Sonoma

Exemplary dinner experience, from the amuse bouche to the dessert. David was a class act with real expertise in wines. Everything from our fresh flatbread appetizer to the melt in your mouth Korean short rib and the puff pasty dessert, it was a delicious and wonderful dining experience.

Went back to Sonoma this past weekend. They try so hard to serve unique selections.
We ordered the Grilled Steak and Egg, Togarashi Tuna, and The Sonoma Caesar to start.
All were very good. For our main courses, we had Sautéed Potato Gnocchi, Center Cut of Filet Mignon and Korean Short Ribs. the meat dishes were good but the Gnocchi was not.
You would think that a restaurant of this caliber would pride themselves on excellence in every way. That is why I was so surprised when our waiter stacked the dirty dishes in front
of me. All in all, it was a nice night, especially if you enjoy spending hours at a restaurant.

The ambiance, service, and the background music are great. They had a good wine and beer list. The food was just OK for he price. We split a salad that was flavorful and fresh. My wife had the vegetable torta and I had the Korean short ribs. The food was fairly pedestrian and not what you would expect where entrees are $ 30+ a plate. I expected the short ribs to melt in my mouth, but they were chewy. I have had better at half the price. The desert cart came around and were enticed into trying the peanut butter cheese cake. The texture was weird and the flavor was just OK. Not a great finish…
Overall Sonoma has some good attributes, but it is very expensive for what you get (we were with a party of 5 and my wife and I dropped $ 180) and does not it deliver a top notch, memorable experience.

AAA+ Our waiter David was very knowledgeable. Like all resturants every item is dependant on past experiences. I like my poke traditional like you find on the islands so I would not recommend thst item. The duck under glass gets an A+. The seafood pastery was also A+. Ceasar salad B. Carpaccio was AA+.

THIS is the best restaurant I’ve been to in ages…
The food is precision, the staff (esp Angela) KNOW service…
It beats many of the Boston and NYC restaurants I’ve been.
My new favorite and those of you who follow my reviews know I’m picky!
Try Sonoma!

Sonoma — 206 Worcester Rd Princeton, Ma.
Fine Dining at its best. Tucked away in the small bedroom community of Princeton Ma, Sonoma offers all the twist of an upscale menu and service. Not often have I found the variety and originality presented here. Atmosphere is casual but a jacket for men and proper dress for women might make you feel better placed then coming in jeans. Opening with a cheese board appetizer we sampled several with bread and greens. A sampling of beets, quiche, farro, carrots, green beans and garlic mashed were served as a shared vegetable. Entrees were a flat iron steak cooked to absolute perfection and a duck breast with a cognac demi –glacé and sweet potato hash. Both exceeded our expectations. No after dinner cocktail but we did indulge in a slice of bread pudding, coco powdered ice cream and two cups of jo.
Ever all consensuses on Sonoma is exceptional. In fact I was a bit blown away. I have been in the food scene for many years and it take a lot to impress me. This venue does it. We will be back and next time with friends.

We have been looking for a fine dining experience outside Boston for a while. Found this one on the internet. Though the location in the small strip mall is detering, the ambience within is a whole different world. There was a guitarist playing classical, sophisticated décor, and waitstaff was polite and observant. Most importantly they made the extra effort to meet our expectations. I would definitely recommend.

Great service! Never certain what to expect when restaurants are in a «strip mall» type locale, but this place is a little slice of heaven. I told my hubby, after an amazing birthday dinner, that I felt I had a food buzz. We’re not drinkers, but I literally felt high after this meal. Fantastic! And they are happy to accommodate special requests/​dietary needs. How lucky are we to live in a small, out of the way town, with such high quality food and service!!! I would HIGHLY recommend this spot!

This place never disappoints. I have been a big fan for many years and each time experience something amazing. This time is was an incredible Burrata salad and the Korean short ribs. I almost never order red meat, but did so since a friend told me these were incredible. I was not disappointed. This ranked as one of my top 10 favorite meals. The dessert was an apple tart type thing with ice cream. So good. Always great service. The place is not cheap, so expect that. Not sure I agree on the category of a French Restaurant? Regardless, this is a place for an amazing dining experience.

French? Ehhh … I don’t know about that one. I would call this more ‘New French Fusion’. I’ve eaten at some of the country’s best french restaurants and aside from the fact this place serves Escargot, I would not consider this to be a French restaurant (it used to be).
The chef is obviously very talented and meticulous. However, I think he also may be a tad bit full of himself and that brings the menu into places it shouldn’t go. After listening to a 7 sentence description of a menu item, I ordered it and it pretty much came out just like anywhere else.
The menu is sort of limited … I honestly spent a long time looking over it because none of the dishes really jumped out at me. There wasn’t a lot of variety and some of the dishes seemed like there was just too much going on. Like every other reviewer said, I was a bit surprised that the same vegetables came with each dish. It’s kind of weird that fish, beef and chicken all come with the same accompaniment.
The tastes of the food were good … however, I noticed my cut of meat was a little fatty. I felt like it looked huge but didn’t really fill me up. The mashed potatoes and boiled veggies made me feel like I was at a wedding reception. There was nothing wrong with my meal but I didn’t feel like it was special.
This is a huge place with the locals … many of the diners I overheard had been there three times that week and the waitresses seem to know many of the diners by name. I guess a small town like Princeton doesn’t have many dining options and you wouldn’t expect to find ‘fine dining’ like Sonoma offers in a place so … remote.
I wasn’t blown away with the décor. I felt our table next to a blacked out window was a bit chilly … even with the small, square plugged in space heater next to our table. (never seen anything like that before at a restaurant). The lighting was dim in most places but a bright spotlight over the table made it seem like the table was being flood lit from above and not as relaxed as it should be.
I really had higher hopes for Sonoma. Personally, it was not my cup of tea, but go for yourself and judge. There are plenty of locals who have been eating here for years and love it. It does have a huge local following and a good reputation. Don’t let my review sway you from going here because you may find it great. Me … average to good.

Very nice, take the wife or girlfriend.

«You tell them that I cut into this filet and it is cooked to perfection and you will take it off the bill but I will not bless them with another». This is how my wife and I envision the scenario in the kitchen played out between the egocentric chef/​owner and the hard working server we had at Sonoma.
Let me start from the beginning. My wife and I went out for an evening alone after a house full of family for the holiday. The night started out great with a pleasant bartender who wound up being our waitress. The food was great from the ahi tuna appetizer to the salads and the tapenade that was a pleasant surprise. However, the main course came and my wife’s filet was definitely cooked more than medium. Our experience thus far was great but I could see when she cut into it that she wasn’t pleased. I saw that the filet looked dry and said we need to send it back. My wife said that she didn’t want to because by the time she got it back my meal would be cold. I said not to worry about me and get the steak cooked properly. When we told the waitress she agreed that the steak was over cooked. Well 15 minutes went by and we still didn’t have another steak. When we asked the waitress where it was she apologized and said she would check. The other owner who is the Chet’s wife came over to apologize but what she said next was astonishing. Rather than say I am so sorry about the steak she said «they cut into the steak and it looked fine but we will take it off the bill «. We didn’t give a crap about the $ 30 but my wife wanted a meal. Then we began to realize that there was no other steak coming and the a$&hole chef refused to cook another. My wife and I have both worked in restaurants and have both experienced these egotistical chefs that hide behind their swinging door while wielding a knife at the hard working server that has to be the bearer of this kitchen god’s news. So the clincher to the evening was when I looked on open table and saw that they had cancelled our reservation so we couldn’t comment on our experience. I called and spoke with the owner and amazingly it was changed in my account.
The bottom line is we are a couple of empty nesters that eat out several nights a week and thought we found a regular spot that was close to home. Instead we will never step foot in there again and we will continue to tell our story. It’s amazing how many people we run into while we are out and discuss other restaurants.

You might be surprised by my three star review of the otherwise highly rated Sonoma, but my overall experience there was completely underwhelming. I expect a lot more from a $$$$ restaurant that charges in the $ 10 range for appetizers and salads and the $ 30 range for entrees.
Food: My wife and I both loved our salads. I had the green apple salad, which was well dressed and had delicious candied nuts and dried cranberries on the side. I do have to say that the small slices of green apple had an off flavor to them. I ASSUME they coat them with something acidic like lemon juice to prevent them from turning brown quickly, but I could very well be wrong. My wife loved her Caesar salad which comes in an light and crispy Asiago cheese bowl. For our entrees we had the Korean short ribs ($ 32) and the pork shank ($ 30). Each were served with the same sides that I thought were both boring and didn’t compliment our respective dishes. Let me be clear, it’s not that the food was poor, but rather it just wasn’t worth the price. For dessert, we shared a chocolate bomb, which was good, but we’ve definitely had better.
Atmosphere: This is an important part of the fine dining experience for me, and Sonoma falls flat. The boxy space has a very outdated feel with little décor aside from the random artwork on the walls, which oddly enough is for sale in their menu. I don’t know if I’ve ever seen anything like that in a $$$$ restaurant. Then again, I haven’t seen a dessert cart in a $$$$ restaurant either, which adds to the dated feeling you get while in there. The cart also provides a little feeling of awkwardness as you watch them wheel it around desperately trying to sell their desserts. Patrons would sit politely through the entire explanation of all their options before getting to say «No Thanks» and watch it roll away.
Service: I was very pleased with the service here. Our waitress was very knowledgeable about the menu, attentive, and pleasant. It was the only part of the experience I felt was worthy of the $$$$ rating.
My bottom line is that as a restaurant, you set a certain expectation with your prices, and I don’t feel as though Sonoma lives up to theirs.

I like to be positive, so let’s start with the good stuff: The ambience is excellent, the service is excellent, and the background music is excellent. The wine list is stunning in its breadth. Parking is plentiful. Great location: Princeton is a beautiful area.
So why only two stars? The food. It is entirely mediocre, and some things were really poorly prepared. For this price range, in central MA, I expect much, much more.
I had the Seafood Thermidor, which was gratuitously overcooked. What they did is take good quality shrimp, lobster, and scallops; grill them to perfection; and then drop them in a vat of hot brown gravy (I’m not kidding), until they have the consistency of chewing gum.
My wife had the Cajun Scallop and Sweet Corn Crème Brûlée appetizer. Sounds cool, right? Expecting some crazy savory crème brûlée? Nope. It was sweet. Basically dessert in advance. Who wants a 4 inch disc of sugar as an appetizer? And the «Cajun» Scallops had no spiciness.
I had the escargot app, which was fine. And my wife had the chicken saltimbocca, which she said was OK, although quite heavy.
With each entrée, they serve exactly the same set of small sides. This is just strange. Some of them were outstanding (green beans and caramelized fennel), but most were just meh, and some were kind of awful (a dollop of garlic mashed potatoes, with about 80 times the right amount of garlic). But from a culinary perspective, this makes no sense. The sides with an entrée need to be thought out. They should complement, contrast, enhance, distract, or something! The play between the entrée and the sides is where the magic happens, and at Sonoma, there is no magic.
There are two different cocktail menus. One is full of house special drinks, all of which look like the factory-​flavored-​vodka + a liquor + some juice variety. I’m sorry, but if you are going to go this route, using factory flavored vodka is a deal breaker for me. Infusing is not that hard, people. The other cocktail menu is an assortment of classics. Much better. I had the Negrone, which was perfect. I followed that up with a dirty Kettel One martini, which was kind of watery (I guess the lesson is «strired, not shaken»).
As I said earlier, the wine list is amazing, but I’ve left my wine-​snob days behind me, so I can’t speak to the prices or quality of the selections. Everyone else in the place seemed delighted, though.
And finally, dessert. Another bright spot. They bring around a cart, and everything looked excellent. Our two samples, were, in fact, very, very good. Perhaps you should just skip dinner and go right to dessert.
Bottom line: This is a very expensive restaurant for the area, and it does not deliver.

Visited the other night with a party of six, so had a chance to sample across the menu. Food was well prepared, but flavor was somewhat dull. Reading other reviews, perhaps it was an off night. Service was fair, and painfully slow at times. They have a very limited craft beer selection. Way behind the times on this.

Delightful fine dining experience with all the elements in place. It has ambience with soft lighting, white linen tablecloths, acoustic live guitar music in the background (at least on Friday when we were there) and colorful artwork on the walls. It has a nice selection on the menu that delivers both in presentation and taste. It has knowledgeable servers who can offer up suggestions for items to share. Finally, it has a great dessert selection.
I love that we were able to make reservations online; what an added bonus. We ordered one of the specials of the night — swordfish, and Bacon Wrapped Tournedos. Both dishes then came with I think 7 different sides of the chef’s choice which tonight included fiddleheads, the fonds of a fern. Nice! For dessert, we split a delicious deconstructed apple pie with ice cream.
Also worthwhile to mention is that their website touts that they use locally grown food — definitely a plus.
Expensive but worth it and such a nice date destination.

Yes yes yes for all around must go to crave the food and my top pick for a nice night out w hubby family and friends. Live acoustic guitar on wkends, the food… Well just yummmmmmmy, staff is so friendly and knowledgable of what the food is and great w wine recommendations! A must try over and over again if you have not!

My wife and I made the drive up to Princeton Mass based on seeing reviews is Sonoma on Phantom Gourmet. It was great! The service was excellent and our waitress was friendly and knowledgeable. The décor is nice and subdued and the soft music was great for conversation. Of course the best part was the food which was all outstanding. I highly recommend this restaurant.

Please explain to me why this place warrants 5 stars that it seems to get?
It was a party of 5 but I’m only going to comment on what I ate or had a taste of.
We started off dinner with crusty rolls with apple butter, which was lacking in any flavor and in much need of either sugar or salt –anything to awaken my taste buds. I tried the gnocchitini and it was swimming in oil and there was a hint of mushroom. The whole gnocchi taste was masked by all the oil — which ruined it. The apple salad was great but the baby spinach would have fared better if the tips were cut off. With those prices — they could afford to pay someone to take extra care in their product. The baked brie with apricot was delicious but I didn’t get much of brie inside the puff pastry so not a very good balance for an appetizer, tasted more like a dessert. My favorite part of the night was waiting, and WAITING for the waitress to just take our dirty plates away. And when she did, it was still a 10 min wait for the entrees. This place is so caught up with designated roles for everyone that they forget to help each other out. The water girl came by twice before the appetizer/​salad plates were taken away.
The sirloin flavor was masked and overpowered by the blue cheese topping as well. This place seems to have a trend — lots of overpowering flavors that do not compliment the dish. The venison was good though, but again, needed something added to it that made it pop in your mouth. I could cook a venison at home to this same standard, but people go out to experience more than just things they can cook themselves. Shouldn’t a trained chef be capable of more? Now this is my favorite part, waited 20 minutes for the waitress to get our empty entrée plates. The couple who arrived while we were eating our appetizers was done with their dessert by the time we kept waiting for her to take our empty plates. Her «service,» or lack there of, ruined any hopes this place would be deemed good. Also, the chef chooses the sides for you, so do not expect to pay high prices to get what you want. He knows best.
Now lets put this in perspective: LOTS OF WAITING! Arrived at 6:45pm and didn’t leave until 11pm. 5 people, 5 appetizers, 5 entrees, and 3 desserts do not warrant 4 hours unless you are cooking everything from scratch, which a restaurant should never be that ill prepared. The waitress is hard to flag down but your water glass will never be empty. Considering this place is in the middle of nowhere: don’t bother with the drive.

You’ll be surprised by Sonoma, a gourmand’s choice in a nondescript location. But don’t let the understated exterior fool you: Inside is a cornucopia of flavors and unique dishes, served by friendly, knowledgeable wait staff and in a ambience more like a top restaurant in NYC, DC or San Francisco.
The starters deserve top billing: I enjoyed the salad nicoise with fresh tuna sashimi; my dining companion had the kobe beef carpaccio served with local cheeses. In fact, next time we go to Sonoma we’ll dine exclusively on the starters – the choices are deep and compelling.
Our server (Debbie) presented a complimentary mix of three tapenades which went well with the bread rolls (unremarkable). Debbie knew the menu extremely well; her recommendations throughout the meal made for a superlative culinary experience.
The entrees are similarly delicious: I chose the filet mignon and was surprised when it was presented without a steak knife. Turns out no knife was necessary; I cut through the medium rare meat with the side of my fork, it was that tender. My dining companion chose the short ribs, which were similarly delectable. The garnishes complemented the food, although the broccoli rabe was slightly disappointing.
At first glance the wine list is on the expensive side but we chose the DeLoach Zinfandel and, with its black currant and black pepper spices it did not disappoint. The wine list really brings out the flavors of the food.
The desserts are superlative; in fact, the hardest part of dining at Sonoma is choosing one. Chef Dan makes all the desserts himself, and as he told us when he came to visit our table, he takes great pride in using local ingredients to craft these delectable delights. I reluctantly passed on the Tiramisu (made with chocolate shavings rather than the traditional cocoa) and instead shared with my dining companion a wonderful piece of apple crisp with fresh vanilla ice cream, drizzled with a cranberry sauce.
While pricey, Sonoma is worth the investment.