The Girl and The Fig restaurant provided me with a credit towards a portion of our dinner in exchange for an honest restaurant review which I am pleased to provide below. All opinions are my own.
If you're looking for a casual, unpretentious dinner spot (or lunch) in downtown Sonoma, serving French/American countryside bistro style food, with the very reasonable pricing for the type of cuisine being served, then look no further than The Girl and The Fig Restaurant.
The Girl and The Fig is a rustic bistro in downtown Sonoma, very popular with locals and visitors for its simple, unpretentious, yet inventive menu. The restaurant successfully combines French country food with the Northern California wine country lifestyle. And, don't be scared by the name of the restaurant: not everything on the menu has figs in it. There are really only a very few menu items that actually involve figs, such as their delicious signature cocktails, some appetizers, some condiments to main dishes, and a couple of desserts.
The place has a great atmosphere, casual and sophisticated at the same time, friendly service staff, great food and great service! The place is always busy and super lively, and you're better off making a reservation in advance, as it's a pretty popular spot. This restaurant happens to be my husband's favorite restaurant in Sonoma, so we invited another couple to come with us for dinner there when we visited Sonoma this January.
When entering the restaurant, the first thing you'll see is an impressive, antique wooden bar.
A beautiful spot to enjoy the great selection of the bistro's house cocktails, traditional cocktails, French aperitifs, or wines from their impressive Rhone-Alone wine list.
We started our evening with their 3 signature drinks that, of course, had figs in them.
I really enjoy Fig Kiss martini, which is the restaurant's take on a classic Cosmopolitan:
Fig Fashioned, as the name implies, is their interpretation of a good Old Fashioned:
Fig Royale made with French sparkling wine + house-made fig liqueur is the restaurant's version of a classic Kir Royale:
Besides their cocktails and aperitifs, the restaurant offers an impressive Rhone-Alone wine list to choose from, and I was lucky enough to be seated right next to their wine shelf.
We started our dinner with the restaurant's most famous and highly recommended starter, the Fromage Tower.
This appetizer includes 6 cheese selections, seasonal fruit, spiced nuts, olives, cured meats, baguette, and delicious fig cakes (which are gluten free!)
The server provided us with the little card to go with the Fromage Tower, which lists the 6 cheeses we were just served. Our friend had dietary preferences (she could not eat cow milk products), so the waiter made sure to include a good selection of goat cheeses in our tower. The cheeses we ended up having are marked on the card below and they included 2 cheeses from cow's milk, 2 cheeses from goat's milk, and 2 cheeses from sheep's milk:
We also ordered Duck Liver Mousse served with the apricot jam and toasted brioche:
Our third appetizer choice was Grass-fed Steak Tartare. It came with the delicious lavender sea salt, which was very good with the Duck Liver Mousse, as well.
After 3 starters, we were ready for the main courses. I ordered their highly recommended Wild Flounder Meuniere, which was decadence itself, and is definitely one of the best items on their main course menu. The fish was soft and buttery, and the capers added a nice salty contrast.
Our friend ordered a burger which came with very thin delicious fries, served with the aioli sauce:
Steak Frites dinner was great as well:
And, my husband ordered the Duck Confit served with white beans and bacon. I ate some of it as well, and this Duck Confit along with the Wild Flounder Meuniere were definitely my 2 favorite main course items that I would order again!
By the time we finished our main courses, everybody was too full to have a dessert, but I did order their signature dessert, Chocolate and Salted Fig Caramel Trifle with Italian meringue and cocoa nibs. And, I ate all of it - it was so good! It was rich and it was huge - what you see on the photo is a very large glass with lots of chocolate in it. Salted Fig Caramel added a nice contrast to the rich chocolate mousse. This dessert was gluten free, and I really enjoyed it.
As we were exiting, I was once again visually impressed with their antique wooden bar.
All in all, The Girl and The Fig is a great restaurant with excellent food at a very reasonable price. If you enjoy the casual French/American country food in an unpretentious atmosphere, this spot is not to be missed when you are visiting downtown Sonoma!
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