La Bodega Cheese Shop

I came here with my boyfriend on a Saturday night at 6pm, when they actually close. The sign said they were still open, but they were still very welcoming and let us stay. They have over 70 different kinds of cheese, even unpasteurized which is hard to come by. We tried five different kinds of cheese and settled on a Fiscalini cheese Co San Joaquin Gold — a milder cheddar. The hostess even taught us how not to kill our cheese and gave us special wrapping paper to ensure we were able to store our cheese correctly. I would definitely recommend coming here!

What a gem! Tucked away in a shopping area in downtown Sonoma, I am really glad my boyfriend and I stopped here on our shopping/​wine tasting afternoon. DELICIOUS cheeses, DELICIOUS wines, super friendly staff. I would recommend getting the cheese sampler plate for any cheese lover– it’s a good deal and they weren’t stingy with the bread! All of the cheeses were delicious, especially the Mt. Tam. The wine tasting ended up being a good deal, and I absolutely loved the Chardonnay and Pinot Noir I tried. The bottles are a bit on the pricier end (~$ 40), but seemingly typical for Sonoma area. Same with the cheese, but if I had the dough to spend it would definitely be worth it! The staff was also very helpful in choosing wines to taste and the owner kept us entertained with his good humor. He even sent us home with a sample of some freshly homemade spaghettini, which was delicious as well! Nice but minimal outdoor seating, and there’s only indoor seating if you go to the partner restaurant across the way. This place is definitely worth stopping by if you are in the area!

Came here last weekend with my fiancé, and we loved it! So, it’s listed as a cheese shop but in reality it is a small cheese shop and small restaurant, connected to a wine shop that does wine tastings, personalized to your tastes, for $ 5 (what a steal, coming from Napa!) We initially stopped by to buy some cheese, but after meeting the owner/​chef and smelling the food that was being cooked, we decided to have lunch here instead. We’re so happy we did! It’s such a small place, you can see everything being cooked, and the chef made his recommendations personally. You can eat at a table in the mini-​restaurant, outside, or in the wine shop, so we opted for the wine shop. We each had broccoli cheddar soup and split sauteed porcini mushrooms (that the chef picked along the coast earlier that week) and crispy artichoke. The soup was amazing and really hit the spot, so cheesy and rich and had a hint of parsley that I loved. The mushrooms were so meaty that they almost had the texture of pasta, much to our happiness. I don’t think I’d ever had porcini mushrooms before. The artichoke was lovely as well, served with a tomato-​y sauce that my fiancé and I fought to scrape off the plate. Everything was clearly very fresh and tasted homemade, in a really good way. The chef even came out to ask us our opinion on the dishes.
In short, a great spot for delicious food and a personal experience for both food and wine. Vegetarian only, I think, but don’t be discouraged by that — I’m a carnivore and I loved it.

Super tasty noshes! Loved the wine tasting as well!

I am hesitant to tell you how how splendid this place is. A gem. The courtyard and shaded seating. The ambiance of an Italian village. A delicious escape for cheese, wine, bread and seeded crackers. I am enchanted.

What an amazing experience! Wonderful wines. Great cheeses. And the food was unbelievable! Chef Rick Vargas suggested we try a squash gazpacho he had just made. I was skeptical, but decided to give t a try. Wow. So glad I did. It was one of the best soups I’ve ever had. And Chef Vargas chatted with us for 20 minutes. Wonderful food. Amazing service. Overall this experience made our trip. We will definitely be back!

Such a lovely experience here. An informative and delicious tasting, and some good company and humor to boot from Ken. Enjoyed learning much about the strategy that Bodega employs in its wine acquisition and talking about trends in the industry. We had a tasting and a bottle… excited to come back soon for a cheese plate. Highly recommended.

My husband and I had a really great experience here. First, they choose a wine tasting experience that is personalized to each customer, based off what you like and how you react to each of the wines they put in front of you. Really neat experience to have staff that invested in what you want! Secondly, they have other foods besides cheese as well. The chef came out and told us what he had made special for the day– an orzo pasta salad a spicy tomato sauce. It was delicious. We also ordered TWO cheese plates (it was our honeymoon and we’re fattys) and ate almost all of it. My poor husband regretted the second cheese plat immediately after he ate it, but he still talks about it!
It’s such a refreshingly intimate and personalized experience. We’ll defiantly be coming back next time we visit Sonoma!

~Excellent, informed staff
~Only local, boutique-​style wines & usually between $ 25 – 50
~Wine Pairings by French Trained Chef Rick Vargas
~Only Vegetarian and incredible!
~Even the locals don’t know about it because it is «not a restaurant.»
This is a favorite stop for guests on my Gourmet Food & Wine Tours and is the only common denominator in all three of my Sonoma Plaza food tours. Don’t not go!
Remember, they close at 6PM;-)

A very cute little cheese shop. Only one table in the place but there’s outdoor seating where it can be combined with some wine. We didn’t try the wine across the way, but cheese by itself. It was well worth it. The woman serving us was extremely knowledgeable and very nice.

Ok, we only went to good 4 wine and cheese tasting in the region (we’re from oz — that’s small, but probably ’cause it’s free where we come from)…but for the price, cheese matching and just simply unpretentious, friendly service… I recommend this hands down. And when I make the 12,000m (don’t ask me in miles) again, in the words of your ex governor, «I’ll be back»

Incredible service by both the chef and wine server. Table side service by both of them explaining the food and wine choices including (as an example) where and when the mushrooms for the ravioli or crostini dishes were picked. Passion for their jobs and service. Lots of energy..

This place is a part of the Sonoma Wine Shop which I am a member of their quarterly wine shipments. I pick up wine every quarter as an excuse to visit wine country every quarter with my wife.
This quarter my wife was unable to make it, so I took my mom instead. When we stopped by to pick up my wines, we checked out this cheese shop as well and were very impressed.
They let us hang out in the kitchen to see them cook an amazing array of food. As a staunch omnivore I had a hard time convincing myself to eat a vegetarian meal, but it was pretty darn good. While the food was cooking, we talked to the chefs about the culinary arts and exchanged all sorts of cool ideas. They are a great group of guys running that show. And the food was just perfect, especially for the price in that area.
This is the kind of thing you want to look for when doing wine tastings. You can go to all sorts of vinyards and try a limited array of wines, but here you can try all sorts of wines and pair with cheeses and fun assortments of foods and pastas. Well worth the try!

This cheese shop is awesome. The variety is great, and you can get a great 10-​cheese spread for tasting (with bread) while you do a wine tasting across the street. The cheeses are also incredibly fresh and strong. I think we only had one that didn’t tickle our fancy. The rest were incredible.

It was our first day ever in Sonoma, and we stumbled onto this place, which you could easily miss. We had a wine tasting, and they specialize in small production wines. They were some of the best we’ve ever had! The staff were incredibly friendly and made us feel welcome. We will be back for the amazing-​sounding homemade ravioli that we declined because we were not ready for food… Check it out!

Really top quality food. No joke. Serious effort and a love of fine cuisine goes into every meal.

This is a fabulous place, though the five stars are specifically for Dante. My husband and I are from France. We have a love for cheese… The stronger, the better. Dante was incredibly knowledgeable and understood immediately what we were looking for. He sold us the strongest cheese they had at the time, Bohobelle. It was Delicious… But more than the cheese, we loved Dante’s knowledge, personality, charisma, and charm. If you stop by this adorable place, ask for Dante. He is the reason we will back to Sonoma as soon as possible.

I impatiently await the day my path crosses Dante again.
Literally speechless at the time, and still unable to piece together the proper words to convey the greatness of this little hole-​in-​the-​wall. If you love cheese, real cheese, then you have to taste it to believe it. Do you know why $ 59 a pound cheese costs so much? You will.

This is a hidden gem in the heart of Sonoma Square. I had a small cheese plate (5 different cheeses for $ 9) & a red wine pairing ($ 5). The portions are quite small, but I thought it was a good deal considering the quality. On a nice day, you can wine & dine on the patio for a relaxing experience. One downfall, if you choose this option, there are a lot of flies.

I loved this place! We were wandering around looking for a bite to eat. I am so picky that no crowded places appeal to me because I know the service and food suffers with those hot spots that get overwhelmed. Out of the blue there was this aroma that drew us in. The menu of vegetarian homemade pastas and the homey atmosphere clinched it. We had to eat there. We had lentil soup that was so flavorful and garnished with a dollop of sourcream with a Yemeni spice blend that made the soup stand out from other lentil soups I have had. (I forgot to buy a pack of the spice, which was for sale, so that will be a good reason to go back as if I need an excuse.}Then we had the «escargot» button mushrooms with a garlicky herb butter that we literally cleaned up. The bread was homemade and perfect for getting the last of the soup and «escargot» butter. Then we had a divine chanterelle mushroom ravioli with a cream sauce and a squash ravioli made from local organic squash — not butternut like most restaurants make it — it was tad sweet and wonderful with brown butter, sage and nuts. Finally we had two homemade chocolate chip cookies to go. I was chatting with the chef whose dad had owned West Portal Joe’s and who is passionate about food. I felt like I was in his homey and charming kitchen. It was a little hectic with comings and goings of customers from the wine shop they are affiliated with ordering cheese plates to go with their tastings, but that added to the experience rather than detracted. We learned alot from our «host» who told us to check out the meat offerings in their Sebastopol store which we will definitely do. Check it out. Bring a dose of patience and an open palate and you should have a great experience.