Le Chene French Cuisine has been providing a fine dining experience to residents of the Santa Clarita Valley and beyond for nearly four decades, and will be celebrating its 38th anniversary this year.

Located in a “secluded oasis” of Santa Clarita on Sierra Highway, Owner and Master Chef Juan Alonso noted many people new to the French restaurant are surprised to learn it’s even there.

“It’s not a normal place where you take someone,” he said. “They are surprised to have a nice restaurant in the middle of nowhere.”

Patrons are first greeted by towering oak trees that earned the restaurant its name, which means “the oaks” in French.

Then instead of browsing a traditional menu, guests can enjoy choosing a dish from a handheld blackboard in a nod to the old school days, according to Alonso.

“You feel like going back to school, and you read the menu on a blackboard,” he said. “That’s where we started.”

The top selling entree at Le Chene is the filet mignon au poivre, which Alonso described as a pepper steak, and has been a favorite of many patrons for years.

“(They say,) ‘I’ve been having this for 20 years and I still want to have this,’” he said. “But we have a huge menu. We have from fish to seafood to pastas, veal, chicken, duck, duck a l’orange — I mean, an extraordinary menu.”

In addition to gourmet entrees, the restaurant makes its own wine, and features a selection of desserts that Alonso noted includes “all kinds of old French favorites.”

“We don’t change the menu every day, but the dishes change every so often,” he said, adding, “You should feel special when you go there.”

For more information about Le Chene French Cuisine, click here.