Best Restaurants Healdsburg | Local Wally's Sonoma Tourist Guide
From cheap eats to 5 star dining, Trust Local Wally to find the BEST Places to Eat in Healdsburg. No bad meals on vacation when you eat where the locals do.
BEST RESTAURANTS AND PLACES TO EAT IN HEALDSBURG
The Honest Healdsburg Restaurant Guide: Best Places to Eat in Russian River Area
An hour or so north of the Sonoma Plaza is Healdsburg, a picturesque small town surrounded by wineries and full of restaurants that rival the best in Napa and Sonoma. In fact, the food scene is so good here that Healdsburg has become a foodie culinary destination where Snapchats come before actual chatting at the dinner table.
The plaza itself has lots of boutique stores and there are plenty of quaint hotels if you wanted to spend a bit more time. But even if you're only here for a day make sure you plan out a time to experience the food. And remember - click the photo to go to the restaurants' website, click the address to go to google maps, and click the phone number to call. Nice!
PRICE GUIDE: AVERAGE MEAL PRICE
$ = $10's | $$ = $20's | $$$ = $30's | $$$$ = $40's
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Best Places to Eat in Healdsburg and the Russian River Area
Barndiva
Barndiva is equal parts restaurant, wine bar and cocktail lounge with an upscale hip and trendy ambiance. Open Wed-Sun for lunch, brunch and dinner. Beautiful food, beautiful setting, loved by locals and travelers in the know.
What's Good: Killer burger at lunch, excellent seafood at dinner, or just pop in for a creative craft cocktail. It's expensive, perhaps even extravagant, but never fails to impress. $$$$
Bergamot Alley
Wine, beer, live music, vinyl records, and food items like gourmet grilled cheese sandwiches or a cup filled with bacon strips. Yes, it's a bit hipster and unrefined but that's the charm of it all. Ultra casual, old school eclectic, and so much fun.
What's Good: Don't be fooled by the hipster vibe, Bergamot Alley takes their grilled cheese sandwiches seriously with 8 variations. Cheap eats never tasted so delicious. $
Bravas Bar de Tapas
Traditional Spanish and modern tapas in a chic modern casual sort of setting. Back patio seating is like dining in your backyard, inside seating less distinctive though the bar is inviting. Small plates and large sharing plates, the more people the better.
What's Good: You'll want to order as much as your wallet allows (figure $8 per small plate), best bests include the foie gras tiny slider sandwiches and larger plate paella. Don't miss their Gin and Tonic specials. $$
Campo Fina
Looking a lot like a hipster Portland restaurant with exposed brick walls inside and a bocce ball court out, Campo Fina serves up pizzas and Italian fare, smaller plates to share so order up. Romantic in front, lively in the back, locals love Campo Fina for it's laid back neighborhood charm.
What's Good: Meatballs drenched in sauce with smokey mozzarella, grilled baby octopus with pickled veggies and burrata cheese on grilled bread and prosciutto should keep you happy. $$
Chalkboard
Located inside Hotel Les Mars, Chalkboard is a stylish restaurant with small plates of upscale American dishes, pastas, and eclectic fusions. Contemporary setting, seasonal focused menu with many ingredients picked from their own garden at Chalk Hill Estates Winery.
What's Good: Can't decide? Get the flight of pastas and try either 3 or 6 of them. Other standouts include the pork belly biscuits and buttermilk fried chicken thighs with vinegar hot sauce. $$$
Coppola Winery
Inside the Coppola Winery is RUSTIC: Francis's Favorites, serving family style Italian meals, I guess just like Francis Ford Coppola used to have. OK, it's a bit of a Disney setting but the outside patio is terrific and the food very good, from a $12 sausage sandwiches to $95 steak for two.
What's Good: The whole fish cooked in salt is an amazing experience, a bit of tableside theater as the salt cast is chipped away to reveal a steaming perfectly cooked (and not salty) fish. $$
Rustic, Coppola Winery, 300 Via Archimedes, Geyserville, CA 95441
Dry Creek Kitchen
With it's classy ambiance, Charlie Palmer's Dry Creek Kitchen is fancy indeed, a special night out sort of restaurant. Palmer is the Michelin star chef responsible for 14 top notch eateries and Dry Creek Kitchen inside the Hotel Healdsburg is elegant and refined, with surprisingly decent portions.
What's Good: Monday -Thursday opt for the Sonoma Neighbor menu, a fixed price ($36) three course meal, add wine pairings for $18, or go large with five courses ($79), add wine pairings for $48. $$$$
Guiso Latin Fusion
Quaint family run restaurant serving up Latin Fusion, a mix of Carribean, Salvadoran and other exotic flavorings. If your taste buds are a bit bored and tired of the same old thing then Guiso will do the trick with amped up flavorings that will wake up your palate.
What's Good: Elotitos, oven roasted corn on the cob with Jamaican jerk spices, flat iron steak with habanero chimichurri, or come for lunch for cheap eats like Pupusas or tacos filled with jerk chicken. $$
Jimtown Store
Jimtown Store is part country store, part cafe, and the perfect place to get your wine country picnic food. Box lunches and a wide variety of sandwiches, from peanut butter, bacon and jam to a pulled pork Bahn Mi. Breakfast, soup, chili, and plenty of homemade baked goods.
What's Good: If you're eating "in" get a bowl of Chain Gang Chili made with beef and pork, a fresh lemon bar with coconut and dates and you're good to go. Order box lunches online in advance. $
KINSmoke BBQ
For guys who claim people take BBQ too seriously it's evident they do as well. Ribs sold full or half rack, meat by the pound and piled on a cafeteria tray, sauces separate (thank you), five to choose from, and grilled items such as fish, shrimp and burgers. Salads too, but why bother?
What's Good: Ribs, get a half of St Louis pork spareribs and a half of beef short ribs, don't forget to ask for pickles and onions. Some reviewers say it's expensive but this isn't McRib, this is the real thing. $$
Scopa Restaurant
Scopa's is all the rave with locals who love this tiny neighborhood bistro. Cozy dining room, tight tables, incredible antipasta appetizers that are nearly a meal, thin crust Neapolitan pizzas with fresh ingredients, and large entrees made for sharing. Pasta, steaks, pizza, seafood, it's all good.
What's Good: Start with their burrata cheese served with fig and onion jam and toasted crusty bread. Rib Eye for 2 is glorious but Tomasso's Suga Cabrese with spaghetti is the absolute bomb. $$
Spoonbar
California cuisine dressed up and ready for a photo shoot, Spoonbar celebrates honest ingredients prepared in an innovative style and plated so beautifully that it's hard to take the first bite. Located in the eco friendly H2 Hotel, it's swanky, modern, with a bit of retro friendliness thrown in.
What's Good: For dinner opt for the Crab & Scallop Agnolotti with fried artichoke, Chanterelle mushrooms and chives or the lemon brined chicken, melt in your mouth tenderness. Good happy hour. $$
The Wurst
While you won't see Michelin stars hanging at The Wurst, a casual sausage and burger place with a great outdoor patio, you will see plenty of happy diners enjoying their brats, hotties and even a "bad dog". Down to Earth prices, you know you're going to love this place.
What's Good: You can't beat the Sheboygan Brat, a savory sausage imported from Wisconsin, topped with kraut & onions. Add a side of hand cut fries with truffle aioli, it doesn't get much better. $
Vallette
A rustic yet modern, the kind of place where hams cure in the visitble cooler and a slab of 300 year old redrood serves as the bar. Valette pricdes itself with "honest" food but don't be fooled, this is high end dining using local incredients and showcasing the best Sonoma has to offer.
What's Good: Day Boat Scallops topped with a pastry crust impressive is an impressive starter. Lobster stuffed halibut a knock out and the New York steak with roasted bone marrow gets rave reviews. $$$
Willi's Seafood
Willi's Seafood is a fresh look at seafood dining. The restaurant itself is modern and contemporary, as istheir food, small plates meant for sharing, sort of tapas for seafood, allowing diners to order multiple plates to taste it all. Plenty of non-seafood & glutten free items so something for everyone.
What's Good: Start with ultra fresh ceviche and curdo, graduate to a loaded lobster roll and some meat skewers, and don't miss the tennis ball sized crab cake make with no filler and the Fondue with Chorizo served with housemade Fritos. $$$
