After my first visit to Celestial Cafe, I did a little informal polling of my friends. "Have you ever been to Celestial Cafe?" I would ask. When they said no, I'd ask, "What do you think it would be like?" The answers were all variations on the theme of a cozy little country cafe. That's what I had thought, too. Maybe because the restaurant is in bucolic Exeter, or maybe it's just the name, but I pictured calico curtains, wood paneling and homey food - maybe even vegetarian, like lentil soup or meat-free chili. It was a nice image, comforting and welcoming. But it was way off base. Celestial Cafe is bright and airy with its pale silvery-gray walls (except for the deep red one that warms the martini lounge). The occasional piece of fine art and the cone-shaped stainless-steel lights on slender vertical rods above linen-topped tables make the place elegantly urbane. It's large, too, with tables to seat 120, and it's filled on this late-summer Saturday night. But even with all those chatting and laughing diners, the dining room is constructed in a way that keeps the sound level comfortably low. The four of us find we can talk without shouting and hear each other perfectly well. Celestial's food is hardly cafe-in-the-country fare. Owners Cheryl Zannella and Branden Read, aunt and nephew, have built a menu that pays homage to the world. Texas tenderloin comes with beer-battered bell pepper rings; Oriental calamari is flavored with a soy-ginger glaze; tilapia gets a Creole treatment; and chicken takes an Italian turn with prosciutto and marsala wine. In terms of a theme, the menu feels more like wanderlust than an organized trip around the world, but I give Zannella and Read points for their sense of adventure. We dive right into the multi-ethnic mix with our appetizers, choosing South County calamari, duck and andouille sausage spring rolls, and scallops with a soy glaze and wasabi aioli. The fried calamari is tossed with artichokes, kalamata olives and roasted tomatoes in a lemon butter and spicy Japanese hot sauce. The squid rings are tender, the sauce is just hot enough to raise some dew on the upper lip, and the tomatoes add depth to the flavor. The olives, however, demand too much attention and throw the dish off balance. The scallops are billed as bay but turn up as sea, thanks to a small miscommunication in the kitchen. But they are just fine, fat and juicy and flavored with deft subtlety with soy and wasabi aioli. Stopping the dish short of perfection are the less-than-perky greens that garnish the plate. The spring rolls are winners all around with their crispy-chewy deep-fried outer layer and soft duck and sausage center flavored with a mango sauce that complements both the sweet duck and spicy sausage. We cover the map as well with our entrées. My husband goes for Italian-Asian with his veal Marigny. Pounded veal is coated in Japanese breadcrumbs and pan fried, then smothered in a sauce of artichokes, kalamata olives and roasted tomatoes with Japanese hot sauce. It's essentially the same sauce that came with the calamari, but it works better here. It's more balanced, less spicy and not overwhelmed by the olives. Patty's tuna, a special tonight, is crusted with a mix of Japanese breadcrumbs and black pepper before being seared. The inch-thick piece is cooked just enough to take the chill out of the middle - in other words, perfectly rare - and the crust is nicely crunchy and peppery. Vince is wooed by the lobster ravioli special. It's a generous dish and attractive too, with its plump squares of pasta colored black with squid ink on one side, stuffed with lobster and covered with a sherry cream sauce generously sprinkled with more lobster and slow-roasted tomatoes. My venison offers two hefty chunks of New Zealand venison tenderloin that yield easily to the knife. The meat is drizzled with a port wine reduction that's rich enough to stand up to the robust meat without cloying. Most entrées come with a choice of mashed potatoes or jasmine rice. I choose the rice, which is fine, but how much better the dish would be with a starch - perhaps a potato gallette - created to go with the meat. We decide to show a little restraint and get just two desserts, but then we get a look at the dessert martini menu. How can we pass those up? The martinis come in adorable little personal shakers, and they are as rich as any dessert. I like mine, a blend of white chocolate and peach liqueurs, the best, but Alan prefers his chocolate version and Patty is partial to her toffee-flavored drink. Even with the drinks, we do justice to our desserts. White chocolate mousse is as fluffy and light as marshmallow, and molten lava cake is a perfect version of that most wonderful of chocolate desserts with its light cocoa-flavored cake and oozing warm ganache...