I know that many of my readers are familiar with Café Esin in San Ramon and it has been no secret that they have been planning to move to new, more spacious accommodations in Danville’s new Rose Garden Center close to the Sycamore Valley Road 680 off ramp.

Well at last they are there. Sylvia and I were present on the opening night and although this was intended to be a “soft launch” for the new venture, with no publicity announcing the opening date, it was interesting to see that around a quarter of the inside tables in this quite large restaurant were occupied. And this was on a quiet Tuesday evening.

Esin has an immediate feeling of quality. Even before entering, the exterior is evocative of a quite up-market restaurant and at the front and side is an array of tables for outdoor dining with numerous overhead heaters. You can see that this will become very popular.

Inside, there is a very pleasant and spacious bar area to the right and I predict that this will become a regular meeting place for the after-work crowd, providing some relief from the often overcrowded Forbes Mill and Piatti bars.

The dining room is to the left. Here you will see high ceilings, cream walls, much wood paneling, very attractive lighting and lots of space.
So as you can see, at least as far as the premises were concerned, Esin impressed us considerably. But what about the food? Can they maintain the high standards that we have become accustomed to at Café Esin in San Ramon?

I am glad to report that the answer is a resounding “Yes They Can!”. I am always prepared to give a new restaurant some leeway as it often takes time to get the wrinkles out. No such allowances are needed at Esin. Service was as impressive as ever - prompt and attentive without being intrusive. They appeared a little over-staffed on this first night but I suspect that this was to make sure everybody quickly gained familiarity with the new systems as well as to avoid any possibility of slow service.

Esin’s menu will be familiar to their past patrons although I did note a number of new additions. We both passed on the appetizers on this occasion, although I personally was tempted by the oysters (roasted and stuffed with spinach, bacon and cheese) and the zucchini fritters. But at Esin, you have to save room for dessert!

For an entrée, Sylvia chose an old Café Esin favorite, Filo Wrapped Chicken Breast filled with 3 cheeses. This is normally served with couscous but they happily substituted roast fingerling potatoes. I had the Dry Rubbed Ribeye Steak which was served with mashed potatoes and caramelized onion jam. This came exactly as ordered (medium rare). Both dishes were first class.

Esin is famous for its desserts, and rightly so. On this occasion we shared the bread pudding of the day (made with apples). Neither of us normally eat desserts but one almost feels it is heresy not to indulge at Esin. It came right up to our high expectations.

We accompanied our meal with a really outstanding bottle of Viognier, having found little Chardonnay to interest us. If it wasn’t for the amazingly good taste of this wine, at a quite reasonable price, then I was anticipating criticizing the wine list. They probably do need more Chardonnays if they are going to keep the locals happy though.

So in summing up I have to say that I consider Esin to be one of the most appealing quality restaurants in Danville. I have no doubt that even though it has a large number of tables both inside and out, if you want to dine here at the weekend, reservations will be essential. Check out their web site at www.esinrestaurant.com.