An alluring newcomer on the downtown scene

The arrival of Staples Center promised a revival of the downtown dining scene, and though the momentum didn’t last long, we’ve got a glamorous Palm steakhouse and a Venetian-themed Italian restaurant, Zucca, within hailing distance of the sports complex to show for it.

Now with the debut of Disney Concert Hall later this month, we’re getting a second wave of restaurant action. Downtown hotels have a special interest in catching some of the crowds of music lovers who will be visiting the new concert venue. The Omni Los Angeles Hotel, for one, is betting on its new restaurant, Noe, and chef Robert Gadsby’s progressive American cuisine.

Hardly a newcomer, Gadsby began his career in downtown L.A. with Thomas Keller at Checkers Hotel in the early ‘90s. He headed up the kitchen at Xiomara in Pasadena and at the now-defunct West Hollywood Club Luna Park before opening his own restaurant in 1995, Gadsbys. Noe is the chef’s middle name, and in the logo the accent is formed by the shadow of the Eiffel Tower that perches jauntily just over the “e.”

At 45, the former Brit is a tremendously skilled chef. Trained in London and France, he’s worked in Europe and Asia, but it’s the Japanese aesthetic that interests him most. His cooking can have a lovely delicacy, but particularly at Gadsbys he sometimes went too far in search of something startling. What arrived on the plate didn’t resemble in the least its description or any conventional idea of the dish. It wasn’t always a brilliant experience.

But at Noe, he’s back on track with a small, focused menu, some exciting, well-conceived dishes, and a hotel staff to back him up.

The room is much nicer and more intimate than you’d expect in this monolithic hotel. The rather formal room is lightened by a decorative panel of Eiffel Towers formed by the word Noe spelled out repeatedly in cobalt blue glass and it’s warmed by the shimmering expanse of gold in a copy of a Klimt painting. The setting is more casual on the broad outdoor terrace overlooking California Plaza with towering buildings on all sides, one of the few places where downtown feels like an urban landscape. A helicopter dips and hovers one night, its lights reflected on the skyscraper across the way. Very “L.A. Story.”

To start, Gadsby might send out a cup of butternut squash “cappuccino” topped with a cloud of almond and perfumed with hazelnuts. It’s a heady (and almost dessert sweet) prelude to the meal to come. From here on, you can put yourself in the hands of the chef and order one of the two tasting menus -- or order a la carte.

Ask a waiter if there are any specials that night, and you might get that tired response: “Everything is special.” In fact, pretty much all of the menu is strong. Santa Barbara spot prawns are encased in a fine dough to make a strudel and paired with a marvelous tomato cocktail (served, of course, in a glittering cocktail glass) of tiny, jewel-like heirloom tomatoes in myriad colors. The dressing has a nice snap of heat. The shrimp is juicy and fresh. Gadsby plays up the sweetness of diver sea scallops to delicious effect with a dice of peppered pineapple washed in a lemony vinaigrette studded with corn kernels. He emphasizes the subtle taste of veal sweetbreads with celery root and apple-flavored potato puree and a splash of jus perfumed with black truffles.

One of his signature dishes, a napoleon of thinly sliced celery root with lobster in a subtly nuanced tomato fondue with a hint of curry, stands out for its balance and clarity. But the dish that’s most enjoyable doesn’t sound that promising at first take. It’s his farfalle with chicken, minted peas and cilantro pesto. The devil is in the details, though. The bowtie pasta is perfectly cooked, the chicken moist and tender and the combination of peas with fresh mint and an intensely green cilantro pesto is soulful. His agnolotti are more like pirogi than anything else, filled with potatoes and topped with a sweet onion “marmalade” and a dot of vodka creme fraiche.

One of his prettiest dishes is the mimosa salad. Molded into the shape of a pointed oval and crowned with a bright golden layer of cooked egg yolk, the salad is crisp and refreshing, with nuggets of chicken, minced vegetables and hazelnuts. It comes with a tiny glass of mango frappe soothed with mint.

Adventurous brews

Miniature beverages seem to be Gadsby’s current obsession. In one meal you can be served five or six of these delicate or bracing concoctions, depending on the ingredients. Sometimes it’s a light ginger- or herb-infused tea; other times the drink can be overly rich and filling. But most are an uneasy mix with wine. Interesting once, twice, they quickly become tiresome.

Main courses are solid. Gadsby combines the craze for braised short ribs with a beef fillet -- so the dish is really beef two ways, both beautifully cooked and ready for fall with a medley of roasted root vegetables and a sharp horseradish gremolata. Braising is a strong suit: the braised lamb shanks are delectable. And again, Gadsby comes up with something interesting as an accompaniment. Here it’s a beguiling cheese and onion bread pudding and a shallot au jus. Duck breast really tastes like duck and comes with parsnip puree and a delicious roasted pear.

The tasting menu teeters more easily into pretentiousness than the regular menu, helped along by the waiters being convinced it’s all genius. My one tasting menu experience was mixed. A couple of dishes seemed quite ordinary, but a few were wonderful. A single scallop topped with a pretty fluted shiitake mushroom in a light, graceful mushroom broth was perfection. And I loved a pretty dish of tiny heirloom tomatoes in gold and red and green with miniature basil leaves and grapes. The surprise of the grapes mixed in with the tomatoes is very Asian in concept. It’s about sleight of hand, and trompe l’oeil. Yellowtail sashimi, though, has an oddly gelatinous character. And fish with periwinkle hash seems de trop.

Unfortunately, the wine list hasn’t quite caught up to the ambitions of the kitchen. It’s not only pedestrian, but overpriced. For the bar crowd, or business travelers dining alone, there is, however, a fairly good selection of wines by the glass. And the bar has a fine collection of single malt Scotch and other spirits.

Service isn’t yet as polished as it could be. Sometimes it seems distinctly out of sync and at times it can be awfully stiff. When we ordered the tasting menu, the server immediately had the bread plates and butter knives removed. We were never offered any bread until one of my dining companions rebelled. The reason for the ban on bread? So we’d make it to the end of the tasting menu.

Sweet and light

The kitchen keeps the desserts light, tasting menu or no. There’s a dainty strawberry shortcake made with squares of fluffy cake, strawberries and mascarpone. Banana tempura -- battered slices of banana, each with a toothpick in the middle -- looks like those miniature goat cheese hors d’oeuvres in the windows of French cheese shops. But it’s not as thrilling as it looks.

The dessert I liked best was the one I was served at the end of my tasting menu: a single dark chocolate with fourme d’Ambert, a blue cheese, inside (odd, but somehow enticing) and two skinny glasses -- one holding cardamom-scented orange juice, the other pineapple-ginger tea. It made a graceful coda to the tasting odyssey.

Noe is a valid addition to the downtown dining scene, well worth negotiating the vast lobby of the hotel to find. If downtown can attract -- and keep -- more chefs as capable as Gadsby, it may well be the beginning of a dining renaissance.

*

Noe

Rating: ** 1/2

Location: Omni Los Angeles Hotel at California Plaza, 251 S. Olive St., Los Angeles; (213) 356-4100.

Ambience: Formal hotel dining room with playful art and a view that looks out over an outdoor terrace and the skyscrapers surrounding California Plaza.

Service: Uncomfortable and stiff, but always attentive -- sometimes too much so.

Price: Appetizers, $9 to $19; main courses, $18 to $32; cheese course, $8 to $15; desserts, $8; six-course tasting menu, $65; nine-course tasting menu, $95.

Best dishes: Santa Barbara spot prawn strudel, smoked turkey and brie croque-monsieur, roasted veal sweetbreads in black truffle jus, mimosa salad, farfalle with chicken and cilantro pesto, beef fillet and braised short ribs, pan-roasted chicken, braised lamb shanks with onion bread pudding, duck with roasted pear, strawberry shortcake, molded chocolates.

Wine list: Pedestrian list with high markups. Corkage, $15.

Best table: A corner table overlooking the outdoor terrace.

Details: Open for dinner from 5 to 10 p.m. Sunday through Thursday; Friday and Saturday to midnight. Full bar. Valet parking, $4.

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.