Best Romantic Restaurants in Poway / Rancho Bernardo

We thoroughly enjoyed our dinner at Avant! The ambiance was perfect, feeling luxurious and special. The food was delicious, and the cocktails were on point! My husband and I actually had a lovely massage earlier at RB Inn's amazing spa and then cleaned up to have dinner after at the Avant. It was the most relaxing, wonderful date and was much needed in this busy holiday season. We will definitely be back!

This place has been a gem for the better part of 3 decades. Chef's have come and gone but it stays consistently great. Great food, outstanding service and the best wine list to value that you can find in the whole city. We had not been in a while and during dinner we had to ask ourselves why. Try it, you'll love it.

Attended on 12/17/2024. Attention to detail and Incredible service made this a great night. On Open Table, I listed what package I wanted and asked for a table near a window in the notes field and when I checked in they stated my requests and was working on them. Service was spectacular, The wait staff took their time ensuring our party had an understand of each item on the menu. The only bummer is when the Manager or someone like that stopped a busser right in our view and began to go over some issue with him. In my mind you do that in the kitchen and not in view of customers. Overall, the date night menu is a great value, oh, Avoid the Au Gratin potatoes. They made it into a loaf and it was cool. Au Gratin should have a sauce and a crispy top layer. Someone took a twist on it and no one wanted to tell them it was not a good idea. You now know.

The meal was wonderful. Don’t miss the deviled egg appetizer. The lobster salads were great, as was the duck confit and Dover sole. The interior is warm and inviting.

We had only just recently discovered The Shop, and figured we'd check it out. After sharing a yummy bruschetta appetizer, we decided to design our own pizza. Admittedly, we made a minor error in ordering a large pizza (for two to share), but figured leftovers would be fine to take home. When the pizza came to our table, all of our toppings were huddled in the middle of the pizza. We were a little confused as to how none of the veggies had made it closer to the edge. With the pile of toppings in the middle, the center of the pizza was more than a little soggy. It was still tasty, but not all the way to the crust. It was a little weird. More, because we decided that the limited selection of specialty pizzas didn't strike our fancy (do people still say that?), we ordered our own combination of vegetables for our pizza. In the end, our pizza came out to $45-- steep even at San Diego prices. Aside from the pile of toppings in the middle, each topping ($3.50 for each topping?! Outrageous!) was far overpriced for the amount of toppings used. (Note: the price per topping is listed, but it's a bit of an afterthought on the menu and the server provided no reminder). It will be a long time before we decide to drop a pile of cash on an overpriced pizza that was rushed through the kitchen. Overall rating: Disappointing.