Ettan — Restaurant in Palo Alto

For us, it wasn't worth it. We tried to visit for brunch in January (lined up before opening) and were told they couldn't accept any walk ins. Today, we again arrived before opening after making a reservation a month ago. The couple in front of us were 2nd in line (we chatted with), didn't have a reservation, but the two were seated at one of the nicer tables set for four. Even with a prior request for specific table type (again, written a month ago), the same host instructed to seat us at the smallest table immediately next to the entrance/people in line with our large dog. A quick assessment would say it's not a good situation for us. Thankfully the person seating us vouched for me and sat us in the area we originally requested but were told we had a limit on how long we could stay (making it seem like priority is given to all but us). Why would you give a small table next to the busiest area to those that 1) had a reservation 2) had a dog that would make it hard for everyone, including staff, to constantly pass and importantly 3) had a special request to sit on the other side of the patio where a walk-in was seated at a larger table? Even if you couldn't accommodate my request, I would hope to be offered the same if not better option as the walk in ahead of me.

We ordered the dosa, samosa pie and paneer curry. All were fine except the curry. It arrived 1 hour after we had been seated - a rather long wait between appetizers and this main (recall: we were given a time limit so it was getting tight). It tasted nice but came with one naan cut in two and no rice. We requested another naan assuming rice would take too long. One naan arrived pretty quickly but were charged an additional $5, bringing a simple underwhelming curry dish to $30+ after a long wait. Given everything, we skipped on dessert, something we originally were looking forward to. I'm sure this was helpful to the host given our time had run out lol.

The decor is lovely, our server was pleasant, appreciate that they're dog friendly, but the host, food and drink were quite underwhelming and disappointing. It's not often we spend $100+ for brunch, so we expected more given the lead time for reservations and statements like "elevated" and "top 25 in Bay area". Maybe we just came on a bad day. Sadly for us, it wasn't worth a month wait and 30...

TLDR: Great atmosphere and decor. Good variety of dishes, though the specific ones I tried left a bit to be desired/were slightly on the more expensive side. Overall great service––attentive and polite staff, though wait times for things could be shorter.

Ambiance (5/5) Excellent setting! I was immediately impressed when I walked into the modern and spacious room. Loved the mezzanine and the tall ceiling with the enormous skylight. I was also obsessed with their chandelier (pictured below). It feels like it’d be a good place to meet up with friends—the moderate echos and buzz of the patrons afford a sense of privacy without being too loud.

Food (4.2/5) I loved the variety of the menu and would have to come back to try more dishes. It’s cool that they have a tahini mocktail (although maybe I simply misunderstand what tahini is, but it was like drinking a salad dressing, haha—it was weirdly addicting and I still finished it, however).

For the “chutney sampler”, I was hoping for more chutneys but there were only two (though I should have read the menu more carefully, which told us there were kale and eggplant chutney), and one of them was moderately spicy (even though the waiter assured me it I didn’t order anything spicy). The papadam was very very nice, however.

The peanut hummus looked very fancy (aesthetics matter too!). However, it had a lot of stuff but not a lot of hummus in it (in my opinion). I loved that it came with crispy pakora though.

For my main, I had the “Paneer Burji and Avocado”. I had never had a Paneer Burji before so I can’t tell you how well it’s made. It tasted decent (even though it had a bit more of a kick than I expected, and I’m not sure if I tasted the avocado).

The “passion fruit” dessert with lychee milk ice was nice, though I wish the ice was finer (e.g., more like the Asian-style shaved ice). The other options seemed intriguing too, but I was too full and chose a lighter dessert.

Overall, while the specific dishes I tried left a bit to be desired, I was impressed by the variety of choices and would come back again to try more.

Service (4.5/5) The staff was very friendly and polite. They checked on me regularly and refilled my water and gave me new napkins. The wait times for ordering and serving could be a little...

My family enjoyed a terrific meal at Ettan and we are all thrilled to have this great new upscale addition to the downtown Palo Alto restaurant scene. The location just off University and Bryant offers extensive outdoor seating tucked away from cars and pedestrians and the interior is attractive with many colorful patterns and a spectacular skylight. The second floor also offers great space for private events. The drink, appetizer and small and large entree plate menu offers a mix of fun and interesting bite size snacks to a beautiful whole snapper. We were lucky enough to meet the chef, Srijith Gopinathan, and get some suggestions before we ordered, but judging from the several choices we tasted and the feedback from other diners, I can confidently say you can't go wrong here! We started with the "breads and stuff" and enjoyed the Monkey Naan and Black Truffle Stuffed Kulcha. I resisted the temptation to order more of both before the small plates arrived because I'd already made the decisions we would be coming back and I wanted to try as much as possible! I thought we were then going to move on to the Small Plates: Ettan salad, the sesame leaf, the sambal shrimp and hot stone lamb but thankfully our waitress decided that we really should also try the little sliders with tender jackfruit. She was correct and those are a must order appetizer.!!!!!  The small plates were a strong warmup to the large plates and delivered on flavor, presentation and complexity and variation of texture. My 90 year old mom never passes up a whole fish and the Whole Roasted Red Snapper arrived fully deboned on a plancha with coconut rice and curry.  As Large Plates we also had the lobster and the chicken curry along with the spiced eggplant and malabar paratha. All were simply outstanding. For dessert we tried the passion fruit with litchi milk ice and meringue as well as the dark chocolate and pink guava. Everything was delightful. I've included a few pictures including my mom with the Whole Snapper! We'll definitely come back to Ettan and Palo Alto clearly has a new standout...