I went to stay at the Fairmont to celebrate my birthday with a friend last weekend and we dined at Santé. We had reviewed the menu and were very excited to eat there. We split the entire meal and a bottle of wine.
We began with the bread which was crispy yet soft and the butter was tasty. We ordered the oysters and they were delicious. I typically like smaller oysters like Kumamotos but for larger oysters these were actually good.
Next came the butternut squash ravioli and this was amazing too. The sauce was very rich, yet sweet and savory and so was the filling.
Then we had the ribeye for 2 with the duck fat fingerling potatoes and the broccolini. I ordered a medium steak and what I received was a medium well, almost well done steak. I am a huge fan of a good ribeye and eat them often, and I hate an overcooked steak - it ruins it for me. The steak was not soft as a well-marbled ribeye should be and lacked flavor/seasoning. There were only patches of salt and it came with this really creamy butter that was almost too creamy and the flavor was kinda overpowering the steak, so we scooped that to the side.
The potatoes were also lacking seasoning, I could taste the bitterness of the skin. Also, they were SO dry that some of the potatoes were actually cracking along the inside, completely dehydrated. It seemed like they had been sitting under a heat lamp ALL DAY.
The broccolini was cooked al dente and the sauce was tasty.
The service could also use some improvements. Our server had zero wow factor and was very dry, not warm nor welcoming. I was a little irritated that he did not come back to top us off until we were about to leave. The manager was nice and came over to open the wine for us, but the server didn’t seem to be too knowledgeable about wine as one would expect in wine country.
It’s a long review but an honest one. The resort is fantastic, but try some of the local Sonoma restaurants
Service
Dine in
Meal type
Dinner
Price per person
$100+
Food: 3
Service: 3
Atmosphere: 4
The overall experience was wonderful! From delicious food to attentive and friendly wait staff, it was an awesome experience. Highly recommend visiting!
Food: 5
Service: 5
Atmosphere: 5
