Although Buddhas sit night after night in their niches impassively watching people drink martinis and eat pork, beef, and poultry, there is always a fine vegetarian platter, currently “Asian Market” ($22). The centerpiece — although of course it is set artfully to one side of the plate — is a square of tofu fried with enough garlic to render it as savory as any meat, mounted on a perfect and elegant square of black rice. Although that element is geometric, slices of grilled Japanese eggplant are scattered artlessly nearby. (I’m sure someone works over every plate to get that artless scatter.) The rest is a paste of sweet potato and bell pepper that works like a sauce with the tofu, a perfect dribble of basil oil like a thin pesto, and blood-orange slices. Perfectly skinned ones, of course.
If you aren’t a vegetarian, consider the black-pearl salmon ($21). It’s also a square but with a wonderful char on the surface, contrasting with brilliantly undercooked flesh, soft and rich as custard. The sides are fingerling potatoes (perhaps a little underdone our night); broccoli rabe (still a little too bitter; come back in a month or two); and a small salad of micro greens. Muscovy duck ($28) is all meaty breast — an old breed with the leanness of wild ducks — set off with mustard greens, a sauce of medjool dates that evokes Morocco without actual spices, and an adorable little bisteeya (Moroccan pie) of confit duck meat and wonderful pastry served in a cute little cast-iron skillet.
The wine list is expensive and interesting. We tried the 2001 “Glorioso” Rioja riserva ($35) from Bodegas Palacio. Although this wine is usually in the old dry style of red Spanish clarets, our bottle began with the light, strawberry fruit of the more modern style, and after only a few minutes it began to show the longer fruit flavors, and never much tannin. It’s excellent food wine if they keep to this style. Tea ($3) is made loose-leaf in a Chinese iron pot — another beautiful object. Espresso ($3) and even decaf coffee ($3) were superior.
All the better to savor desserts, although these are sometimes more eye than mouth candy. Certainly you have a lot to play with if you order “tea time” ($10), which is four tea-flavored micro desserts, each set on its own square plate and arranged to make a larger square. The piece that really would be dessert if it were only larger was a canapé-size triangle of carrot cake with chai spices, chocolate frosting, and a bit of gold leaf on top. A shot glass of Earl Grey bubble tea was certainly distinctive, and a fun couple of mouthfuls. A white-chocolate Moroccan mint tart was prettily served in another of those tiny cast-iron skillets, but it didn’t seem to have room for a distinctive flavor. Assam profiteroles were just tiny bits of crunch and cream, not much flavor.
A real dessert, the ice-cream sandwich ($10), was two decent pieces of a similar and superb carrot cake sandwiched around alleged parsnip ice cream. Habanera caramel sauce? Missed it, I guess. Chocolate pâté ($12), however, was fine bitter-chocolate mousse, topped with a layer of grape gelatin and a larger crumple of gold leaf.
