While I was abroad for my actual birthday, Tommaso had planned a birthday surprise upon our return.

Months earlier, I had read about a new fine dining restaurant in Sonoma called Enclos which opened in December 2024. At the time, there wasn’t much publicity about it yet but I mentioned to Tommaso that we should check it out since the early reviews and photos looked incredible. I didn’t think much about it until June 2025 when the new Michelin Guide for California 2025 came out and Enclos was awarded two Michelin stars within their first year of opening, an impressive feat. Of course after this news, reservations booked up instantly and I thought “damn, looks like I won’t be going there anytime soon after all”. Little did I know that Tommaso had already booked the restaurant for my birthday before the Michelin guide even came out. Who would’ve thought he actually listened to my nonstop rambling and paid attention?! Kudos to him!

First of all, Enclos is in an 1880 Victorian house and I absolutely adore Victorian and Edwardian architecture for their ornate details. While the exterior preserves the character of that era, the interior is sleek and modern. A perfect blend of old and new.

Executive chef Brian Limoges has an impressive background having worked at some of the top restaurants in the Bay Area such as Atelier Crenn, Quince, Birdsong, Angler, and Saison. His extensive tasting menu ties together French technique with global flavors and pristine local and seasonal ingredients.

We stared off with a nonalcoholic welcome drink that was crisp and refreshing. They kindly offered us a complimentary small glass of champagne since we’re in the hospitality industry and we opted for Cristal which we’d never tried before.

We didn’t receive the menu until after the meal so every dish was a complete surprise. The tasting menu began with several amuse bouches, all exquisitely prepared.

A classic cheesy gougère with a hint of floralness from the orange blossom. Simple but elevated.

A very thin pastry shell was stuffed with sweet lobster and garnished with chili, cilantro flowers, and an emulsion made from the lobster’s innards. Stunning presentation.

These adorable tarts were stuffed with a venison tartare and topped with fried lichen, a type of edible plant. Earthy, smoky, and perfectly balanced.

This was our favorite amuse bouche due to its intense richness and flavor. The fermented rutabaga bread pudding had a soft interior but a nicely browned exterior and was topped with gooseberry, duck liver mousse, aged ham, and a few drops of 100 year old aged balsamic vinegar. Truly an umami bomb.

This was a beautiful celebration of the current bountiful season in Sonoma which was mid summer when we dined. They provided a sheet listing every ingredient (the following picture) that was included in this dish. In the middle of the dish was a wasabi, apple, and horseradish sorbet and there was also a tomato gelée infused with lavender, shiso, and mint. It was really fun to eat various ingredients and taste each one separately. This dish reminded me of the famous Piazza Duomo’s “Insalata 21…31…41…51…” with all the different produce and herbs.

Sweet raw spot prawns were hidden underneath a mosaic of shingled daikon and jalapeño and seasoned with a clarified pluot juice with shiso oil.

Otto file is an ancient grain which they grind to a polenta consistency and fold that into their brioche dough. The bread was served with cultured seaweed butter from seaweed that they forage themselves.

Flavors of classic clam chowder were made into a silky chawanmushi. Their version had manila clams, geoduck, potatoes, an aged pork broth, and finished with caviar and a fermented white asparagus velouté. Easily one of our favorite dishes of the night as it was complex and refined but nostalgic.

They brought out their dry aged tuna which would be featured in the next dish.

Their 60 day dry aged tuna belly was served with koshihikari rice, a notable short grain rice, with succulents from their garden and a passionfruit zabaione infused with uni. Another umami masterpiece.

Wolfe Ranch produces some of the best quail (we use them at Benu too) and this version was phenomenal. Beneath the grilled roses lay celtuce and artichoke, all tied together with a quail stock sauce seasoned with burnt citrus.

After the quail dish, they brought out a fragrant broth made from the quail bones and inside our cups was a mixture of black truffle, chive, garlic, and ginger which perfumed the already delicious broth.

We got to choose our knife for our last savory course, a common practice for fine dining restaurants.

Perfectly cooked lamb loin was garnished with sweet jimmy nardello peppers, summer squash, a pungent green garlic purée, and finished with a fermented red pepper sauce. A great dish to finish off the savory courses.

They also presented a charred cut of lamb during the course which was incredibly tender and smoky.

Now onto the desserts.

On the bottom was a toasted almond ice cream topped with various textures of apricot and finished with a green Szechuan sorbet. Light and refreshing.

This was such a gorgeous yet whimsical presentation of a “strawberry pretzel salad”. On the bottom was a triple crème bavarois (a rich custard made from a base of crème anglaise with whipped cream), topped with fresh wild strawberries, strawberry sorbet, and a pretzel crumble.

We ended the meal with a spectacular array of petit fours: sweet corn canelè, sunflower seed praline bonbons, rangpur lime macaron, and an cute honey cornet. Each was sublime in its own way.

You can watch a fantastic video below that showcases some of the dishes from the tasting menu as well as different iterations of them.

Enclos has been one of our favorite fine dining destinations in recent years (we also enjoyed Kiln earlier this year). What made this experience so memorable wasn’t just the flawless execution or the creativity behind each dish but the sense of warmth and intention woven throughout the evening. It reminded me why I love food in the first place; the excitement of trying something new and discovering unique ingredients or techniques. With its meticulous craftsmanship and genuine hospitality, Enclos truly deserves all the accolades it’s received. My rating is a 9/10.