What You Need To Know:

• Napa Flats is located at 1727 Texas Ave S, College Station, TX 77840 next to the Kohls and Spec’s locations.

• Napa Flats has two locations – College Station, TX and Tulsa, OK – with the original location being our local offering.

• Napa Flats is a fine dining experience at the price of a casual dining experience.

• The staff was excellent and the service was impeccable, as were the culinary offerings available.

• In the opinion of this reviewer, a return visit would definitely be in store.

Local restaurants, especially in a college town, are vital to the local economy. Napa Flats Wood-Fired Kitchen is important to two college towns. Tulsa, Oklahoma, and the location I visited, College Station, Texas. Offering many fine dining options at a fair price, how does this California Italian-inspired cuisine hold up to a Texas A&M students’ standard?

Entering the restaurant sees a nice and welcoming atmosphere and decore. The colors, while mostly consisting of brown and green, are earthy and easy on the eyes. There is a lot of interesting pieces of artwork on the walls that help liven up certain parts of the restaurant. They have an open bar and somewhat open kitchen with plenty of selection at the bar. The restaurant was packed on a Friday night but was capable of seating everyone that came in. I sat on the left side of the restaurant with a group of around 15 people, and the staff was very accommodating and friendly. Our waitress, Maddy, was very attentive and sweet to everyone. The owner of the restaurant, Tom, was friendly as well, and any attendant could tell that he cares about his guests. The atmosphere and staff receive absolutely no complaints.

I started the dinner with a classy mimosa. The champagne used was quite light, but tasty, and the pulp-free orange juice complimented the flavor of the champagne. The mimosa was a part of their happy hour drink menu, which is available from 4-6:30 pm. Your reward for having a bit of an early dinner is a cheaper, but still quality drink. I do not know the quality of the drinks at the bar, but I was impressed with what I had.

My party had recommended that I try the Palo Alto Dip appetizer which is described as, “Sun-dried tomatoes, artichokes, and green onions blended with ricotta and cream cheese”. I’m not privy to artichoke dips, but I wanted to give it a shot due to the overwhelming recommendation. It was brought out, along with bread used as the item for the dip. The creamy dip was flavorful and delicious. Everyone at my table devoured the bread for the dip within minutes, and we ended up getting around three more servings of the bread before our food had arrived at the table. At $10, the price might be steep for a party of one, but with multiple people, it’s very much worth it.

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After extensively going over the menu, I decided that I wanted to try one of the specials. They had four dinner specials in total, but the one that caught my eye was the bison burger. I had never had a bison burger before, so I wanted to go out on a limb and try something different. It was “sourced locally from Wild Horse Ranch, with aioli sauce, pickles, lettuce, onions, tomato, on a brioche bun.” Bison, while not having an extremely different taste than a cow, had a distinctly more gamey flavor. However, the burger was perfectly grilled, juicy, and tender. Anyone familiar with grilling meat could tell that the bison that was used was indeed fresh. One of the members of my party also got the bison burger, and he said the same thing. My only minor complaint was that the tomato on my burger was the very thick end slice, but it’s a minimal complaint in the end. The French Fries were thinly cut but were crispy and hot. It’s hard to hate some hot and fresh French Fries. The dinner was a nice and welcomed change of pace for me, and I would recommend it to anyone that wants to try something new, or if they’re looking for a restaurant that serves a bison burger in the Bryan/College Station area.

Napa Flats was quite a surprise. It isn’t because I thought it was going to be awful, but I had simply never heard of it before. Getting out of your comfort zone, especially on a budget, can be hard sometimes as a university student. I’m glad that I took a shot and went here for a nice dinner out because everything about the restaurant stood out in a good way. I would happily go back if given the chance, and I would recommend it to anyone who asks me about it. I implore you to go check it out on a Friday or Saturday night. You will surely have a great time.