Our servers were especially proud of a thick corn bisque with clumps of Dungeness crab. The soup bobs with sweet piquillo peppers and, in what amounts to a seafood-hater’s rumaki, nuggets of white fingerling potatoes wrapped in bacon.

I much preferred a block of beef tartare served with a garlicky aioli and slender, rosemary-flecked fries.

…the precisely cooked cA´te de boeuf, so gloriously beefy that it deserves to be ranked among the city’s best steaks, is a looker.

… ramekins of corn and mashed potatoes so creamy they might have been milked straight from a cow’s teat.

Thickly cut slabs of duck breastaE”one perfectly cooked, one badly overdoneaE”are laid in opposing, cherry-sauced rows, with hills of farro and chard set between.

A hunk of ivory-fleshed salmon crowned with a slice of foie gras is sunk in a shallow bowl, tightly surrounded by pearl onions and mushrooms.

Much-touted beignets, paired with a supremely alcoholic butterscotch sauce layered with caramel, are dense and bland.

Rarely an empty table among the bustle.

The heart of RN74.