded by the wildly famous restaurants of Napa Valley. Ignore that it shares a name with a Linux operating system. (Ubuntu is the word for an African humanist philosophy, so it’s not actually named after the operating system.) If the fact that it’s a combined yoga studio and restaurant bugs you, ignore it. (Although, if you care, you can take in a yoga class before your meal, and some serious yogis seem to think Ubuntu runs a good studio.) Ignore everything else, and just focus on the fact that the food is stupendously, wildly, earth-shakingly good.

It may be vegetarian, but it’s not hippie-drippy, stereotypically vegetarian, says the wary Duane. “Despite the yoga and the vaguely New Age–y name, the menu offers truly first-rate California French-Italian that simply doesn’t have any animal flesh. It’s a curious effect, because nothing else about the cooking calls out vegetarian. Literally nothing. No tofu, no portobellos, not even any tabbouleh. In fact, everything about the food demonstrates a chef absolutely committed to his craft, paying very close attention to the way that that craft is being practiced, and keeping pace with the best in the game.”

There are amazing sea-salt-and-lavender-flavored Marconi almonds to munch on while you peruse the menu. There are flavorful, hearty sunchokes with romesco sauce. There are perfectly sweet beets and Asian pears, with fresh greens and whipped Point Reyes blue cheese. There is the much-beloved cauliflower in a cast iron pot—a hearty cauliflower mélange, held together in custard, and smelling beautifully of curry. There are roast root vegetables with squash purée and farro—the flavor is a complex layering of vegetables. The other standard: potatoes with fennel.

The cooks are masters of the Brussels sprout, too. Various preparations of this vegetable—like roasted Brussels sprouts over grits, with mustard—have been winning over hounds.

Salsa verde is fantastic. Salads are light and delicious. Stuffed bok choy in French pumpkin soup, with lemongrass and basil, is “amazing. Lightly spiced, delicate, truly outstanding in every way,” says hi standards. And pizza with wild nettle and garden kale and an egg on top is the best pizza she has ever had in a restaurant, ever. “We inhaled it!”

Great beverages, too: There are perfectly pulled shots of Blue Bottle coffee, and Racer 5 IPA on the menu, says Doodleboomer.

We have heard only three complaints. First, some folks find the servers are a little inexperienced, though definitely friendly. Second, rightstar thinks it’s terrible that they serve butter with the bread. “Not what you would expect at a place that specializes in healthy vegetable dishes,” he says. And lintygmom walked out of the restaurant before eating anything because of the prices. “I don’t love vegetables enough to spend $9 for cauliflower or $14 for a small, not-the-best vegetarian pizza. Not for lunch.” (Remember that these prices are for tapas-size dishes—you’ll need two or three such dishes to make a meal.) rfneid, though, notes that he and his wife had dinner at Ubuntu and left stuffed, for $68. “Quite reasonable for the quality of the food, which was superb.”

Ubuntu Restaurant & Yoga Studio [Napa Valley]
1140 Main Street, Napa
707-251-5656
Location

Board Links: I Am Vegetable, Hear Me Roar! Ubuntu Redux (long)
Ubuntu
Ubuntu for lunch
Finally Made it to Ubuntu–The Good and the Bad

Here’s the story: Gumbah’s served the most beloved Italian beef sandwiches in town. Then it closed, to the sorrow of thousands. But it’s back! One of the former customers from the neighborhood stepped up and bought the place. Before he did, he made certain he could retain the old recipes, the same providers, and the same cook. He loved the place so much, he wanted to bring it completely “back in all its delicious, drippy glory,” says PDXpat. “Even the old familiar, house-made giardiniera was there.”

The cheesesteak is great, too—very much like it was previously and, if anything, a little cheesier. Fries are definitely the same crispy shoestring type. The only disappointment is the onion rings—which were never really that great at Gumbah’s anyway.

There’s been some minor remodeling: The eating area is a little less cluttered, the kitchen is a little cleaner and more organized, and everything’s a bit shinier. But it’s definitely the same old place.

The new place has a new name—West Side Café—but the owner’s leaving the Gumbah’s signs up for a while.

West Side Café (formerly Gumbah’s) [Solano County]
138 Tennessee Street, Vallejo
707-648-1100
Location

Board Links: Gumbah’s is Back!
Gumbah’s Italian Beef, Vallejo, why it is worth a trip

There’s excellent Nepalese and Indian food at Namaste Café of Petaluma (not to be confused with the one in Milpitas). The chef uses the freshest of ingredients and presents the food like the culinary school graduate that he is. drmimi loves the lunch buffet. Best stuff: Nepali momocha (steamed dumplings stuffed with minced lamb, in tomato sauce), palakh murgh (creamed spinach and succulent chicken), samosas, and tandoori murgh. On the dinner menu, vegetable pakoras are fabulous. She also called ahead and got some vegetable dishes prepared vegan-style, sans cream—one roasted eggplant, one mushroom dish—and they were fabulous. Great masala tea, too. And, drmimi says, it’s spicier than Shangri-la’s fare—not just in heat but in the density and complexity of spice flavors.

Shangri-la is the other favorite in the area. “I’ve never had a meal there that I didn’t really love,” says Kathleen M. The people are friendly, the service efficient, and the food high-quality. And it’s spicy, too—as much as some folks can handle.

Namaste Café [Sonoma County]
1390 N. McDowell Boulevard, Petaluma
707-664-9245
Location

Shangri-la [Sonoma County]
1706 E. Cotati Avenue, Rohnert Park
707-793-0300
Location

Board Link: Namaste Cafe- Petaluma

Good homemade soba is beautiful—a dense, wheaty, chewy, perfectly toothsome bit of noodly life. It’s hard to find in San Francisco, but sometimes, Mikaku Restaurant has it. Try its homemade zaru soba: It’s particularly nice, since Mikaku serves the sobayu (the water the noodles have cooked in), says shortexact.

Mikaku doesn’t have its own buckwheat milling machine, so it’s not actually grinding its own flour on the premises—which means that the soba isn’t done in the most strictly, traditionally proper Japanese way. But the chef is enthusiastic about the soba-making process, and he has fans, says K K. However the soba is a special—so call ahead to find out if it’s being served.

The restaurant also has a nice, hearty chawan mushi and light, sweet kobacha, served with sea salt.

Mikaku Restaurant [Union Square]
323 Grant Avenue, San Francisco
415-781-6730
Location

Board Link: Housemade Udon or Soba anywhere?

Couleur Café has been a longtime favorite for Joan Kureczka, and the menu has just changed for the better. Steak frites are now served with a good, clean red wine and shallot sauce—much better than the muddy, overly rich Roquefort sauce from the old menu. There are lots of new mussel preparations. Moules Potrero is very good: mussels in white wine broth, with tarragon and tomatoes.

The café’s got jillyju’s gold-standard burger, too.

Couleur Café [Potrero Hill]
300 De Haro Street, San Francisco
415-255-1021
Location

Board Link: New menu at Couleur Cafe—this place just gets better and better

Earl Grey stumbled across Guanajuato Market, where he found an excellent butcher, with house-made chorizo and lard in two colors. And tubs full of mole, and dreamy carnitas. “The carnitas still haunts me,” he says. He’s going to stop on any future trips through Vallejo.

Guanajuato recently opened a taqueria and grill next door.

Guanajuato Market [Solano County]
1652 Fairgrounds Drive, Vallejo
707-552-5064
Location

Board Link: Guanajuato Market in Vallejo