Chalkboard

Delicious food! Aromatic and textured food. I specially like the cocoa trifoglio pasta and smoked maitake mushrooms. Furthermore, not only they have delicious food but also vast choices of wine! I also like their service. Overall, great experience.

The PORK BELLY BISCUITS… OMG!!! NOT TO BE MISSED!!! We woke up the next morning wanting them again. We paired that with a flight of bubbles, and a white wine flight, which were delicious compliments to the food and a decent deal. We ordered two pastas and each were sublime. The Radiatore with pork shoulder in a tomato red wine sauce was rich and savory without being overly heavy on a warm evening. The Old Bay Strozzapreti with gulph shrimp, garlic and preserved lemon was well balanced and thoroughly delicious. Another AMAZING restaurant in Healdsburg. So glad we found this place.

First off, the service was spot on. The young dudes that work here were friendly and did an excellent job of making sure that everything during our meal was great.
The fried chicken thighs, sliders, etc were okay. but the highlight here was definitely the pasta. We ordered the pasta tasting menu to share. All pastas are homemade, with that great al dente texture. That gnudi was excellent!
The love-​it-​or-​hate-​it item on that pasta tasting was the last one — the trifoglio, which kind of tastes like maple syrup combined with foie gras. Rich, decadent, sweet and savory, all at the same time. It’s not every day you eat a sweet pasta, but damn that was good. It’s so rich though that I felt like I would get a heart attack if I had more than my small ¼ portion of it, but it’s well worth trying.

Bartenders with the warmth and charm of the recently undead (whom evidently think they don’t really need to be engaging or resemble the living because they’re too busy ‘crafting’ salads on the rocks with a splash of attitude). The food has its moments but is mostly average yet oddly convinced of it’s own superiority, like much of the wait-​staff whom are evidently also holdovers from the recently deceased Cyrus (in keeping with the undead theme). A restaurant I might add, which was on par with French Laundry, The Grill at Meadowood and L’ Auberge du Soleil and which had an excuse to be stuffy — but wasn’t. And which was LEAGUES beyond Chalkboard in every way though Chalkboard staff seem to think they’re working in the same caliber restaurant. They’re not.
Things like pork belly biscuits and tater tots with crab are tasty but a little too kitschy pub-​fare for the price tags not to mention I think we’re all getting a bit tired of miniature food with super sized prices that harken back to the 50’s frozen food items. It’s not cute anymore and frankly, it never really was. Plus, it’s been done already by so many others that it’s just lazy, too derivative and unimaginative, especially in a place like this which could be setting trends, not copying them. Chef McAnelly does better with some of his bold and tasty pastas as well as with simple, vibrant salads like the Weeds n Greens whose clean, bright flavors reflect the changing seasons and let the ingredients really shine. He falters, however, and this has been the case on at least half of our experiences here which number at least 20, with over or under seasoning, and with over and under dressing. Mostly over on both counts, though. Veeeerrry heavy hand with the salt, egads. It just ruins everything.
Bottom line, not worth the expense to wager on ⁵⁰⁄₅₀ odds whether your food, your bartender your waiter — or all three– are going to be really really salty. Go to Valette or Dry Creek Kitchen.

Loved this place. The food was delicious. You have to try the Cocoa Trifoglio pasta, it’s to die for! They’ve even managed to make simple beans taste like heaven.
Our server was fantastic. Super friendly! We ordered a ton of food and she paced us out perfectly. I would definitely come back again.

Food was pretty amazing, and I will be back. Of note are the pork belly biscuits and the roasted carrots (don’t miss these). Beet salad brought out the earthy flavor of beets but somehow fell flat. We enjoyed the wine flights but thought they were a little skimpy for $ 21. For dessert, coffee was excellent and the donuts were tasty but nothing to write home about.
Service: Our waiter acted like our presence was keeping him from something more important and he did NOT make us feel very welcome.

I’m a fan, despite the fact that their Spring ’16 menu isn’t totally my thing. My favorite items on this menu are the pretzels and dips and the beef tartare. I want to point out that the beef tartare is unique in taste and presentation. This place has gone through a few renditions of the dish. If you’re a beef tartare aficionado like I am or want to try a version that’s a bit less stressful for a first-​timer, check out the one they’re currently serving.

Dinner for four. Total of nine plates that filled us all quite completely. Enjoyed every scrumptious bite. Variety of flavors, textures and ingredients was creative cooking at its best.
Small plate format can be fun. Let your waiter do the food sequencing after you pick your choices. The staff are experts on the order to deliver the plates to your table, trust them.
Total bill before tax and tip = $ 189. Did not include wine. We brought 2 bottles from home. Got charged for just one corkage. $ 15.

Amazing. Amazing. Amazing.
This place takes it to another level with their food. The quality is outstanding.
We went on our vacation with a friend of mine that works in the garden that provides all of the vegetables for this restaurant. We had spent all day in the garden eating asparagus and herbs from the plants themselves. Then, when we went to the restaurant we were floored. The chef does some amazingly creative things with his food.
Things to get: Pork buns, carrots, weed salad, asparagus, fresh fish, Pork and beans… I could go on and on. I didn’t have anything that wasn’t great.
It is a little pricey, but completely worth it. Save up and splurge.

Reservations recommended and can be done on
The décor is extremely welcoming and we were seated in in a quiet area past the kitchen.
Since it is tapas, our waiter recommended we order two dishes per person. We landed on the Pork belly biscuits (a must have!) and an ahi special. Then we all thought that sampling all of the homemade pastas would be interesting. Having a bite of each type of pasta with all different sauces were amazing and glad we didn’t just order one type and miss out on all of the goodness.
The last dish we enjoyed was the buttermilk fried chicken thighs w/​the vinegar hot sauce and a side of the caraway yogurt. (Once you mixed the yogurt with hot sauce it was an excellent mix of complex flavors.) The chicken had an excellent crunch and was still juicy inside.
We passed on dessert due to being in a bit of a food coma.
The service was very good and never felt like we had to ask for anything. The timing of all of the different dishes coming out of the kitchen were perfect without ever feeling rushed. So far Chalkboard is one of the highlights that we have experienced in the Healdsburg area. I recommend you put it on your short list.

March 28, 2016 Monday — 7:30 PM for dinner
4 adults
Atmosphere — 5 stars
Food — 5 stars
Service — 5 stars
Background — A dinner night planned out in advance.
Atmosphere — Romantic, elegant, woods, mirrors, long and narrow.
Food
Drink — Started with a Hoppy Collins. I could be sitting and sipping on a warm summer day. I followed this up with Bloodline, on the beers they had on tap.
Dinner — After a lunch of tapas were are doing it again with dinner. Our waiter suggested the pork belly biscuits. I could have eaten these all night. The biscuit could have been a little thicker on the bottom but that was a tiny issue. This was followed up with tuna. Excellent choice. We also had the tasting of all the housemade pastas. All six pastas on the menu this even were brought to us in two waves, three and another three. I highly recommend doing this if you are a pasta lover. Our waiter suggested after doing that to order the full version of pasta that you loved. The table all had their favorites so I thinking picking one would have been too much and we still had the buttermilk fried chicken thighs. After those crispy chicken boneless thighs I had no room for anything else.
Service — Flawless.
Future — Yes please.

Came here for girls weekend. Had no idea we were gonna end up here, as this place was recommended by our cab driver. We went here already drunk from J Winery so you know we were gonna binge on food to absorb the poisonous liquid. For appetizers, we ordered pork belly biscuits and lettuce wraps to start. Don’t judge. Freakin delish. The biscuits were better than KFC. Ha. I can’t remember the rest because we were hella drunk from the winery. I said that already, huh?

A hidden gem located just a stones throw away from the square in Hbg. A very quaint restaurant in the old Cyrus location. There is bar seating along with 2 small dining areas. I would recommend reservations, they seem to do a good amount of business. They have a full bar along with some nice selections on their wine list. Their menu consists of small plates meant to be shared amongst the table. I started out with the beet salad and I have to say that I’m not normally a fan but it was delicious! I will return soon just to reorder that! Then I had the asparagus & hollandaise– it was ok, the asparagus was a little mushy and too much sauce. The scallops were the final dish and they were cooked to perfection. I was sad there were only 3 of them though. Overall a lovely restaurant with excellent service.

The only thing good about this location was that it was open late, which left us with little options. The food was tasteful, but the for the prices… not worth it.
I know it is wine country but it is incredibly over priced with little option in way of dishes. Maybe too fancy for us, but the staff treated us as such.

Another awesome 5 star dinner at Chalkboard! Andre was fantastic, we had him pick out menu and he did an amazing job. The pork belly biscuits were a hit at our table once again and this time one of the awesome standouts was the sun choke truffle soup shooters. Sooooo delicious! I don’t think we will ever be able to come up to wine country without a stop at Chalkboard!

Incredible food and service! The dishes are creative and full of flavor. The staff is attentive, polite, but warm and welcoming. The staff is also very well informed– we were really impressed with their deep knowledge of ingredients in the food, beer and wine (we didn’t ask about liquor), and the overall area.
Highly recommend the «tater tots», salad and their crudo dish. We only stopped in for appetizers, but can’t wait to come back!

Chalkboard gets another perfect score! Every dish was scrumptious, the waiter was attentive but not annoying, the drinks were best of class — and the one item I kept looking for on the menu (to avoid) was not there — but repurposed into something better!
Here’s what I learned on the second visit:
1) The menu changes according to what local ingredients are available — so Crudo of the Day was salmon from New Zealand elaborately prepared.
2) Drinks from the bar are not the «run of the mill» — but expertly prepared. I enjoyed the Sazerac and son and daughter-​in-​law enjoyed «Black is the new Orange» — which they agreed to be the best drink they have had yet in 2015. They had a high opinion of the Sazerac also.
3) The lighting at Chalkboard is very complimentary to make my tired face look rested — and gives the illusion of that golden hour of twilight when the sun goes down. This enhanced the whole experience. A good example of perfect lighting — look for the absence shadows and glare — so perfect one would think the light is natural.
4.) The order the food arrives is important to how the food tastes. With reflection on the dining experience, one will wake up the next morning to discover one has been seduced by a clever chef; a good joke with the Pork Belly Biscuits, a caress of the arm with the Crudo of the day, sweet words with the vegetables and a passionate embrace with the pastas.
Here’s what we enjoyed this trip:
Pork Belly Biscuits — Should you come to Chalkboard and not enjoy these, you will have passed on possibly the world’s most perfect food. Feeling despondent? Go to Chalkboard and order a plate of Pork Belly Biscuits. Life has meaning and purpose. Eat the biscuits.
Crudo of the Day — salmon — delicious
Beef tartare — 2 votes «best ever» 1 vote maybe 2^nd best from me as I like Harris Steak House in SF, but it has been a couple of years. The other two have eaten pounds of beef tartare throughout the year — so it is probably the best.
A Shot of Sweet Potato Soup — These shots of soup are intense and rich — much like a shot of whiskey.
Smoked Mushroom Pancake — Our last visit, we ate the daikon mushroom and I thought it was nothing special — maybe chef read my review because it is now served in an incredibly clever creation using bonito flakes, scallions and spicy kewpie. These items enhanced the delicate flavor of the mushroom. It was remarkable!
Cocoa Trifoglio — this is in the same class as Pork Belly Biscuits but more sophisticated.
Old Bay Strozzapreti — I avoid dishes with shrimp because I don’t like anything but the freshest shrimp — but my son loves seafood and orders it. (Once he ordered crab legs in Mojave, California. Maybe he was 9 or 10.) Well, this dish was amazingly full of flavor — fresh shrimp and hints of lemon and spices.
Desert:
Maple Bacon Doughnuts — three little doughnuts (without the holes) with maple glaze and a lean tasty slice of bacon. Eating these delicious little morsels has the added bonus that you get when you have just done something very bad and gotten away with it.
Sticky Toffee Cake — The mascarpone! The chocolate! The cake! Here is an undeniably sophisticated treasure of eating! This particular item ranks right there with Cocoa Trifoglio and should be enjoyed just so you can experience what it’s like to have a taste of heaven.
Chocolate Bread Pudding — This is the American version of the Sticky Toffee Cake (in my opinion) — not as sophisticated — but no less delicious.
Want to know what it’s like the eat world class food and have world class drinks? I cannot believe that Chalkboard is far from the top of the list.

2.5 stars to be fair, the service was good and our waiter was friendly enough. But the food was disappointing.
The warm pretzels are a nice idea, but the dips were uneven. The tomato jam was bland to the point of being tasteless, the mustard was simply plain brown mustard, and the cheddar cheese sauce was good.
The 3 cheese plate was spartan, devoid of the normal garnishes, and served only with some kind of nut bread.
The baked butternut squash was only ok, and totally uninspired.
Wife had scallops which were ok, $ 21 for a grand total of 3.
My ricotta and greens gnudi with mushrooms was clearly made by someone who doesn’t know the definition of gnudi. Instead of being light and creamy, it was dense, and also soggy from the very thin mushroom broth. The only actual flavor was from a tiny dash of pecorino. Just a total failure of a dish.
With so many better options in the area, many significantly cheaper, there is no way we would go back.

Another last-​minute reservation over memorial day weekend. Lucky again we got a table at the chalkboard. There is one thing we saw on the menu and in the pictures on Unilocal which I said I don’t want to try anymore, this was the pork belly. Since there were a few other people at the table who did want to try it I bend the rules again. Seem to be doing that a lot. This time, I was pleasantly surprised that I did. Really so much flavor and tenderness in those fatty biscuits. I’m certainly glad they are sliders instead of something larger.
All right enough about the pork belly. The rest of the meal was great as well. They even made a few vegan options for my mom which was really nice of them to change the menu slightly. We also had two of the red wine flights and each glass after the first was even better. I guess that’s how it goes with wine and some times.
It was a beautiful evening and when we went to pay they gave us a book to sign. This book was a lot of fun to flip through and find all the pictures signatures of people and made notes about their meal. I really like that idea of leaving it on the table for a few minutes so people can flip through.

Mother’s Day meal. Large farm table to accommodate large crew of 8. Called last minute to add two people visiting in town and they accommodated us.
Small tapas style dishes meant to be shared with the group. Shaved cheese on arugula. Pretzels. Baked carrots. Fried squash blossom with melted cheese inside. Rose flight. Lovely starters. Moving to the main dishes: rabbit pasta, squid ink pasta, steak, sliders, fried chicken.
Last November I had attended a Fried and True tasting event. Buttermilk fried chicken is a thing in the wine region. This is a superb example of it. Must try.
Service is prompt and understatedly attentive.
There is a misnomer about the perceived food quality vs quantity in some parts of public opinion. There is nothing wrong with serving smaller portions if the food quality is good. In fact, the dishes meant to be shared do not need to be colossal to be considered good in my opinion. It has to be proportionate. Another thing worth noting is whether or not it is memorable. Unique dishes go a long way. For instance, their fries were freshly cut potatoes with lovely house ketch up, nice touch. Something you don’t often see is the small shaped squid ink pasta that did not taste fishy.
For a smaller crew, I’d do one wine flight, a couple of tapas and share an entrée.
This place is a destination restaurant. It is worth the drive.