We recently hit up Napa, CA for a few days as part of our #GFBloggerRetreat. We stayed in a gluten-free B&B in downtown Napa, Inn on Randolph. While there were gluten-free places to eat in Napa like C Casa, we found most of our favorite places in Yountville, CA. It’s about a 20 minute drive from downtown Napa. There you’ll find Thomas Keller Restaurants like Bouchon, Ad Hoc, and The French Laundry. This is a story about Bouchon Bistro (not Bochoun Bakery).

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Bouchon Bistro

Bouchon in Yountville is a famous Thomas Keller Restaurant serves authentic French “bistro fare.” They have an amazing fresh seafood menu, and typical french fair – full of cheese.

It wasn’t as easy to eat gluten-free and dairy-free as other restaurants though, as delicious French fare typically has delicious butter and milk. They also don’t have a dedicated fryer for fries <sigh>. The waiter had to go back and forth with the chef in the back-of-the-house to communicate and ask questions throughout the 10 of us asking “is this dairy free?” “is this egg free?” “is that made in a shared fryer?” but all questions were eventually answered thouroughly. Sadly we couldn’t eat as much as we thought here, but it’s beautiful inside! I just wanted to eat all the cheese, but definitely did not want to deal with the ramifications!

I ended up ordering the trout that came with a cauliflower parsley, lemon sauce and capers. I didn’t want to think that it’s incredible just because it’s Bouchon. But, I hate to tell you, it was magical. Yes, a piece of non-dairy gluten-free fish worth writing about. The fish was so tender and moist and savory and oh my god I could have eaten this fish for every meal. Everyone else had deviled eggs, the steak, scallops and the roasted chicken. They all said the same thing – even if things were modified to be plain, it was the best plain food they’ve ever had. I guess that’s what a $30 piece of chicken is – the best chicken you can have.

Honestly, at around $35 a dish, it wasn’t super expensive. While I’m not sure I’d consider it a reasonable price for a meal, it was less than I thought it would be. With French Laundry at $350 minimum, getting out of Bouchon at around $70 with a glass of wine and an appetizer sounds fair.

We paid for the meal as part of our Gluten-Free Bloggers Retreat with sponsors Enjoy Life Foods, Canyon Bakehouse and Schar. 

If you’re interested in cooking like Thomas Keller at home, try the Bouchon cookbook on Amazon (affiliate link).