Eric’s 5-star review:
It's been a couple years since I've visited La Toque at their Rutherford location. I remembered from my previous dining experience that wine tasting and La Toque's Table menu with wine pairing are a 1-2 knock out combination, that'll send anyone to sleepy town.
On my most recent visit La Toque with some family, I was much more conscious of pacing myself in terms of wine and food. I went with the Chef's tasting menu with wine pairing again, which ended up being a wise decision. Wine pairings servings were good, no one likes forking over the money for wine pairing and getting a tiny portion of wine to go with your dish.
I thought it was a nice touch La Toque's resident wine steward Yoon, gave a description of each wine he chose to accompany each dish and the reasons behind it. If you visit La Toque, put your trust in Yoon, he won't steer you wrong.
I like the way they prepare their pan fried foie gras. I'm not a huge foie gras fan, but La Toque does the best job of it from anywhere I've tried. The foie gras portion can vary, but generally speaking it's quite generous.
I recently discovered that La Toque is one of the few restaurant I've been to that have a Michelin Star. More important than a distinguished French award is that La Toque's food, wine and service seems to be a perfect fit for my taste, so in that respect, it wins top honors.
