Bistro Don Giovanni
4110 Howard Lane, Napa, CA
http://www.bistrodongiovanni.com/bdgmenu.pdf 
Review date: May 2012

This well-established Italian restaurant (opened in 1993 by Giovanni and Chef Donna Scala) has a solid reputation among locals and tourists. The portions are good-sized, the price is reasonable, the service is briskly efficient. The dining room is handsome if somewhat crowded with tables. There are attractive tables outside, as well as a separate closed patio offering a private room for big groups.

Don Giovanni has a good formula going and it satisfies a lot of people. There are quality ingredients used, and a good imagination in combining them. Perusing the menu whets the appetite and excites anticipation.

So why weren't we impressed with Don Giovanni?

Well....a couple of words will suffice.

Oenotri. 

Bottega. 

Around home, we've got Riva Cucina and Italian Colors. 

All of them have better food, more consistent execution, and a higher level of service (well, Riva Cucina barely makes that grade, but they try hard). 

When you eat out as much as we do – that's why we travel, basically to eat – you're able to compare restaurants on the basis of execution. It's the little details that separate a great experience from a good experience. 

I started with the Beet/Haricot Vert salad. There were diced gold and red beets, diced avocado, finely sliced raw fennel and a touch of shredded red cabbage. The vinaigrette was sweet, mild, and the bleu cheese was merely one large crumble garnishing the top. This was a wonderful salad, the cheese in a small enough amount to not overwhelm the delicate beets and crisp fennel. 

Carlos ordered the soup of the day, a salmon chowder with bacon and fresh corn. He liked the flavor, but didn't care for the style of the soup. Whether intended or not, all the vegetables were crisp-tender: not just the corn as one would expect, but also the finely diced carrot, celery, and sliced leeks. His comment was, "I don't like my soup al dente."

He ordered the Polpetti, which are lamb-ricotta meatballs. There were two large, delightfully tender meatballs, but an overdose of rosemary lessened his enjoyment of them. They were placed atop toasted fregola (the round, pearl-like pasta) with peas and some finely sliced asparagus stem – and yes, my use of the singular is deliberate. The flavor of Meyer lemon in both the meatballs and fregola was nice, but Carlos found the pesto sauce just on the edge of being too salty, even for him. Also, the fregola were slightly overcooked to the point of becoming a touch mushy.

The same execution issue affected my pork porterhouse chop. The farro was braised with garbanzo beans in a chile flake-seasoned, diced bacon sauce with a touch of tomato paste and a whisper of non-oaked red wine, possibly a Merlot. It was a great combination of flavors and ingredients. The problem was that like Carlos' entree sauce, it ended up too salty.

Unfortunately, although the chop was massive and thick, it had not been brined – not necessarily a bad thing, but they had overgrilled it. I specifically asked for medium-rare, and got a very definite medium. The texture was so hard from being cooked fast and furiously, I had a comically difficult time cutting it off the bone. Despite my having a massive steak knife, the chop kept sliding on the seasoned bacon oil and threatening to fly off the plate. 

A real shame, because it was a very nice quality chop that would have been delightful if Don Giovanni's grill station even had half the skill that the much lesser Bay Grille/Berkeley showed us in January 2012, or Montclair Bistro/Oakland's superb pork chop in March 2012 (but that came with an unfortunately oversweet  sauce).

We both opted for dessert. Carlos chose the tiramisu with a regular coffee. I picked the fruit crisp special, an apple-rhubarb served ala mode, requesting a decaf Americano (coffee with a shot of espresso).

The tiramisu was tall and lovely, clearly using ladyfingers (savoiardi) and a good crème that was rather light on the mascarpone. Unfortunately, it was also light on alcohol. We've had eggnog with more alcohol content than this tiramisu had, so it lost a lot of points for that. Admittedly this is common in restaurants, where tiramisu degrades into little more than a whipped cream mocha cake.

My crisp was delightful, perhaps a bit sweet overall, but I love rhubarb and always like to order it when I see it. Unfortunately, my decaf Americano (coffee with a shot of espresso) was wimpy and weak, vastly inferior to Carlos' regular coffee. It both looked and tasted like they'd forgotten to put any espresso in it. 

Even more embarrassing: it was noticeably worse than the McDonald's premium iced decaf latte I'd gotten that morning on our way to Pt. Reyes.

We both agreed that Bistro Don Giovanni is a "B" level restaurant. It was a satisfactory multi-course meal at a good price. But they whip that food out fast. They can turn a table in less than an hour at dinner time; we watched them do it without making the people feel rushed. The food is decent, but Bottega is far more consistent for the same price, and Oenotri leaves them in the dust when it comes to genuinely high-quality, beautifully conceived and executed Cal-Italian in a more modern style.

Before their competition arrived and upped the ante several levels, Don Giovanni probably stood out. Despite not being that old, Don Giovanni felt like a dressed-up relic of a past time. We were honestly surprised when we came home and researched this place, to learn DG had been open for barely two decades. 

As a stand-alone Cal-Italian meal, you and your family can come and have a good time. But if you're dining regularly at the newcomers like Oenotri or Bouchon (when it's on), you can't help but notice that DG serves heavier, saltier food that isn't as clean-flavored or well-balanced as the others.

Two people: Two starters, two entrees, two desserts, three beverages, with tip was $119.