Celestial Cafe

Celestial Cafe Restaurant Review:

Family restaurants are the norm for Exeter’s culinary scene, but Celestial Cafe, located in the Oak Harbour Village Shopping Center on Route 2, is the exception. The dining room and lounge décor speak more of Providence or Boston than farms or forests, but the proximity to Rhode Island’s de facto “bread basket” isn’t wasted. Local produce features prominently on the menu and in the special farm-to-table dinners served each month: Schartner Farms sweet potatoes and Narragansett Creamery ricotta in the sweet potato wonton appetizer, for example, and native cod encrusted with whitecap flint cornmeal from Kenyon's Grist Mill. House-made carrot cupcakes are created with local carrots, eggs and cream. The kitchen’s reach sometimes exceeds its grasp: the right ingredients and recipes are there, but the preparations can lack a certain “oomph.” The menu samples dishes from all over the globe, so Celestial is a good destination if you can’t decide between Italian and seafood, Asian and Cajun. South County residents can get a big-city meal in the country (or simply a gourmet burger or thin-crust pizza), while adventurous diners may want to stop in and see what all the local buzz is about.