I’ve talked about my love for the Slanted Door before, a restaurant that served as my third place during my formative years living in San Francisco. For a long time, the restaurant was a favorite gathering spot for my family and friends, a place for a fancy-ish bite of modern Vietnamese food from chef Charles Phan. I arrived here at perhaps the pinnacle of Phan’s chef fame, just a year or so after he brought his (already-) popular restaurant to the Ferry Building in 2004, just nine years after its debut in the Mission District. By then, his clay pot chicken and cellophane noodles had reached acclaim, further buoyed by a space designed by frequent collaborator Lundberg Design. The Ferry Building flagship restaurant closed in 2020 at the onset of the pandemic, and Phan eventually announced the restaurant’s permanent closure in May 2024. By that point, just three locations of Slanted Door were left of Phan’s expanded empire, located in San Ramon and Napa, along with a restaurant in Beaune, France.
The centerpiece of the Napa location is the outstanding patio through which diners first enter the restaurant. Like its former Ferry Building location, this spot was also renovated by Lundberg; the walls are clad in charred shou sugi ban wood, with gorgeous, blooming trees providing shade for diners outside. The restaurant surrounds the patio, including the oval, wood bar with its arched lights hanging overhead, a visible kitchen on the north side of the building, and interior dining rooms.
Although I abstained from alcoholic drinks on this visit (I was the DD for this Napa trip), the restaurant boasts a list of wines by the glass and bottle, composed of Bay Area and European winemakers. There’s also a cocktail list with some exciting options for bar fanatics, such as the Single Barrel Manhattan that incorporates Wild Turkey single barrel made especially for Phan’s former San Francisco bar, Hard Water, plus Carpano Antica vermouth and bitters. The iced Vietnamese coffee was unfortunately on the weaker side — of which I’ll take full blame for requesting it cold, since iced pourovers do ultimately thin out the drink, especially when served over more ice — but the black coffee I had at the end of the meal happily kept me caffeinated for the drive home.
If you’re dining in the morning or in the evening, it’s worth setting a reservation for the patio to guarantee a seat with those aforementioned trees. (Allergy sufferers, fair warning that you may be hit with some pollen-induced sniffles, like I was, in the spring.) I suspect it gets quite hot on the patio during peak afternoon hours, but that’s perhaps the best time to sit at the bar, which hosts a daily happy hour from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m.
Longtime fans of the Slanted Door will likely find the Napa location to be an impressive space to relive the nostalgia of the San Francisco original. Newcomers to Vietnamese cuisine will find this a good starting place to explore a modern take on the dishes of Vietnam, in a place built for special occasions and regular meals.
Dining and Cooking