Martini House, St Helena

over the past several years, we have loved martini house. this last time, we took my inlaws, on 10/13/10 , it was appallingly bad. after, we heard that it was going under new ownership. There was a feeling of a sinking ship..... servers ignored us, we watched them all whispering together in the front by the register!!!! sat for 20 minutes before someone brought us drinks, never brought bread. The food omg- our fries -Fries!!- arrived cold, the koby burger was cold, bun soggy, my crab wonton wrap tasted like had freezer burn and came packaged from the grocery, my mushroom salad was soggy and in a tasteless mayonaissy dressing. What a disappointment!!

THE FOOD WAS SUPERB, WE HAD A PARTY OF 30 PEOPLE WITH OUR OWN DINING AREA. EVERY MEAL WAS PERFECT, NOT TO MENTION THE POMEGRANATE MARTINIS THE ORIGINAL! THE BEST!

The Martini House is consistently good and consistently lively. I like going there cause you feel like you're part of the St. Helena 'scene'. Food is good, though sometimes too rich, bartenders are friendly and it's an all-around good experience. Would definitely recommend this place, but would suggest indoor seating.

The restaurant was excellent! The decoration inside was warm and cozy with some thoughts and efforts behind. To my delight, instead of being seated in those traditional face to face boring tables, we got a cozy sofa and a long table! Feels like we were in a French palace bed and breakfast was served on bed when we woke up and bent a bit of our back. :) The chef was also very creative and the restaurant had a mushroom tasting menu where all all entrees were prepared with various kinds of mushroom. Both the appertizer and the dessert dish from the mushroom tasting menu were excellent in taste and awesome in creativitiy. Compared to the regular tasting menu, the mushroom tasting menu was definitely more creative, well-executed to the chef's design, and a much better value offer. The regular tasting menu was also good, but compared with other restaurant's tasting menu, it may seemed a bit too common. Albeit the similarity, the short ribs (3rd entree) was awesome!! The meat was boneless, juicy, soft and tender! A pleasant suprrise!