We’re taking away all your excuses for eating another fast food lunch. Healthy, whole foods aren’t hard to find in Sonoma County. But sometimes it takes a little sleuthing to find the perfect grain bowl, scrumptious salad or vegan entree worth the trouble. After an exhaustive search, here are some of our favorite spots for grab-and-go meals you won’t regret five minutes after eating. Click through the above gallery for details.

Eating out for a living has many privileges, but dining for pleasure is a gift I rarely get to appreciate.

When a restaurant opens, it’s usually a one-and-done deal for me. As much as I’d love to return again and again to see how the menu evolves, how service improves (or doesn’t) and whether the food is as good (or bad) as I remember, constant deadlines never go away, and there’s always somewhere newer and shinier to discover.

That means sometimes I praise a restaurant, then find out things have fallen apart since my last visit. Other times, a bad menu turns around with a little time.

So it’s extra-special when I get to return to restaurants I’ve already written about or reviewed for a second look. Recently, the stars aligned and I ended up at Gourmet Au Bay in Bodega Bay, Grata in Windsor and Barndiva in Healdsburg.

These disparate restaurants have had time to find themselves, let chefs settle in and evolve their menus. The confident service at each was notable during my recent visits. Maybe it’s time to find a little pleasure in the daily grind again. Such is the life of a food writer.

Gourmet Au Bay (last reviewed in 2016)

Why I went: Plans to go to Spud Point Crab Co. for a crab sandwich went awry when long lines caused a hangry meltdown.

The verdict: This is an upgrade from coastal crab shacks, with a great selection of wines sold by the glass and an impressive kitchen. We had managed our expectations, but a glass of crisp rosé started things off nicely.

Meaty crab cakes arrived in a sizzling mini cast-iron skillet with a nickel-size dollop of creamy aioli. Crispy-edged and full of crab, these were a winner.

We also loved the giant bowl of mussels with slices of bread for dipping. The clam flatbread was studded with roasted garlic and bacon, with a light cream sauce atop a cracker-crisp crust.

The only miss was the ceviche, which had exactly four tiny pieces of fish swimming in a soupy salad of tomatoes, cucumbers and red onion.

Details: 1412 Bay Flat Road, Bodega Bay, 707-875-9875, gourmetaubay.com

Grata (last reviewed in 2020)

Why I went: My friend lives in Windsor, and we needed a place to eat.

The verdict: This quaint Italian eatery opened near the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, and I remember a group of us huddled together in our masks, hoping a few shared dishes wouldn’t kill us. It wasn’t a great beginning for a review, and there were some significant misses before the restaurant hit its stride in recent months.

Our recent meal struck many right notes, including an awe-inspiring butter lettuce salad with fresh peaches, creamy burrata and pistachios. We couldn’t stop eating the Cacio e Pepe fries, served with truffle aioli and smothered in pepper and Parmesan.

The night’s smash hit was goat cheese and ricotta ravioli in a delicate garlic cream sauce. Topped with kernels of sweet corn and local mushrooms with a chiffonade of basil, the dish quickly could have become a tasteless, gloopy mess. Instead, the sweet pops of corn and peppery basil were a perfect complement to the light, perfectly cooked pillows of ravioli. Bravo.

Details: 186 Windsor River Road, Windsor, 707-620-0508, gratawindsor.com

Barndiva (visited, but never reviewed)

Why I went: It was the only Michelin-starred restaurant I could get a last-minute reservation at for my son’s 25th birthday.

The verdict: My son, as you may imagine, loves great food. It’s a genetic thing. Sadly, he lives in a small town where Applebee’s is considered fine dining. While in Santa Rosa for his birthday, his only request (aside from Costco T-shirts) was a meal at a Michelin-starred restaurant.

I waited too long to make reservations but lucked out and snagged a ridiculously early seating at this upscale Healdsburg restaurant that uses the tagline “eat the view.” A new chef (Erik Anderson) and a new beverage director (Scott Beattie) recently have changed the menu, though the ever-popular goat cheese croquettes with lavender honey have remained.

My son and I were both gobsmacked over our meal. A seemingly simple caprese salad was an adventure, with a “reanimated” tomato (an Early Girl tomato that had been dehydrated, then rehydrated and filled with mozzarella foam). A basil gelee and tiny Sun Gold tomatoes were hidden beneath the wild arugula. Rare roasted duck with blackberries and chanterelle mushrooms was also a stunner. But the Mount Lassen trout with a light saffron sauce and a single sweet Jimmy Nardello pepper was the dish of the night.

Pommes Puree (fancy mashed potatoes) were mostly butter with a hint of potato, which is not a bad thing. Pastry chef Neidy Venegas creates dessert wonders like the Boston Cream, an orb of lavender pistachio mousseline and vanilla buttermilk cake in a strawberry verjus granita. Heavenly.

Details: 231 Center St., Healdsburg, 707-431-0100, barndiva.com

Recent news that Cowgirl Creamery’s Point Reyes Station retail shop and one-time factory will permanently close on Sept. 5 has come as a shock to many, but for industry insiders, it’s not a total surprise. According to the Point Reyes Light weekly newspaper, vendors were told of the impending closure in mid-July.

The move comes five years after Cowgirl was sold to Emmi, a Swiss dairy conglomerate that purchased Humboldt’s Cypress Grove in 2010 and Redwood Hill Creamery in 2015. In 2019, Cowgirl founders Sue Conley and Peggy Smith stepped back from daily operations and officially retired in 2021. Cowgirl closed their longtime Ferry Building retail shop in 2021 after COVID-19 slowed foot traffic to a trickle.

Opened in 1997, the quirky Point Reyes Station barn was the headquarters of Conley and Smith’s iconic artisanal cheese company, where they introduced triple-cream Mt. Tam, washed-rind Red Hawk, cider-washed Hop Along and champion melter Wagon Wheel. For 25 years, the shop welcomed cheese pilgrims and coastal travelers looking for picnic and pantry supplies. You could even watch Red Hawk curds and whey being separated through large glass panels.

Cowgirl soon outgrew the location, and in 2008, production moved to the current Petaluma facility.

The closure is a heartbreaker, for sure, though the Point Reyes Station shop had several ongoing issues, including wastewater constraints that precluded additional customer bathrooms or scaling up Red Hawk production, according to the Point Reyes Light. A new tenant has not been announced yet.

I won’t lie. I nearly crashed my car scarfing down garlic fries from the newly opened gyro and souvlaki restaurant at Coddingtown. The San Jose-based chain founded by three cousins (all named Nick) has nailed fast-casual Greek eats using all the garlic. That’s a good thing — unless you’re a vampire.

The menu is straightforward: pitas filled with meat, plates of meat, salads with meat or bowls of meat. There are, of course, non-meat items like falafel or the veggie gyro (zucchini, portobello mushrooms, tomatoes, onions, fries and tzatziki sauce); but this is Greek food, so, mostly meat.

That’s where things got dicey as I tried to eat a box of Nick’s fries with feta, garlic, spicy yogurt, green onions and combination beef/lamb gyro meat with my fingers. As I drove south on Highway 101, the aroma alone forced me to crack open the box around Cotati. By Petaluma, half the takeout box was gone. I ended up getting most of it on my shirt, but that was a small price to pay. There was a significant swerve as a large chunk of lamb hit the floor. Box was then closed until I was safely stopped. Fries can be dangerous.

Gyros, of course, are the thing at Nick’s (all $10.95). Soft, spongy pitas are stuffed with chicken, pork, beef and lamb either cut from the rotating spit (gyro meat) or on a skewer (souvlaki). Topped with creamy cucumber-yogurt sauce, tomatoes, lettuce and onions, they get a bonus handful of fries tucked inside.

You also can get a plate ($14.95) with tasty yellow rice and salad or a gyro bowl ($11.50) with rice and lettuce topped with red wine vinaigrette. There’s a Greek salad entree ($10.95), natch, as well as the Prasini Salad ($9.50) with romaine lettuce, dill, feta and lemon dressing.

Don’t miss the baklava or loukoumades (beignets with nuts and syrup) for dessert.

282 Coddingtown Center, Santa Rosa, 707-806-2207, nickthegreek.com/santa-rosa. Open 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily.