Sunflower Caffe



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Napa & Sonoma Reviews

Bay Area Reviews

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A Caveat

Summary: Great sandwiches under the sun

I spent quite a bit of time researching restaurants for my recent (July 2008) trip to the California wine country, and the Sunflower Caffe came at the top of my list of places where to have lunch. It's conveniently located on Sonoma Plaza, and the food was just as good as I have read.

The little restaurant features mostly outside dining - perfect for a beautiful summer day. You order at the front of the restaurant from its menu of mostly salads and sandwiches, and they bring the food to the table. It was a bit hard, but not impossible, to find a table on a busy 4th of July. The back seating area is pretty cute and funky, tables are a bit too closed to each other, but at least most of them are shaded.

I had the smoked duck breast sandwich (about $13), "served warm in a sliced baguette with caramelized onions, melted gruyere and dressed mixed greens." It was absolutely delicious, perhaps the best, most balanced sandwich I've ever had. There was just the right amount of mustard (it's so easy to overdress a sandwich), the duck was nice and smoky, and though I couldn't distinguish its taste in the sandwich, the whole thing really worked. The sandwich was also the right size, I didn't go hungry but there were no leftovers. It came with nicely, if overly dressed greens, and a pasta salad I didn't try.

Mike had the Parisian ham sandwich (about $8), "thinly sliced Parisian ham served traditionally on buttered baguette with imported Dijon and Emmenthal cheese". It was also perfect. The ham and cheese were obviously high quality, and the sandwich was wonderfully balanced. We both loved it.

He had a strawberry smoothie which he sort of shared with me, that was also very fruity and good.

In all, it was a great lunch, and I'd eat there again in a heartbeat. The Sunflower Caffee also serves breakfast and ice cream.

Sunflower Caffe
421 1st St West
Sonoma, Ca
(707) 996-6645
http://www.sonomasunflower.com/

Duck sandwich


Ham sandwich