Recently a lot of people recommended Auro in Calistoga so we wanted to give it a try. I loved all the dishes especially the gnocchi and the truffle polenta as well as the zucchini with salsa verde. For a $200 meal the menu was outstanding.
However, a bunch of things rubbed me the wrong way. To start, the restaurant is behind another restaurant, so you have to walk through the casual restaurant to get to the Michelin starred auro. The two restaurants are connected and there was so much noise coming from the casual restaurant it really did not feel like a Michelin experience. Also, to go to the bathroom you have to walk through the causal restaurant then walk all the way outside to bathrooms. It was a strange setting to me.
Additionally the service was a bit off. We received multiple cracked dishes (for example pic 6). They also left us with a stained menu when we first started our meal (last pic) instead of providing a clean one. And they took away our drinks menu because they didn’t have enough to go around.
All in all it was a wonderful dinner but there are certainly aspects that could be tuned up.
by AtHalcyon