Lunch @ Solbar in Calistoga, CA

I was in Calistoga for some business and grabbed lunch at the 1 Michelin star Solbar.  While I've been on some casual Michelin-star dining trips (Al's Place and Kin Khao come to mind), dining at Solbar is perhaps the most casual as it is A) a casual restaurant to begin with and B) for lunch.  This isn't a knock against Solbar, it simply is what it is.

The menu at Solbar is typical a la carte affair.  We grabbed some appetizers and some sandwiches, here's what we had.

1) beet salad

This salad was listed as "locally world famous" and I agreed with it.  It's a great salad.  It included two types of beets underneath the mound of frisee you see.  On the side you can find pureed beets, avocado, and grapefruit.  My favorite was the beet chips.  I would highly recommend this to anyone going to Solbar for lunch.

2) sol fries

My girlfriend loves fries so we had to get some for her.  While not quite as good as the pickled fries from Al's Place these were quite delicious.  They lightly sprinkled the fries with picante dust to give it a bit of a kick.

3) duck banh mi sandwich

We both ended up getting the duck banh mi sandwich as our main.  It comes with a papaya/jicama salad.  The duck banh mi sandwich was quite good.  Along with the duck there was some pate, carrots, and jalapeño.  The staff removed the seeds from the jalapeño, so there was a small kick but not too much.  A good sandwich.

Along with some drinks, tax, and tip we ended up paying about $90 for lunch.  It's a bit pricey for lunch, but I'm glad we stopped into try it.