What the Critics Are Saying.
(click on any photo to see a larger version)

2007 Michelin Guide -
"...La Toque turns dinner into an evening-long event. It all starts with a warm welcome from the maitre d', and the knowledgeable servers whose passion for this place beams from their faces. Sublime flavors and textures, in such courses as pan-roasted boneless quail with potato-chorizo risotto, American wagyu beef with cheddar tapioca and cabernet foie gras sauce, and black cod atop cucumber vermicelli with fragrant kaffir lime broth, illustrate Frank's talent and French training. As the pièce de résistance, wine pairings are recommended with each course, and the sommelier with present each bottle for reference."

Harvey Steiman
The Wine Spectator
"A heightened wine sensibility informs this quintessential wine country restaurant, reminiscent of comfy lodges in Burgundy or the Loire... The wine list is long enough to include some of California's hottest wineries (Staglin, Alban, Paradigm) and some depth in Bordeaux (mostly back to 1982) and eclectic enough to embrace a goodly number of nifty curiousities."
Note: La Toque was named by the Wine Spectator as one of the best 20 restaurants in America in its March 31, 2000 issue.

"Tresor du Japon"  Japanese Pickles and Seaweed  with Maine Lobster

Mike Dunne
Sacramento Bee
"Exciting restaurants abound in the Napa Valley nowadays, but La Toque honors timeless French culinary aesthetics while embracing the richness and boldness of contemporary California with a passion and sureness rarely found anywhere."

Caroline Bates
Restaurant Critic for Gourmet
"The born-again La Toque is a dream come true - a wine-country restaurant for serious diners...For all his fondness for foie gras, Frank's touch is so light and his menu so well designed that there's no sense of heaviness when you get up from the table, even if you've chosen a supplemental cheese selection...Moving to wine country may be the smartest decision Ken Frank ever made."

Dutch White Asparagus with Creamed Morels

Darryl Roberts
Wine X Magazine
"Screw the French place in Napa with the rude 'tude. Dine here. Attached to the Rancho Caymus Inn, this is probably the finest restaurant in Napa Valley. The five-course Prix Fixe ($98/person) comes with a wine-pairing option ($62/person). Take it! Yeah, baby."

Tessa DeCarlo
Appellation Magazine
"The small and elegantly understated La Toque in the tiny valley town of Rutherford, is very much a chef's restaurant...It's pretty and comfortable, but the star here is the food, not the decor. Frank's menu is French in technique and finesse, subtly enlivened with Asian and Mediterranean influences, and exceedingly wine-friendly...Cooking like this doesn't come cheap, but at la Toque you get your money's worth, both in the quality of the ingredients and the care that goes into their preparation."

Prime Angus Beef with Its own "Hachis Parmentier" and Red Wine

Martin Booe
Bon Appétit
"Half of the fun of being at La Toque is the inspired pairing of the four-glass wine package with the prix fixe five-course tasting menu. The other half is sampling of Frank's ever-changing array of light, French-inspired dishes."

Patricia Unterman
Restaurant Critic for the San Francisco Examiner
"Wine lovers want food and pace that supports their primary pleasure and Frank has fashioned La Toque to meet these needs . Be prepared to spend the whole evening in the spacious, rustic dining room with a stone fireplace and high-pitched ceiling. Big, snowy, linen-covered tables are placed luxuriously far apart. You relax into large wood-frame chairs with brocaded cushions. A refectory table in the middle of the room is amusing with an elegant, soaring flower arrangement. The room does suggest a French country inn: a tiny bit austere, the uncluttered tables a canvas to be filled with food and wine."

Lobster Salad with Spring Vegetables

Andrew Baker and Lora J. Finnegan
Sunset Magazine
"With one wall dominated by a huge stone fireplace, La Toque's single room looks like the interior of an exquisitely elegant barn. Chef-owner Ken Frank weaves fine ingredients like foie gras, turbot, and rabbit together with intensely flavored sauces to create meals to remember."

S. Irene Virbila
Restaurant Critic for the Los Angeles Times
"Frank's menu is very much in the graceful, light style he's been cooking for years...The serenity of the setting, solicitousness of the staff (many of whom followed Frank up from Los Angeles) and pace of the menu make this a particularly relaxing meal."

Dungeness Crab Croquette  with Salmon Roe and Meyer Lemon Sauce

Meesha Halm
Restaurant Critic for Sidewalk San Francisco
"How does that adage go?" 'In heaven, the mechanics are German, the lovers are Italian...' Add to that, 'and the sommeliers are from La Toque.' "Rarely do you find a staff as well versed in wine as this one, yet so casual about it. Add to this fair pricing (given the surroundings and all), and you have a benchmark to which other restaurants should aspire

Tim Fish
The Wine Spectator
"Even among chefs cooking in wine country, Ken Frank has an extraordinary interest in wine, and it shows in his food. Frank's flavor and texture palette relies on classically French techniques, which he caries with an American sense of freedom and whimsy. The results take to wine as seamlessly as Frank's light, fragile hollandaise sauce melds to white asparagus in one of the chef's perfectly rendered dishes... for a complete food and wine experience, no restaurant in Napa Valley can match La Toque. Frank's food is impeccable, and the servers handle the complex menu options with aplomb."

Gene Burns
Restaurant Critic for KGO, ABC Radio in San Francisco
"Ken Frank is preparing a terrific price fixe menu. He's a chef who cut his teeth in Southern California and is now in the Napa Valley...He's cooking up a storm at La Toque at the Rancho Caymus Inn in Rutherford...The wine selections with the menu is a terrific way to sample new wines with foods...The combinations I had were sheer genius...I want to welcome Ken Frank to the Napa Valley...He's doing it the right way...Go to La Toque and stay at the Rancho Caymus Inn."

Roasted Saddle of Lamb with Mustard Spinach Spaetzle

Jeff Cox
Restaurant Reviewer for the Santa Rosa Press Democrat
"Ken Frank's restaurant at the Rancho Caymus Inn is superb, with French food done with a California twist. His ideas are innovative and his combinations of ingredients work beautifully. Seasonal food, and frequent changes of the courses and service is gracious, slightly informal, a little chatty if you want to banter with the waiter, silent if you don't. It's service in the urban style - trained, careful, professional. I loved it."

Spanish Blufin with Pickled Vegetables

Dan Berger 
Decanter Magazine
"What makes La Toque's French-style cuisine so amazing is the pairing of wine and food. As Frank said as I left recently 'Have you ever seen so many people enjoying such great wines?' No."