SingleThread Farm is a world-renowned, award-winning restaurant with a strong Japanese influence, serving a kaiseki-style tasting. Many of the ingredients are sourced from the Farm, which is not too far away from the restaurant itself. Before dinner, we actually stopped at the Farm, which offered some produce, as well as SingleThread Farm dishware and other kitchen accessories.
We went to the restaurant early to enjoy some time at the rooftop bar. We decided to order some Champagne while we enjoyed the view.
Promptly at our reservation time, we were escorted down, where we started off with some peach and rooibos tea. The cup was almost unbearably hot. the tea was very hot as well, and I was just a little confused as to whether we needed to gulp it down right then and there or bring it with us. They said we could take all the pictures we wanted of the kitchen, but it just felt a little odd to be standing in the entryway, so I carefully gulped down the tea, being careful not to burn my mouth.
We were seated at a table with an elaborate first course display full of bites of fish, veggies, and fruits. There were a lot of raw fish dishes.
Three hot dishes were presented several minutes later to complete the first course, and one of those - the potatoes and caviar, was one of the best things I've ever eaten. I was scraping the bowl to get every last bit of buttery potatoes. It was heavenly!
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| Spot Prawn Bisque |
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| The tomatoes and tofu before the bisque was poured |
The Spot Prawn Bisque was poured on a lovely medley of roasted heirloom tomatoes and housemade tofu.
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| Pepper Tart |
I really enjoyed this Nardello Pepper and Rouille Tart. A seemingly simple bite was just bursting with flavor.
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| Kinmedai |
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| Eggplant Takiawase |
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| Popover |
I loved the mini Popovers, which were filled with miso kinako butter.
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| Nodoguru |
The zucchini tempura in the Nodoguru course was one of my favorite bites of the night. It was perfectly cooked!
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| Green Strawberry |
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| A5 Wagyu |
The A5 Wagyu was melt-in-your-mouth good. Served with king trumpet mushrooms, farm negi, and truffles - the flavors were bold and just delicious.
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| Smoked Scallop Shime |
As customary with kaiseki meals, rice was served to end the savories. Tender pork cheeks sat atop Luna rice.
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| Blackberry |
This was the prettiest sorbet!
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| Matcha |
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| Wagashi |
A wagashi spread full of mini desserts, along with tea, were presented to end the meal.
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| Passionfruit and Melon |
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| Yuzu and Cucumber, Kinako and Albion Strawberry, Blueberry and Vanilla Bean |
The ending was as beautiful as the beginning.
Service was good and attentive, but most of the spiels felt forced and rehearsed. There was one server who was quite funny, and we appreciated that he was joking around with us, and the sommelier was great. Whenever we had a question about any ingredient, the servers had an answer - they were all very knowledgeable, but I prefer a more "warm" service style.
And that's just my personal preference. The price is high and you indeed get good service, and you'll definitely get well-executed food. The presentations are absolutely stunning - the attention to detail is next level, and the effort behind each dish - most with many, many touches, is obvious. The attention to detail even went beyond the dining table - I went to the restroom twice and noticed each time the toilet tissue end was neatly folded (like you would see when you check in to a hotel room).
SingleThread Farm is as a luxurious experience as you can imagine. The decor, the ambience, the dishware - everything was of premium quality, and although I personally feel the service could've been warmer, it was an overall great experience.
131 North St
Healdsburg, CA 95448
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