You’d think that after more than 20 years of living in South County, I wouldn’t be surprised to find a Providence-style gourmet restaurant on a lonely section of Route 2. But I was. On a stretch of road whose claims to fame are garden centers and a trout pond, a new mini-mall (Oak Harbour Village) has erupted, complete with a deli, women’s gym, three home improvement stores — proof positive that a lot of building is going on in Exeter — and the 110-seat Celestial Café.

On a Wednesday night, only two or three tables in the main dining room stood empty (there’s also a smaller dining room near the front door), and a few people were in the bar, separated almost completely from the dining areas. Mellow jazz and hot blues flowed out of speakers in the bar, tuned to just the right volume, so you didn’t have to holler at your dining companions and could still enjoy the music.

That careful touch is indicative of everything we loved about Celestial Café. It opened last October to great buzz among South County denizens, which is exactly what owner Branden Read had hoped for. He emphasized his desire to create a solid clientele among local folks, so that the usual worry in this resort area of the state — How will we make it through the winter? — wouldn’t settle on him. In partnership with his aunt, he picked out chairs with bamboo backs and seats, and matched them with fresh bamboo on the tables (far less maintenance than fresh flowers), as well as a rice-paper look to the pages of the menu and some of the window coverings. Dan Dunn’s black-and-white nature abstracts on the walls complete the spare, elegant Eastern feel of the dining rooms.

Having worked in many South County restaurants since his teen years (he’s now 26), Read says he had an idea of what people down here like to eat, and he hired a friend, Billy Milner, who’d trained at Johnson & Wales and worked in New Orleans for 18 months, to be his chef. Together, the two of them have designed a menu that brings together the tastes of south Louisiana, southern Italy, and the Far East.

Thus the starters at Celestial Café include a shrimp and chicken gumbo; andouille (sausage) spring rolls, drizzled with wasabi; grilled pizza with grilled chicken and five cheeses; a vegetable Napoleon; and two variations on calamari, with a red pepper coulis or "Oriental" style. We chose the latter ($6) and a special soup, cream of portobello ($4).

We weren’t sure which to devour first, they were both so good. The "cream" of portobello soup seemed to refer to its thick pureed consistency more than a Bechamel base. That was fine with us, because it meant even more hearty portobellos, spiked with thyme and rosemary. The calamari was lightly breaded and sautéed — the most tender I’ve had in a while — and then tossed with mushrooms, peapods, scallions, and roasted red pepper, in a soy-ginger glaze. Finger-lickin’ good, as a certain Southerner might say.

Celestial’s entrees range from filet mignon to jambalaya, from duckling to crawfish, from gnocchi (in a veal stew) to seafood risotto. All of the seafood items sounded good, including lobster ravioli and tangerine-fennel salmon, but it was the fresh pineapple-cilantro salsa that caught Bill’s ear, atop a seared sea bass ($17). Somewhat disappointed when he couldn’t taste the cilantro, Bill had plenty of comfort in the bass itself, the Cajun mashed potatoes (orangey with spices), the generous portion of green beans, and the diced fresh pineapple.

I too enjoyed the potatoes and green beans, along with medallions of chicken sautéed with mushrooms and scallions in a yummy peach liqueur demi-glaze. I used some of the homemade bread (honey-wheat and pumpernickel) to dip it in the tangy sauce (when I wasn’t spreading it with homemade herb butter, which had orange zest, rosemary, and tarragon).

House-made desserts (Read said that he and Milner make almost everything, including homemade cheese) were tiramisu, crème brûlée, chocolate mousse, "tequilime" pie (a dash of Jose Cuervo) and carrot cake, $5 each. I’d had a craving for carrot cake ever since I missed out on a friend’s cupcakes at a recent potluck, so we shared an oversized piece, and it was great. The cake was dense with coconut, raisins, and walnuts and redolent with cinnamon. The only problem was that the cream cheese frosting, so nice and fluffy, was too sweet for our tastes.

Celestial Café offers its appetizers and salads at lunch, along with sandwiches on herb focaccia, pasta selections, and a few entrees, including jambalaya. So, if your commute doesn’t take you past Celestial, make a weekend foray to the wilds of Exeter and discover this heavenly haven.