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Ubuntu

1140 Main St. (First St.) Send to Phone
NapaCA 94559
707-251-5656 | Make Restaurant Reservations
Vegetable enlightenment: You may never miss meat or tofu again.

Cuisine

Open

Lunch Fri.-Sun., Dinner nightly

Features

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Dining room at Ubuntu, Napa, CAIf you have negative preconceptions about a combination vegetarian restaurant-yoga studio, cast them aside forever. Diners can't help being taken aback by Ubuntu's vast, stylish space: high stone walls fronted by splashy art, reclaimed wood tables and flooring, contemporary music---a vibe that's alive. Striking sculpture---a quartet of life-size, primitive figures---separates a long wine bar from the dining room. While intense yoga stretches bodies silhouetted against the frosted glass of an upstairs studio, below the kitchen stretches the culinary boundaries of vegetables. (Chef-partner Jeremy Fox has departed the restaurant; his former executive sous chef, Aaron London, will assume the chef de cuisine position.) This is gorgeous food, artfully composed, vivid in color, ready for its close-up. Cases in point: chickpeas tossed in refreshing vinaigrette made from the dew of roasted red peppers, subtly charged with mint and olive; cauliflower three ways---roasted and buried in cream, minced into fluffy "couscous" with orange, and topped with shoots; a sunny-side-up egg resting atop potatoes with intense mushroom-red wine reduction and a scattering of miner's lettuce. Plenty of vegan dishes populate the menu; asterisks denote a willingness to modify other dishes accordingly. Desserts might include a float of orange creamsicle sorbet in rose soda with kumquat and rhubarb, or homemade ricotta with macerated strawberries, aged balsamic and a brioche tuile. The restaurant's own biodynamic garden supplies seasonal ingredients. A fat wine book comprises mostly A-1, earth-friendly producers.

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