Revel Kitchen & Bar

Super cute and hip décor, the food was really good here. I had the butternut squash soup (AH MAZING) and the french fries with aioli (super delish) and for dessert I had the beignets. My mom had the caramel pudding. Both desserts were to die for. I will be returning to this restaurant for sure.

hands down THE best date night spot in Danville. Amazing steak, fantastic ambiance, and the bartender needs an academy award for his amazing mixes. The environment is quiet but still active, no «stuffy» feeling, and the wait staff blew my mind.
I will be back again, and again, and again, and again. Whenever someone asks for a date night option, I say REVEL!

The initial bartender made a very good drink with champagne. And when his co-​bartender showed up and started making comments about how old my girlfriend and I are it all went downhill.
And just for the record we’re not going back again.
Too bad I can’t do zero stars.

I made a reso a few weeks ago. We have family in town. They’d only accommodate us at the earliest reso time of 5:15 as we had a party of 7.
Last night was our reso date. I called a few hours before to push back our reso time as there was so much rain and traffic on the roads. I didn’t want to rush. The manager was able to accommodate our time change. (Awesome!)
We had 2 tables to choose from upon arrival.
Deb was our server. She was amazing! Great recommendations on alcohol and small/​large plates. She even helped us pick her fav oysters, perfect in every way. We enjoyed the Beausoleil so much we ordered another dozen.
Other stand out dishes were the buttermilk biscuit chicken sliders, sword fish & farro (special), duck confeit.
We ordered one of each dessert on the menu. Butterscotch pudding, «lokma» beignets, peanut butter tart (creamy mousse is delish)…yummy!

I chose Revel as the place to take my boyfriend for his birthday dinner after looking at about 10 – 15 other highly rated and well established restaurants in the Bay Area. The menu looked like it had a nice variety of options for meat eaters and vegetarians and a pleasant ambiance.
We made a reservation for 8 pm and arrived promptly on time and hungry. The host told us that we had to wait as the previous group was still talking at the table that was meant for us so we took a seat and were fine waiting for 5 – 10 minutes. After 15 minutes, I was slightly annoyed because I had planned my day out to come from SF and arrive for dinner on time and had hoped the restaurant would be all that it appeared to be, based on other Unilocal reviews and the fact that we had made a reservation in advance. We ended up waiting for 35 minutes before we were finally seated!!! Kind of ridiculous and I’m a patient person. 15 – 20 minutes of waiting with a reservation is a relatively long time, but 35 minutes?! For a birthday dinner?! Definitely not the place to take someone for their birthday/don’t expect to be seated at this place on time. They gave us a few free appetizers to lighten the mood since we had waited for such a long period of time, but that did not make up for the unfortunate quality of our meal.
I won’t let our delayed seating affect my review of the food as I mainly chose this place for the food thinking it would be good. We ordered the truffle fries & aioli, which were fine. Pretty much thin fries with a mayo based dip and ketchup on the side. We also ordered the Bavette steak frites and Cod, which both came with a side of fries. The fries that came with our meals were much less appetizing than the truffle fries with aioli. The truffle fries were much better and cooked more evenly and well (though they were the same type of fries, the truffle fries just had coriander added). It was nice that the cod had a thin layer of batter, but overall not worth the price. Now, the Bavette steak frites was what I had really been looking forward to. Definitely a let down. It lacked flavor and only parts of it tasted good. If you want a real Bavette steak go to Cockscomb in SF, you will definitely not be let down and it is well worth your money for not only the steak but everything else on their menu. Revel is probably a better place for their bar and drinks. Don’t come here for the food. Or set really low expectations.
The only good thing was their dessert. The S’mores tart was really delicious.

Well a small crew of friends and I met up after work to revel at Revel. (See what I did there?). In short, it’s a great place to hang out with friends and feel fancy without the stuffiness of a French Restaurant with quality food that also comes at a price.
Location
Revel is located in heart of Downtown Danville right in front of Danville Station Firehouse.
Parking
Parking is fairly easy as in the back is the clock tower parking lot which is fairly large. Crazy though is that tonight was a Tuesday night and it was packed. Danville is happening and hopping on a Tuesday night!
Interior
There’s a large bar with tv screens in the center of the place, with many stool tables as well as booth seating around. There’s also seating outside if you like some fresh air.
Hours & Menu
Note also Revel only opens for dinner and is a sister restaurant to Esin. Their menu has a fair range so everyone can find something to eat. Their drinks also cover the gamut from wines to beers to of course free still or sparkling water! Their dessert menu is also courtesy of Esin, but a little disappointed in the selection as none of them had ice cream and there’s no full chocolate dessert option.
So what was for dinner?
~Deviled Farm Eggs — $ 7 —
Zoe’s applewood smoked bacon and white truffle oil
~~ These are solid if you like deviled eggs. There’s nice little citrus note which balances the creaminess of the eggs. The bacon is crisp and a much needed texture component to the mushiness. But for 4 total halves (2 eggs) it’s kind of steep in price.
~ Poutine Frites — $ 12.50 —
Braised Stone Valley Farms pork, quail eggs, cotija cheese, fries and gravy
~~ Again no one does poutine right but I wasn’t expecting this to be done correctly since there were no cheese curds. The fries were crisp (unless you had the gravy covered ones. Large chunks of pork. Overall a bit salty for my taste and well… I’m quite sensitive to saltiness.
~ Baby Kale Salad — $ 10.50 —
K & J Orchards Asian Pears, shaved fennel, currants, candied walnuts, ricotta salata & golden balsamic vinaigrette
~~ I was surprised how much I liked this salad but then again a lot of the stuff I had was fairly rich to begin with so this was a nice refreshing light palate cleanser. The shaved fennel had a nice little spice to it but wish there were more pears and walnuts. What I thought were pomegranate seeds was actually currants. Surprise. Well they tasted like pomegranate to me!
~ General Santos Ahi Tartare — $ 14.50
Cucumber, yuzu-​ginger vinaigrette, cilantro, chile oil, avocado salsa and housemade chips
~~ Glad I had a bit of a sampler because this was pretty good alongside the salad. Very nicely plated. A good balance of ahi tartare and avocado salsa. The housemade chips were crisp, not too oily, slightly salted, and was a nice vehicle to the tartare. The creaminess from the avocado, alongside the citrus notes of the yuzu-​ginger melted well with the ahi and the saltiness of the chips. The cucumber was a nice healthy crunch element. I would get this again.
~“Lokma” Mediterranean Beignets — $ 8.50
With orange blossom honey and cinnamon syrup
~~ I guess when seeing the word beignets you have this image of french beignets which are large. Instead these were small fried dumplings. Slightly crispy and chewy with a light syrup on the side. I just wished it were more deep fried with a crisp outer shell and larger.
Service
Service was phenomenal. They even comped the dessert as it took forever to get out and apologized for the wait. They cleared our plates in a speedy manner. Gave us new place settings from starters to entrees to desserts. They also let us split our bill onto 4 cards equally which is always a plus.
Overall, the food was great and service was stellar. For me some of the dishes were a bit seasoned too much and the beignets fell flat. The prices were quite on the high side but I’m sure it’s because of the quality of the ingredients. Would I come back? Sure for special occasions or just to hang. But I wouldn’t do it too often as my bank account would probably scream at me.