Best Restaurants for Special Occasions in Windsor

This is an exceptional destination for dinner in restaurant-laden Healdsburg. Comfortably presented in what used to be a small house with a nicely landscaped back yard, the environment is much less chaotic than a commercial restaurant space. The menu and wine list are extensive, with a range of choices to please all tastes. We enjoyed an all-tapas meal, including bacalao cigarillos (outstanding), crispy chicken thighs, sauteed spinach, chorizo & shishito peppers, and las patatas bravas. We had a nice, steely, refreshing Spanish white wine, El Coto, which complemented all dishes. The sauces kicked each of the dishes up a notch, with romesco and romesco aioli mayonnaise being most memorable. We were attended by what seemed like a horde of staff, rather than a particular server, but all were very enthusiastic and moved with blurry speed. We were STUFFED by the five tapas we ordered, so we did not even consider dessert, but the coffee we ordered sticks out as the best we've had in recent experience: it is served in a metal French press, with a uniform grind that is sized to be effectively filtered out by a very fine mesh screen in the press (no grounds or fines make it into the coffee). I don't know the brand of coffee, but it was very rich and smooth, without bitterness or acidity. So different from the coffee I make for myself that I feel like I'm obliged to rave about it. Even the furniture of this place was memorable. If you are visiting Healdsburg you must try Bravas.

This is always my favorite restaurant in Sonoma County.

Great Restaurant, good food the 3 course tasting menus has a lot of variety & good portion sizes. Persimmon salad & filet was cooked perfectly, nice passion fruit tart too. Good for special occasion too. Service is knowledgeable & great too.

We'll be sad to see this place go! We asked why the limited Menu today, and only as of 11am and the servers told us they're closing River Vine down in 2 weeks after the actual John Ash restaurant is done with construction updates. The full menu supposedly will return then, and I sure hope there will be a Patio again too - walked by the back and it looks like there will be. River Vine has awesome servers and upon asking they said they're safe, will be transferring to JA.

The Christmas Eve special event dinner was very good. The food was creative and they were very helpful dealing with a dairy intolerance issue. It was a it pricey, but worth it.