Housed in a neo-classical 1852 building, it feels like a palace waiting for a party: a piano in the waterfall bar, romantic tables and private rooms upstairs. The menu, for all its Asian allusions, seems aimed at sturdy appetites. Chilled pea soup, heavy with crème fraîche and zapped with a rich scallion pesto, would be more effective as a smaller portion. Ditto an unctuous mushroom risotto stiffened with grana padano and puddled with white truffle foam, a garnish of tomato and arugula salad with parmesan crisp providing much needed refreshment. A soy–truffle oil dipping sauce overpowers accompanying crab pot stickers. Forthright mains include 12-ounce rib-eye steak, tender and flavourful, draped over crisp potato batonettes, sautéed Cookstown carrots and beets. Desserts come from a livelier imagination. One evening’s perfect warm beignets filled with crème anglaise balance a classic root beer float. Fresh grapefruit and grapefruit curd fill a biscuit pastry tart alongside lemon grass sorbet and citrus génoise. Servers are courteous. Mains $26–$35.