Ad Hoc

I have wanted to try Ad Hoc‘s food since I learned about this one of a kind restaurant. Thomas Keller’s Yountville restaurant was initially supposed to be a temporary restaurant based on a prix fixe family-style menu. Today, the menu still stands, but its short-lived status does not, due to popular demand, the restaurant became a permanent fixture in the Napa restaurant scene.

Perhaps part of the reason for the restaurant’s popularity is its fried chicken, which has a cult following like none other. Fried chicken night is hard to catch (pun intended), as the chicken is made twice monthly and only on Monday nights. To date, I've been to Ad-Hoc 7-10 times and have experienced fried chicken night three times (but only once since I started writing this blog).

This night we started with a Baby Iceberg Lettuces Salad with marinated cucumbers, shaved radish, pickled red onion, haas avocado, nueske bacon crumbles, green goddess dressing. As always a great salad, it was well-balanced and light, a perfect start for the rest of the courses to follow.

But it was really nothing compared to our second course of Buttermilk Fried Chicken, which always tastes better than the last time. It is everything you ever want in fried chicken: crispy on the outside, with a substantial breading that put every other fried chicken crust to shame; moist, juicy and tender on the inside, yet cooked through and not greasy; meaty, with little to no bones; just seasoned and spicy enough and an Ad Hoc honey for dipping.

By the way, the couple next to me, finished their chicken and got a second helping. I should have done the same since it was so so so good!

After the chicken, we go our cheese plate Redwood Hill Farm’s Cameo, palladin toast, brooks cherry & red onion marmalade. As good as the cheese was, I was still thinking of the chicken (sorry cheese lovers).

We finished our amazing Ad-Hoc meal with Red Velvet with cream cheese frosting and Banana Nut with valhrona chocolate icing.

As always the best $49 per person meal you will ever enjoy (period).