
The Charter Oak Restaurant
Seasonal, family-style Californian fare from a renowned chef, emphasizing open-fire cooking and fresh ingredients from their own farm.

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The Charter Oak Restaurant

Highlights
Must-see attractions
Seasonal, family-style Californian fare from a renowned chef, emphasizing open-fire cooking and fresh ingredients from their own farm.
"Praised as potentially the best cheeseburger in Napa Valley, this is a must-stop in wine country."
Pace Yourself
Consider pacing through courses to avoid feeling overly full early on, especially with family-style dining.
Outdoor Seating Options
Opt for outdoor seating with heaters or try yurt dining for a fixed menu experience in colder months.

Quick Facts
Cuisine
Californian
Price
$$$
Highlights
Discover the most iconic attractions and experiences

The Legendary Cheeseburger
Praised as potentially the best in Napa Valley, this double patty burger is a must-try, served with thick-cut fries.

Family-Style Californian Fare
Experience seasonal ingredients and regional wines in a celebratory, yet casual, family-style setting.

Open-Fire Hearth Cooking
Dishes are prepared with an emphasis on elemental cooking, utilizing a massive hearth for bold flavors.
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Insider Tips
from TikTok, Instagram & Reddit
Pace Yourself
Consider pacing through courses to avoid feeling overly full early on, especially with family-style dining.
Outdoor Seating Options
Opt for outdoor seating with heaters or try yurt dining for a fixed menu experience in colder months.
Generous Corkage Policy
Enjoy one complimentary bottle of wine; subsequent bottles may incur a fee, which is generous compared to others.
Don't Skip the Bread
The bread is a highly recommended item, often a perfect start or accompaniment to your meal.
Tips
from all over the internet
Pace Yourself
Consider pacing through courses to avoid feeling overly full early on, especially with family-style dining.
Outdoor Seating Options
Opt for outdoor seating with heaters or try yurt dining for a fixed menu experience in colder months.
Generous Corkage Policy
Enjoy one complimentary bottle of wine; subsequent bottles may incur a fee, which is generous compared to others.
Don't Skip the Bread
The bread is a highly recommended item, often a perfect start or accompaniment to your meal.
What Travellers Say
Reviews Summary
The Charter Oak offers a distinctive family-style Californian dining experience, with many praising its legendary cheeseburger and fresh, elemental cooking. While some diners rave about the atmosphere and specific dishes like the trout and bread, others have found issues with seasoning, overdressing, and inconsistent service. It's a place that garners strong opinions, with many finding it a worthwhile stop in Wine Country.
"Fantastic salad. We ordered the Swiss chard salad with anchovy sauce- the umami flavor was terrific. Also ordered steak tartare which was good, though not a spotlight, it came with bread which made the meal very filling even though only 2 items."
Rebecca W
"My fourth time in this MARVELOUS place!
The food, service and atmosphere are exceptional place. We started off with raw vegetables crudite that has Ice plants! It’s simple yet soo good. Then we had the potato salad and the steak for two. We ended dinner with soft serve and cheesecake. They gave us cookies to round off the meal."
Marshall Syahrial
"The steak was rare, I ordered medium rare
both the chicken and the fish were too salty
I loved the taste of the steak but not worth it
Wouldn’t come here again
The corn, the dessert and the grilled cabbage were amazing.
Note: this is coming from a guy that grills every other weekend. I don’t recommend this restaurant"
Mark Mohades
What People Like
What People Dislike
Frequently Asked Questions
The Charter Oak is renowned for its family-style Californian cuisine, open-fire cooking, and its legendary cheeseburger.
Yes, the restaurant features a garden patio and yurt dining options, which are especially recommended during warmer months.
You can bring one bottle of wine without a corkage fee. Subsequent bottles may incur a charge.
Yes, the menu includes options like seasonal raw vegetables from their farm and grilled koji eggplant.
The dress code is casual yet polished. While it's a fine dining establishment, many enjoy the 'celebratory and casual dining experience'.
Reservations are recommended, especially for popular dining times or specific seating areas like the patio.
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St. HelenaWhat if the acclaimed chef of a three-Michelin-starred restaurant opened a casual spot centered around open-fire cooking, with a similar focus on excellent ingredients, an indoor-outdoor space, and one of the better cheeseburgers and brunches in Napa County?. Not only does this place exist – run by chef Christopher Kostow of The Restaurant at Meadowood– but there’s all of that, plus cocktails and wine, and a weeknight happy hour where you could eat chef-blessed chicken wings with a margarita or a beer and a shot. There are plenty of enticing options for vegetarians too, including raw veggies from the restaurant's own farm served with fermented soy dip to grilled koji eggplant.Ready to go?
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Chef Christopher Kostow’s casual, family-style restaurant The Charter Oak in St. Helena has limited walk-in availability for lunch, brunch, or dinner in their courtyard, where you can enjoy a seasonal, California-style cuisine along with cocktails and a large wine list that highlights California wines. Nearby Press is an excellent steakhouse that features the largest collection of Napa Valley wines in the world as well as a brand new beer garden, where you can enjoy finger foods (think: wagyu hot dogs and oysters on the half shell) and craft brews on the weekends.
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Christopher Kostow's reputation rests on his swoonworthy haute cuisine for the Meadowood resort, but he and his Charter Oak team adopt a more straightforward approach—fewer ingredients chosen for maximum effect—at this high-ceilinged, brown-brick downtown restaurant. With exceedingly fresh produce from Meadowood's nearby farm, this strategy might translate into dishes like red kuri squash with pickled peppers, almonds, and goat cheese; or pork collar with fermented pepper jam (or just go for the cheeseburger and thick hand-cut fries).
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Illustrious and oft-awarded chef Christopher Kostow helmed the kitchen at three-Michelin-star restaurant Meadowood until it burned to the ground in 2020. The good news is you can still sample some of his fare at The Charter Oak in St. Helena. Jay Jeffers, longtime St. Helena resident and co-owner and designer of The Madrona in Healdsburg, recommends the “broccoli salad, the wings that change monthly, and the best burger ever.” Another option?.
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The Charter Oak is the more casual spot from the people behind The Restaurant at Meadowood, a legendary fine dining option that closed after the 2020 Glass Fire and is yet to reopen. Luckily, The Charter Oak lives up to that pedigree and has become one of our favorite places in the valley. There’s a wonderful garden patio that’s great for a meal or to lounge on bonfire seating while you wait.
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The Charter Oak Restaurant in Saint Helena to Move in to the Tra Vigne Location – The Restaurant at Meadowood team, led by their 3 Michelin-starred Chef Christopher Kostow and Director Daniel Dorn, plans to offer a “celebratory and casual dining experience.” Though the restaurants, The Charter Oak and The Restaurant and Meadowood, will be 2 separate entities they will be twined together by the team including Nathaniel – Meadowood’s front of the house director and Katianna Hong, Chef de cuisine along with a host of artisans. The Kitchen will ditch heavy sauces and techniques like sous vide and complicated garnishes in flavor of steam and fire. While dining, guests will also pour their own wine and choose bourbons and dessert from carts rolled through the dining room.
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Elemental is the word to describe the hearth-centered cooking of The Charter Oak, helmed by chef Christopher Kostow, who is a James Beard Award 2018 semi-finalist for his Michelin-starred The Restaurant at Meadowood. His newest venture, also nominated for Best New Restaurant, focuses on showcasing “food, surfaces, [and] materials, in such a way that their essence is revealed.” The dishes reflect products in an elegant and unforced manner, with an emphasis of produce from The Charter Oak’s 2.5 acre culinary garden. Aesthetically, their dishes offer up a modern take in a traditionally rustic-centered area, pleasing both to the eye as well as the palate.
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Casual and stylish, The Charter Oak is all about the fresh produce that comes from its farm, its massive hearth that plays a starring role in almost every family-style dish, and the legendary double cheeseburger, which is probably the best one you’ll find in all of Napa Valley. Begin or end your meal with a cocktail in the straight-out-of-a-fairytale courtyard, complete with towering oak trees and twinkling lights, but dine inside for the main affair so that you can enjoy the ambiance of the aforementioned open-flame hearth and the heavenly smells coming out of it. And whatever you do, order the bread.
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Casual yet polished (interiors display warm wood, exposed brick, and tan leather), Chef Christopher Kostow’s newish downtown restaurant focuses on “elemental” and “simplicity” when it comes to the menu. Much of the food, served family style, comes from a huge open-flame grill. Lunch and dinner aside, we like to sneak down to their chic but approachable bar to dig into their cocktail menu.The Charter Oak celebrates classically focused cocktails ranging from bottled cocktails and large format “for the table” drinks, to reserve cocktails crafted with rare spirits.
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Locals were devastated when St. Helena’s Tra Vigne closed in 2015, but news of its replacement from famed chef Christopher Kostow helped to soften the blow. Without skipping a beat, Charter Oak, which has a knack for making vegetables the main event, took over Tra Vigne’s legacy as a hot spot for wine industry folk to gather and dine. It won the community over with one of Napa Valley’s best burgers ($26) — featuring a double patty, cheddar cheese and jalapeño relish — and the creamy fermented soy dip that accompanies its crudités ($25).
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From Christopher Kostow and Nathaniel Dorn, who earned three Michelin stars for the Restaurant at Meadowood, The Charter Oak has a warm brick-and-wood interior, a substantial patio, and a casual family-style menu that elevates the simple American food: Most of the dishes feature a minimal number of ingredients, like hearth roasted figs with local honey for starters, coal roasted cabbage, and cauliflower with a mushroom au jus. It's hugely popular, so be sure to snag reservations ahead of time.
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You will work up an appetite… perfect to heard to brunch that locals and visitors don’t want to miss at The Charter Oak. The Charter Oak is centered on a celebratory, family-style dining experience, with simple, approachable, and seasonal food – beautiful vegetables from our farm, local wines and unparalleled cocktails. Our menu reflects the products of the Napa Valley through an elemental cooking style, with a hearth at its center, and by highlighting one or two ingredients at a time.
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When you want a unique dining experience in Napa Valley, there is no better choice than The Charter Oak in St. Helena. Voted the Most Intriguing Dining Venue by Napa Valley Life Magazine’s 2022 Best of Napa Valley Reader’s Choice Awards, The Charter Oak recently transformed its outdoor dining area into a yurt village. Boasting unique botanical themes from The Charter Oak’s nearby farm, the private yurts offer a cozy, heated dining experience.
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Tags: Amizetta Estate Vineyard & Winery, Barnett Vineyards, Brasswood Estate, Chappellet Winery, Davies Vineyards, Cook St. Helena, Farmstead at Long Meadow Ranch, Giugnis Deli, Goose & Gander, Gott's Roadside, Joseph Phelps Vineyards, Market Restaurant, Maxville Winery, Merryvale Vineyards, Pizzeria Tra Vigne, PRESS Restaurant, Quintessa Winery, Rombauer Vineyards, Round Pond Estate, The Charter Oak, The Restaurant at Auberge, The Station
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St. Helena’s newest restaurant, The Charter Oak, is a casual dining restaurant from Chef Christopher Kostow of The Restaurant at Meadowood. The warm and inviting restaurant focuses on locally inspired ingredients in a family-style menu. The food is straight-forward and full of flavor and it is no wonder why GQ Magazine named it one of America’s “Best New Restaurants” and Food & Wine named Chef Katianna Hong as one of the “Best New Chefs.
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Or head back to the inn first for some R & R before dinner, and then check out the downstairs bar in the Goose & Gander before heading over to The Charter Oak for dinner. The Charter Oak’s buzzy space gets the right balance of being a large space busy with people but remaining warm, welcoming, and personal. The family-style shared plates of locally sourced food is paired with an energetic wine list and fantastic service.
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With its farm-fresh ingredients and creative culinary approach, The Charter Oak Restaurant offers an unforgettable dining experience. The restaurant's philosophy revolves around simplicity and integrity, which shines through in its dishes. Seasonal produce takes center stage here, with each dish reflecting the changing seasons' bounty, inviting diners on a unique culinary journey no matter what time of the year.
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Lunch at The Charter Oak represents wine country dining at its finest. Chef Christopher Kostow (formerly of the venerated Restaurant at Meadowood) creates sophisticated yet approachable dishes cooked over open fire. The stuffed Petaluma chicken and “Raw Vegetables From Our Farm” have achieved cult status, while the historic building's exposed brick walls and soaring ceilings provide an atmospheric backdrop.
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Best new restaurants: The Charter Oak, the casual St. Helena restaurant started by three-Michelin-star chef Christopher Kostow and Meadowood’s Nathaniel Dorn, is phenomenal. The atmosphere, the food, the cocktail program, the wine program—everything about it is the epitome of what a great place to eat should be. In downtown Napa, there’s the Mexican restaurant Gran Eléctrica (the original is in Brooklyn).
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Our second Michelin-starred restaurant on the list is The Charter Oak, one of St. Helena’s best dining spots. They offer American cuisine for lunch and dinner, with the late-night crowd enjoying high-end fares like chard and mozzarella salad, lamb shanks, and trout. The Charter Oak is well-known for its legendary cheeseburger, which has topped California must-eat lists for years.
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After a long day searching for the perfect Napa Valley real estate, relax and dine at The Charter Oak. No matter what mood you’re in, you’ll be able to choose a dining style that will exactly match your frame of mind. You can sit back and let the kitchen do all the work for you by ordering The Legacy Menu, 5% of which will go back to The Cameron Thompson Legacy Scholarship.
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Featured in Food & Wine Best New Chefs 2018, Katianna Hong creates farm-to-table cooking with changing daily menus and wood-fired dishes. Enjoy an extensive beer and wine selection, but save room for dessert, shown by cart and made to order table-side. Cozy and sophisticated, this restaurant is beautifully designed with exquisite attention to detail to every aspect.
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The Charter Oak Restaurant is located in the heart of the Napa Valley. Their dishes are centered around a family-style dining experience with simple, approachable, and seasonal food. Expect grilled meats, beautiful vegetables from their 3.5-acre farm, local wines, and delicious cocktails.We did their Yurt Dining experience, which was accompanied with it’s own menu.
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Helmed by legendary three-Michelin star chef Chris Kostow, The Charter Oak serves new Napa Valley cuisine that is simple, but beautifully prepared. Picture dishes like Red Kuri Squash, Bavette Steak, Niman Ranch Pork Chops, and McFarland Trout with Marigold Pesto. Both locals and tourists flock to this restaurant.
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Following 2 days hiking non-stop in Yosemite, Patrick and I were starved. We were in the mood for some really hearty, simple, classic food—pizza. It’s funny because coming from New York, Californians would tell us their pizza is not as good as New York pizza, but the best one in town is…etc.
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Helena CA 94574 - Farmstead At Long Meadow Ranch Goose Gander Pizzeria Tra Vigne The Charter Oak Restaurant Brasswood Bar Kitchen Clif Family Bruschetteria Gatehouse Restaurant at The Culinary Institute of. Best Restaurants with Outdoor Seating in St. 720 reviews Open Now.
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The Charter Oak Restaurant in St. Helena offers a rustic yet contemporary ambiance and exceptional California cuisine led by Chef Christopher Kostow. The menu highlights locally sourced ingredients and seasonal flavors, and the restaurant features an impressive wine list.
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An upscale, yet more approachable dining concept in St. Helena from chef Christopher Kostow of the three-Michelin starred (and temporarily closed due to the fires) Meadowood. Dishes are simple, hyper-seasonal, and made for sharing.
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Establishments like The Charter Oak, Press St. Helena, and Tra Vigne Pizzeria feature outdoor seating where dogs are welcome. As you dine, your pooch can relax by your feet, making for a serene dining experience.
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The Charter Oak boasts a fantastic mouth watering menu that chooses to highlight one or two ingredients at a time. This simplicity reigns as the forefront ideology and is why so many people can’t get enough.
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Experience mind-blowing dining at Christopher Kostow’s The Charter Oak. Flavors dance in harmony on your palate, from sweet roasted figs and decadent aged beef to creamy polenta and buttery Komachi rice.
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