How to book The French Laundry

The French Laundry is Thomas Keller's restaurant in Yountville, in the Napa Valley. It occupies a two-story stone and timber building put up as a saloon in 1900, which later served as a home and, in the 1920s, as a French steam laundry. Mayor Don Schmitt and his wife Sally turned it into a restaurant in 1978, and Keller bought it in 1994^1,5.

Keller first offered a simple four-course menu, then moved to a menu that changes every day and, in the mid-1990s, to a tasting menu built so that no ingredient appears twice⁵. Today two tasting menus are served each day: the Chef's Tasting Menu and the Tasting of Vegetables². Long-running dishes include the salmon tartare cornet and Oysters and Pearls, a pearl tapioca sabayon with oysters and caviar^4,5.

The Michelin Guide has given the restaurant three stars every year since 2007, and its inspectors describe classic French technique applied to very fresh produce, served from what they call perhaps the best kitchen in America^1,4. The wine list covers all the major wine regions, from famous producers to cult bottles and lesser-known growers, and it has held the Wine Spectator Grand Award since 2007^1,3.

Not every critic is won over. A 2023 review in The Infatuation praised the technique and a few dishes but found much of the cooking heavy and questioned the value for the price⁶.