The Charter Oak Restaurant

Cuisine	American (New)
Price	$$$$ (51-100)
Rating	5/10
Last Visit	Dec. 13, 2025
Location	SFBA: San Francisco: North

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General Notes

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Solid restaurant in the heart of St. Helena. Food is pretty good, but the dishes can be a bit hit or miss. Both from what we ordered as well as reviews, I'd recommend trying their vegetable dishes and the beef tartare.

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Dishes Tasted

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• ★★☆☆ pork jowl skewers -- excellent texture -- super tender, juicy, and crispy on the outside. But the flavor is a bit disappointing, the sauce is too sweet.
• ★☆☆☆ grilled mt. lassen trout -- The trout is cooked very well, but the flavor of the dish is a bit lackluster. It has a lot of butter and great flavors from the alliums but it needs some acidity to balance it out.
• ★★★★ beef tartare -- spring onion, ember mayo, milk bread. Amazing. The mayo was made with olive oil which was infused with smoke by adding embers into it, which gives it an amazing texture. Perfect flavor + seasoning.
• ★★★☆ raw vegetables -- fermented soy dip. The dip is INCREDIBLE, topped with chive oil. The raw vegetables are pretty standard but the quality of the carrots definitely stood out (they were quite sweet!)