I love living so close to California wine country, and Healdsburg may be my favorite place to stay as it doesn’t feel as snobby as some of the places in Napa, but still has an amazing variety of wine tasting rooms and restaurants. I love so many of them, but I also want to try more, and with my parents visiting, it seemed like a great time to visit the sister restaurant of Valette, one of my favorite restaurants there. I booked us into The Matheson for a Sunday night dinner. It’s still has that fine dining vibe, but the menu just comes across a bit more relaxed.
We were shown right to our table when we arrived, and we all started to peruse the menu. Of course, wine was on the agenda (as we were in wine country), so we ordered an amazing bottle of Portuguese wine. One amazing thing about The Matheson is that the wine list is varied in region and price. I can’t tell you how many times we’ve been to restaurants that really focus on overpriced wines when there can be things of all price points, varietals and locations.
Next we decided to get some starters to share, and I was very hungry which caused me to become a bit overzealous in the ordering. I ordered us the fried maitake mushrooms, bone marrow, broccolini with anchovy and Pane Sicilian, bread with ham, chicory and fromage blanc. We dug in and greatly enjoyed all the starters. Even the non-fish eaters liked the anchovies which is always a bonus. The mushrooms were stunning. Bone marrow is always nice, and this is no exception, but the bacon jam on top did slightly overwhelm the dish, but it also made a bone marrow lover out of my dad who swore he hated it. Finally, the Pane Siciliano was excellent and enjoyed thoroughly by the table.
For our mains, I was completely sidetracked when one of the specials was steak frites with a gorgonzola béarnaise, so I basically couldn’t think of any other possibility. My dad was also on that page, so he ordered that as well. My mother loves lamb and decided that was her route. The squid ink pasta with XO Sauce and uni was basically three of my husbands favorite things all rolled into one, so that was the dish for him.
Honestly, they were all pretty good, but the lamb wasn’t quite on the same level as the pasta or beef. To put it bluntly, that pasta was probably the best of the three we tried. It just married all three of those flavors so well, and it was proclaimed the best uni pasta we’ve had recently. The steak was very well executed, and the fries were perfect. The gorgonzola béarnaise was heavenly, but I wish there was more! The two homemade sauces for the fries were great dips too.
By this point we were stuffed, but I insisted we squeeze in a small dessert, so we went for the sticky toffee pudding. It had all the flavors, but it really was lacking a something to really bring it on par to the ones you can get in the UK that I have come to love.
Overall, everything at The Matheson was amazing. The service was spectacular, and the sommelier was friendly and knowledgeable. It’s a warm atmosphere with ample seating and space. The food is very good, but maybe not quite as good as Valette. Honestly though, if you want an amazing meal with a wide range of wine options, The Matheson is definitely a stellar choice in Healdsburg.
Score: 4.5/5
Recommendation: Squid Ink Pasta for sure, and maybe the maitake mushrooms!
The Matheson
106 Matheson Street
Healdsburg, CA 95448, USA
