Valhalla in Visalia is a unique dining experience that combines a gift shop with a restaurant. Customers navigate through a whimsical array of greeting cards and trinkets before entering the dining area, designed to build anticipation. Owner Kim Payne shared that the gift shop began five years after the restaurant's opening as a way to keep patrons occupied during wait times. The eclectic decor and atmosphere make Valhalla stand out, creating a distinct blend of shopping and dining in Central California.
On first blush, Valhalla feels like it might have been plucked from the heart of Mission Drive in downtown Solvang. The Danish restaurant would seamlessly fit on a stroll between Paula's Pancake House and Olsen's Danish Village Bakery.
'We didn't always have the gift shop, but five years after we opened, it started as a little corner, one with some Danish things,' Kim Payne, the restaurant's owner, told SFGATE.
The trip through the gift shop, one that feels more like your grandmother's favorite Hallmark store than the gateway to a highly sought-after Central California meal, is one Payne admits helps keep would-be patrons busy while they wait on weekends.
It's a somewhat disorienting feeling to enter through the gift shop and be spirited back into the main hall as kitchen sounds and smells approach from a dark corridor.
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