Normally, I wouldn’t dare set foot in any restaurant on opening night. Having worked in the business, I can attest to the fact that working an opening-night shift is a restaurant rite of passage, to say the least. In most cases, it’s an inevitable hurdle. From a blogging perspective, I would never judge a restaurant at any time during its first couple of weeks, either. It’s just not fair (I’ll leave that to the Yelpers) — even the best places will have some growing pains to work through. So, honestly, I had no real reason to book a reservation at Neela’s in Napa tonight, except for the fact that I had been anticipating this restaurant’s debut since I first heard about it last year.

Neela’s is the new venture of chef Neela Paniz, the former chef-owner of Bombay Cafe in West Los Angeles, my old post-collegiate stomping ground. Bombay Cafe was tremendously successful — and delicious — and it spawned 1998’s “Bombay Cafe Cookbook.” The City of Napa stands to reap huge benefits by having a venerable chef like Neela Paniz on the scene: Napa is so utterly lacking in ethnic restaurants that an establishment like Neela’s is a huge boon to the culinary landscape. And thus, against my better judgment, I booked a reservation (gulp) on opening night.

I arrived at Neela’s at 8:30, about an hour before the kitchen closes, and was surprised to see the place was bustling. Perhaps I’m not giving my fellow Napkins enough credit, or maybe everyone else simply feels the same way that I do. Either way, it’s good to see these signs of life in this economy. I’m not sure if it was all psychological, but Neela’s did have that slightly edgy, big-night vibe this evening, although the entire staff was doing an admirable job of keeping up appearances. Unfortunately, appearances don’t fill the belly, and most of the items on the menu were sold out by the time I arrived. So it goes.

From my perspective, it was all bittersweet: I was certainly eager to compare Neela’s to my fond memories of Bombay Cafe, but that comparison will just have to wait for a couple of weeks (serves me right). However, it bodes well that Chef Paniz has elicited such a strong turn-out already. For what it’s worth, the food looked great on the pass, but I didn’t sample any of it (so many items were sold out, it became comical, and I couldn’t even keep track). I apologized, paid for my drink, and left. I did grab a menu, though, which is not yet online, as far as I can tell.

I realize the JPG below is barely legible, but if you click on the menu image, it will download an actual-size menu in PDF format (soups, salads, naan, and other side items are on the flip, but I didn’t scan that side). Of course, you will need Adobe Reader to view the PDF file, but this is a pretty standard piece of software for just about any computer these days, right?

• • •