2 Napa Valley Restaurants Make Daily Meal's 101 Best In U.S. List

NAPA VALLEY, CA — If you’re looking to dine out more as the weather gets warmer, we’ve got some tasty news for you.

The Daily Meal recently unveiled its list for the “101 Best Restaurants In America,” and the online food and dining site included two restaurants from Napa Valley.

Here are the best restaurants in Napa Valley, according to the Daily Meal’s rankings.

The Restaurant At Meadowood, St. Helena

• Ranking: No. 7
• Address: 900 Meadowood Lane, St. Helena, California

What The Daily Meal had to say:

"Chef Christopher Kostow’s three-Michelin-starred Restaurant at Meadowood is Napa Valley’s premier dining experience, serving a daily-changing tasting menu of simply prepared local, seasonal ingredients on the grounds of a sprawling luxury resort. Kostow’s team has built relationships with local artisans, growers and foragers and there’s also a 3.5-acre garden on-premises for growing produce. How’s the food, you ask? Expect modern American cuisine featuring masterful technique and deft mixes of texture and flavor — alternately playful, straightforward and serious."

The French Laundry, Yountville

• Ranking: No. 9
• Address: 6640 Washington St., Yountville, California

What The Daily Meal had to say:

"Thomas Keller is a perfectionist who approaches contemporary American food with classical technique. His French Laundry in Napa Valley, with its now-famous blue door, has established new standards for fine dining in this country since opening in 1994. Like at its sister restaurant Per Se in New York, the two tasting menus (one vegetarian) change daily, but diners can always expect refined and elegant interpretations of the highest-quality-available ingredients. If you can spare the expense and are able to get a reservation, it’s one of the restaurants you absolutely need to visit."

Alinea, the three-Michelin-starred restaurant in Chicago, was ranked as the No. 1 eatery in the United States, according to the Daily Meal. The top five restaurants were rounded out by Eleven Madison Park in New York City, Atelier Crenn in San Francisco, Le Bernardin in New York City and Inn at Little Washington in Washington, Virginia.

“These 101 restaurants serve food that’s thoughtful and thought-provoking, and they also have a dining room and a level of service that suit the quality of what’s on the plate, a good beverage list and a true sense of personality, imagination and consistency,” authors of the Daily Meal rankings wrote in an introductory statement to the list. “Visiting one of these restaurants feels like a truly memorable culinary experience.”

To compile the rankings, the Daily Meal contacted hundreds of dining experts around the country to ask which restaurants they considered the absolute best in their respective cities. Those restaurants were then added to other establishments that have “garnered near-universal acclaim” and eateries that have been featured on previous Daily Meal lists.

The remaining restaurants were subsequently ranked according to metrics such as food, service, beverage options and environment.

The full list of the 101 best restaurants is available on the Daily Meal.