Black leather and blond moire

The location is not exactly auspicious. Just look for the vertical yellow “TATTOO” sign on a nondescript building on Melrose Avenue, a couple of blocks east of Fairfax. The address is one of those wonderfully incongruous L.A. juxtapositions. While leather-clad hipsters dance down the staircase, newly pierced and tattooed at the parlor upstairs, dressed-up diners are ceremoniously ushered into the lower door for dinner at Table 8.

The interior of this beguiling new American restaurant is anything but funky, though. So cool it’s almost cerebral, Table 8 is dressed up in a soothing palette of butterscotch, caramel and cream. Underneath the blond moire panels and billowy sheer curtains, designer Robert Wildasin has cleverly disguised the building’s flaws and given the rooms an urban modernist polish.

Table 8 is not as design-driven as some of L.A.’s hottest new restaurants, and so the crowd is less fashionista and more eclectic. The all-encompassing mix of styles, ages and ZIP Codes is the biggest clue to why everybody is here. It’s not the scene. It’s the food.

This is the breakout restaurant for 34-year-old Govind Armstrong, who was co-chef with Ben Ford at Chadwick in Beverly Hills. But before he was caught in Ford’s spotlight, Armstrong had cooked his way through most of L.A.’s best restaurants. He worked at Campanile, Patina and City. He followed Josiah Citrin and Raphael Lunetta as chef at the long-gone Jackson’s. In fact, he’s been working in restaurant kitchens since he was a teenager and now it all seems to be coming together for this talented chef.

Where the eight comes in

Give Armstrong a clutch of beautiful asparagus, crimson beets or black-purple figs and he’ll run with it. He has a commitment to organic produce, sparkling fresh seafood and traditionally raised meats from small farmers that is reflected on Table 8’s appealing menu. Pared down to fit on a single page, it lists eight appetizers and eight main courses.

Consider his green bean salad, a beautiful composition of slender, long-tipped haricots vert with juicy rosy-fleshed figs and slices of summer truffle in a vinaigrette perfumed with walnut oil and punctuated with fresh walnuts. The flavors are so pure and distinct, it’s a beguiling variation on a classic.

Sweetbreads most often show up in rich, cloying sauces. But Armstrong shows off their delicacy. Lightly grilled and wrapped in thinly sliced pancetta, the sweetbreads have a wonderful creamy texture set off by the crisped bacon. They’re lovely with toothy “torn” pasta, like fat irregular noodles; satiny braised baby leeks; and roasted mushrooms. It’s one of the best sweetbread dishes I’ve had in a long time.

In each dish, he’s finely tuned the way the flavors work together. Asparagus spears roasted to concentrate their sweetness are set down on slightly wilted, slightly bitter frisee, the whole thing lighted up with a bottarga aioli that brings the irresistible briny taste of dried mullet roe into the equation. Whenever you see sardines on a menu, it is your duty to order them, and you won’t be disappointed with Table 8’s fat Atlantic sardines with crusty, golden, sauteed new potatoes; a confetti of chopped hard-boiled egg; and a brilliant celery leaf pesto that brings everything into definition.

Rather than creating something entirely original, Armstrong distills what’s best about L.A.’s branch of California cuisine. Maybe that’s why his cooking is so appealing. That and his impressive sense of balance. He has the equivalent of perfect pitch. But he’s also careful to stay within his capabilities. I worry a little that the menu has hardly budged in the three months Table 8 has been open, which would be fine if there were more than one or two specials each night. Armstrong’s repertory may be limited, but everything is executed perfectly, even on the occasional night when the chef is not in, under sous-chef and partner Andrew Kirschner.

The special that seems to be almost always offered deserves to have a regular place on the menu. That’s the Porterhouse for two roasted under a salt crust that’s about an inch high, fragrant with dry and fresh thyme, black peppercorns and bay leaf. The waiter presents the massive steak, scrapes away the salt crust and then takes it back to the kitchen for carving. It comes back sliced and put back together around the bone like a puzzle. The cooking is dead on and the marvelous beefy flavor is suffused through with salt that brings out the nuance in every bite. Who needs sauce when the meat itself is so delicious? Ivory mashed potatoes and root vegetables come with it. Just taste one of the blond carrots if you want to know what a carrot should taste like.

New Zealand lamb is excellent too, a trio of rosy double chop, braised shank and sliced roasted loin cushioned by a shallot soubise. It was accompanied, when I had it, by a fragile corn flan that carried the taste of summer. Liberty Farm duck breast is ribboned with delicious fat and celebrates the season with juicy roasted apple and braised endive with hazelnuts. Even the chicken here is something special. Roasted in a wood-burning oven, it has a succulent caramelized skin and moist, tender flesh. It also is keeping company with a short-rib hash and a sweet caramelized onion jus. This is the one dish nobody at my table wants to give up.

The kurobuta pork chop from a Japanese breed of pork raised in America, is thick and juicy, very different from the usual anonymous and dry pork. At least a couple of fingers high, its fine flavor plays well against sumptuous kabocha squash, the first chestnuts of the season and tart huckleberries.

The kitchen is just as strong on fish. Salmon is everywhere on menus and most of the time it’s ho-hum. Not here. A tall slab of king salmon is almost custardy in texture with a crisp skin and sprinkling of fleur de sel, a wonderful foil to long blades of charred escarole, quartered baby artichokes, pretty little tomatoes and cracked green olives. Olive oil-poached halibut is a study in green and white, the flaky white fish flanked by smashed potatoes and a gorgeous green parsley sauce.

The wine list is not wildly ambitious, but for a concise, one-page list, it holds some interesting choices. The stemware could be better too. To finish off that last bit of wine, Table 8 offers a well-edited selection of five cheeses nightly.

In a supporting role

The desserts are homey and well-made, but not the stars of the menu. There’s always a peach crisp served in a shallow bowl with a ball of vanilla ice cream melting on top; it stands out from the crowd because of the depth of flavor in the peaches and because it’s not loaded down with 2 inches of topping. The best, though, is the absolutely perfect vanilla bean panna cotta encircled by raspberries, each with a dot of coulis underneath.

After years of cooking in somebody else’s kitchen, Armstrong has matured into an assured chef who has a kitchen perfectly tuned to his pitch. The combination of interesting cooking, first-rate ingredients and pleasantly offbeat service makes for immensely satisfying dining. It’s all working so well, it’s no wonder Armstrong is sticking to a formula. But if he can trust his instincts and be a bit more adventurous, I think we have a star in the making.

*

Table 8

Rating: ***

Location: 7661 Melrose Ave., Los Angeles; (323) 782-8258.

Ambience: Chic lounge and dining room that are less about the scene than the vibrant cooking of chef Govind Armstrong and sous-chef Andrew Kirschner. Despite the soothing decor, the room can get noisy.

Service: Comfortable and professional.

Price: Appetizers, $7 to $15; main courses, $18 to $27; desserts, $7.

Best dishes: Green bean salad, grilled sweetbreads with “torn” pasta, Atlantic sardines with celery leaf pesto, roasted asparagus with bottarga aioli, wood-roasted baby chicken with short-rib hash, king salmon with charred escarole, New Zealand lamb, kurobuta pork chop with chestnuts, salt-roasted Porterhouse for two, vanilla bean panna cotta, chocolate souffle.

Wine list: One-page list with some interesting choices. Corkage, $15.

Best table: A booth along the back wall.

Special features: Lounge menu served until midnight weekdays and until 1 a.m. Friday and Saturday.

Details: Open for dinner Monday through Thursday, 6 to 10:30 p.m.; Friday and Saturday to 11:30 p.m. Full bar. Valet parking, $3.50.

Rating is based on food, service and ambience, with price taken into account in relation to quality. ****: Outstanding on every level. ***: Excellent. **: Very good. *: Good. No star: Poor to satisfactory.