Tucked away in the small town of Forestville, you’ll find a luxury boutique hotel that recently revamped their restaurant.

Farmhouse Inn looks like the perfect weekend oasis in Sonoma County and while I didn’t stay at their property, I was intrigued by their restaurant. The Farmhouse Restaurant held a Michelin star for 14 consecutive years until 2021 and later that year, chef Steve Litke retired after being there for 20+ years. Since then, a few chefs have passed through the kitchen but since summer 2023 chef Craig Wilmer and pastry chef Amanda Hoang have taken over. Both chefs have an extensive culinary background and have worked at various notable restaurants.

The restaurant offers a tasting menu at $225 per person where the Californian cuisine heavily focuses on seafood and local produce.

We started the meal with a non-alcoholic beverage of charentais melon sorbet in a coupe glass where ginger beer infused with hibiscus and sparkling water was poured on top. I didn’t get a photo of it but it had the most gorgeous vibrant dark pink color.

Sobacha, also known as Japanese buckwheat tea, was used to make this crispy puffed cracker. The cracker was filled with a luscious sea lettuce crème fraîche and was topped with caviar. Hard not to love.

This was the most refined tostada I’ve ever had with thin layers of halibut and green tomato with cilantro and serrano pepper oil. It was delicate yet still packed a punch.

Bluefin tuna coming from Japan was the star of the dish where the cubes of fish were tossed in a kombu and tomato oil with elderflower vinegar. The fried shallots underneath the fish added some texture and the numerous herbs from their garden garnished on top were beautifully arranged.

Talk about a flavor bomb of a dish. Before the foam was spooned on top, you can see the freshly dug fingerling potatoes with a heaping portion of caviar on top. There was also a bacon gelée but the flavor wasn’t as prominent as I was expecting. Either way, we both loved the rich complexity of flavors.

A perfectly fried squash blossom was served with the prettiest array of sauces. From the red pepper salsa, to the mortia chili crème fraîche, and the cilantro parsley sauce, all added depth and were complimentary. The only thing I would change is perhaps stuffing the squash blossom with a mild cheese to add a little substance.

While this might look like an unassuming tomato, the tomato was actually blanched, dried, and then rehydrated which results in a very intense tomato flavor. It has a slightly firmer texture due to the drying of the tomato and was stuffed with a Mozzarella cheese foam. Underneath the tomato was a piece of unctuous fatty tuna and the basil oil with ponzu sauce added another layer of umani as well as the seaweed salt. Really a delicious dish.

The corn custard in the middle was screaming summer with its sweet corn flavor and grilled corn kernels were on the perimeter of the custard. The egg drop soup was poured table side which was extra luxurious with Périgord black truffle.

The white asparagus and turnips were tossed in a parsley butter and were equally as important as the black cod which was finished on the grill. The artichoke and dill sauce was poured table side and complimented the subtle flavors of the fish and vegetables.

Of course a meal wouldn’t be complete without some homemade bread. Beautiful crust with a pillowy soft interior.

The last savory course was the squab prepared two ways. The breast was extremely tender and the tartlet consisted of short crust pastry with pluot and topped with a squab leg sphere made from confit meat. The seared foie gras piece added that fattiness that complimented the lean squab meat.

The palate cleanser was one of my favorite bites of the night as it was so refreshing but also very delectable. The sorbet was made from shiso and green strawberry so it had a savory herbaceousness that paired excellently with the fresh ripe strawberries and cold pressed olive oil.

Another beautiful dessert with various textures and flavors. The bottom was a pistachio feuilletine topped with an apricot and vanilla semifreddo, custard tuile, and shaved Sicilian pistachio chamomile gel.

The tasting menu ended with petit fours which were all scrumptious.

We received the tasting menu at the end of the meal; note that the menu has striploin but that was a supplemental dish that we skipped.

We were both pleasantly surprised at the tasting menu at Farmhouse Restaurant as there’s really no press about the restaurant. Every dish was delightful with stunning presentation and technique. My only gripe was that portions were just a tad on the smaller side and while I was full at the end of the meal, Tommaso could have easily eaten a little more. I think either making a few of the dishes a little larger or adding a few more courses would make for a more successful tasting menu. Other than that, I really enjoyed my meal so my rating is an 8.5/10.