Golden Bear Station

Heidi was awesome! I loved this place. You must try the rice cake with bolognese sauce. The Hen of woods mushroom was tasty. We shared the Bib Salad. I suggest always order the Bib Salad, you'll find many tasty items amongst the lettuce. We brought a wine, however their wine list is excellent. We will be returning. It's all good. Something about the food and attentive service made the experience special. Watching the food preparation provided an extra element too. I watched my duck roast over the fire! You must get reservations.

Fantastic food, really friendly service and great vibes. Try some of the really creative and delicious fusion dishes (like the Bolognese on rice cakes). Like that it was a low key but elevated vibe, not noisy but felt lovely - all tables filled, but no kids - perfect for what we were looking for. They helped us choose an excellent bottle of wine. (Review for 4 adults after a day of wine tasting - get a ton of dishes and share everything family style so you can taste more things!)

This is my favorite restaurant in Sonoma! Joshua and Heidy Smookler know how to create dishes that mix ingredients in spectacular ways. If you are visiting Sonoma you MUST come to Golden Bear Station. Joshua is a highly acclaimed chef (just google him) and his wife Heidy provides impeccable warm and friendly service. Sorry about the photos- I devoured the food as soon as it arrived then took photos.

This restaurant feels like an open floorplan home, which is appropriate since we were strangers greeted like family. The food was cheff-kiss fantastic and the servers were true pros. We arrived on a Sunday night at 7pm with no reservation and were seated straight away at a table with a lit candle and mongolian fur throws on the seats. The personal touches made the entire experience perfection. Highly recommended!

Golden Bear Station – A Welcome Mistake There are two kinds of mistakes in life. The kind you regret, and the kind that turns into an unforgettable meal. We walked into *Golden Bear Station* at 5:30 on a Friday, expecting a casual pizza joint. Something simple, unassuming maybe a cold beer and a wood-fired pie. What we got was something else entirely. This was no pizza shack. This was serious. White tablecloths, hushed conversation, a dining room full of people who clearly *belonged*. Shit. We were in over our heads. And then, like all great dining experiences, there was a moment of grace. Heidi, the kind of front-of-house maestro you don’t find often enough, greeted us like old friends. We admitted we had no reservation. She didn’t flinch. Instead, she cleared a table set for six and gave us an hour. An hour? Challenge accepted. We started with the white asparagus, draped in a hollandaise so perfectly balanced it felt like a sin to eat it too fast. Then came the Basque omelette, topped with a decadent, salty pop of caviar. The chef was so proud of his creation, he snapped a photo himself. There’s something deeply satisfying about eating a dish so good even the creator wants to remember it. And then Heidi, playing the part of both host and conspirator, handed us a glass of champagne. *Because champagne is meant for that dish*, she said. She wasn’t wrong. We finished with the Amitriciana … rich, spicy, deeply comforting. The kind of pasta that reminds you why Italy is still running circles around the rest of the world when it comes to food. By the time the hour was up, we had eaten like kings, drunk like we had something important to celebrate, and somehow still managed to make it out in time. Heidi sent us off with a piece of Basque cheesecake on the house. Because, of course, that’s the kind of place this is. Golden Bear Station isn’t a restaurant. It’s an experience. One of those rare spots where hospitality still means something, where food is cooked with reverence, and where a mistake if you’re lucky turns into the best damn meal you’ve had in a long time.

We took our team to Golden Bear for our holiday dinner and had a fabulous time. We loved the family style servings, the portions were incredibly generous! We had leftovers for a week 😊 The service was great; attentive but not hovering. The bib salad is fabulous and we will always order that in the future. The spicy tuna was also fabulous, we loved the hen of the woods mushrooms and all the pastas. The cheesecake is out of this world! Thank you Heidi and Joshua for a delightful evening!

The food was absolutely incredible—way beyond what we expected. Every dish was full of flavor and beautifully presented. The service was top-notch—super friendly and attentive. It’s a spot run by the husband-and-wife team, and you can really feel the love they put into everything. A truly memorable dinner. Can’t wait to come back!

It's Christmas Eve. We just dined, drove 40mins home to Napa Valley, and felt the need to write this review. There just aren't enough superlatives to describe Heidy and Joshua's new place. It was just two of us, but the menu looked so good that we ordered as much as we could possibly eat. The scallops, endive salad, cacio e pepe w/uni, margherita pizza, burger and panna cotta were all incredibly executed with balanced and unique flavors. You could tell how much trial and error, and how many iterations went into perfecting each dish (especially the pizza crust). Having not eaten meat in nearly 4 years, I felt compelled to try the Harlan (burger) after reading a review criticizing the owners for refusing to make it without the bun - despite one of the diners being gluten free. After trying it, I get it. You simply can't (and shouldn't) modify this perfection of meat, tallegio cheese, kimchi, onion jam, and watercress that's held together by a deliciously non-gluten free bun. Named after their daughter and having been voted one of the best burgers in NYC at their ramen restaurant, I'm glad the owners stuck to their guns. While there are gluten free options, this is very much an Italian restaurant with Asian elements. I'm sure a menu will be posted in the upcoming weeks once it has been finalized. This sounds like we're friends or family, but we're neither. We're just two enthusiastic diners who loved Animo and went into this dinner cautiously optimistic (since they've only been open for 4 days), and left blown away. In addition to the stellar food, the service & ambience were on point. We'll be back, and we'll be regulars.