When in Napa, dine on sushi.

On our Friday in Sonoma, a few of us ladies decided to head back over the ridge to Napa for lunch at Go Fish, a seafood and sushi restaurant in St. Helena. Go Fish is the newest (It opened in 2006, so it's not really new anymore, I suppose.) restaurant from chef Cindy Pawlcyn, whose Mustard's Grill was part of Napa's fine dining revolution in the early 1980s.

I ate at Go Fish back in 2007, when I was visiting Napa with my mother. A friend had recommended it to me, but I was still a bit skeptical. Seafood? In landlocked Napa Valley? Really? As it turns out, yes!

We started with a couple of appetizers. The vegetable tempura was tasty, but not particularly photogenic. The salt crusted prawns arrived in their shells, surrounded by crisped garlic, and with a chile-flaked, sweet and sour sauce. I dipped mine and then ate them, shell and all. Crunchy, salty, spicy - what more could you want?

Surprisingly, our favorite appetizer was the green goddess salad. A salad of little gem lettuces, thinly sliced cucumbers, razor-thin radishes and teeny little tomatoes, it was dressed with the best green goddess I've ever tasted. Creamy, tangy and bursting with tarragon, it was just plain dreamy.

The mains were similarly delicious. We had a tuna reuben, with grilled bigeye tuna and coleslaw on rye bread, and a black cod in miso, one of Louisa's favorite things ever. I had one of my favorite things, a chirashi.

Chirashi is basically a bowl of sushi rice topped with all kinds of sashimi, served with soy sauce, wasabi and ginger. Since the nori is the only thing I don't really like about sushi, sashimi is usually my fix of choice, and chirashi is sashimi on crack. I just can't get enough. This bowl was particularly good, with a variety of tuna, salmon and hamachi, along with a (cooked) shrimp and seaweed salad with sesame oil.

We were far too full for dessert, but managed a coffee or two before heading out for some serious shopping - what else would you expect from ladies who lunch?

Go Fish
641 Main Street
St. Helena, California
707.963.0700