The Art of Eat

Celadon
500 Main St # G
Napa, CA‎
(707) 254-9690

Don’t be discouraged by the difficult to find front door to Celadon because this restaurant in Napa Valley is absolutely stunning and well worth the hunt. When I first picked out Celadon as a stop on my Napa trip last year I didn’t expect the entire front of the hotel it was adjacent to to be under construction with no sign postage explaining that the restaurant was located on the side of the hotel, but after parking and looking around for a little while we finally found our way into the dining room and were on our way to wine and dining in true Napa style.

Celadon is located right along the river front in a very scenic spot although with the construction going on we decided to sit inside. The interior dining area is a roofed off courtyard with a large open four sided fireplace right in the middle. Since we were grabbing a late lunch around 2pm there was no one there, literally, so we got the entire restaurant to ourselves. The decor had a rugged elegance to it and fit everything just right. Celadon is a contemporary fusion restaurant with overtones of Chinese, Italian, and French cuisines, blended and created with California ingredients to create its own style. Let me just say that I generally hate trendy fusion restaurants but Celadon changed my mind. The food was excellent!

To start we had a bottle of Beringer Private Reserve Chardonnay that was excellent, with beautiful oak tones and a smooth, buttery mouth feel. I’m a big fan of buttery Chardonnay’s and Beringer’s maintained a lot of the oak and wasn’t as fruit forward as many newer styled Chards. To go with the Chardonnay we ordered an appetizer of Pork Belly with Watermelon. I can’t imagine that Pork Belly is a top selling choice on the menu, but being Asian I understand that Pork Belly is a specialty and the appetizer was stunning and possibly the best choice in terms of simplicity and originality. The two counterparts of pork belly and watermelon were a perfect match with the watermelon providing a cool crisp cut to the richness of the pork. Paired with the Chardonnay, it was nothing but excellent.

For my entree I continued with the pork belly since it was so excellent on the appetizer and I ordered the Pappardelle with pork belly, spinach, mushrooms, and truffles. At first I didn’t think the appetizer could be topped, but the entree was even better. Pappardelle, a wide linguine type noodle, is traditionally paired with rich sauces of hare and wild boar and the pork belly, although nontraditional, made a good alternative to more European choices. The richness of the truffles also added to the flavour and it was one of the richest meals I have ever eaten. Somehow I managed to finish my plate helped down with the increasingly more buttery Chardonnay and finished completely satisfied.

Celadon was the last stop on my way out of Napa and it left an impression that even if the wines were overly challenging and over priced, the food was still spectacular and made the trip well worth it. Hopefully someday I’ll return to Celadon and be able to sit on the scenic terrace over looking the river, but until then I will look fondly on the best tasting fusion restaurant I have ever eaten at.