Birthplace of a trend

When Nick & Stef’s Steakhouse came along in 1999, the steakhouse was mired in a time warp. In its midcentury heyday, vinyl booths, name-brand Scotch on the rocks, sirloin or surf ‘n’ turf enjoyed in a haze of cigarette smoke had been heaven on earth. Menus mostly followed the same well-traveled road. And though everyone clearly had their favorites, the differences between this one and that were minor, which was exactly the point. You could be happy anywhere.

Monty’s had the view, Pacific Dining Car the dining car. Dal Rae was closer to the racetrack, the Smoke House nearer the studios. And when the chains came along, well, you knew you were at Ruth’s Chris by that telltale sizzle of butter. Or at Morton’s of Chicago by the tedious show-and-tell menu -- as if actually seeing that larger-than-life steak, the overgrown lobster valiantly waving its claws, or an Idaho russet the size of a football would seduce you into ordering everything in sight. Or what about the Palm, which holds out the carrot for die-hard regulars of being immortalized, along with celebrities of the day, as amusing caricatures on the walls?

But when Joachim Splichal of Patina fame decided to take on the genre, the steakhouse was reinvented as a serious contemporary restaurant. What if, Splichal must have wondered, you opened a place with almost exclusively prime beef, aged in-house, and gave appetizers, sides and desserts the royal chef treatment? A steakhouse where the sides weren’t merely bit players, but stars in their own right? And where the design would be more cutting-edge than clubby?

Splichal gave the downtown restaurant, named for his twin sons, Nicolas and Stephane, an edgy design that broke up the space in eccentric ways, and -- sacre bleu! -- actually let some daylight into the place, the better to see the food and your dining companions. He built a special glassed-in “aging chamber” where slabs of marbled prime slumber until they’re ready for their moment on the grill. He supplied the wine room with suitably beefy Cabs and Bordeaux, putting the large-format bottles at stage front. And his menu listed a dozen unconventional appetizers, a dozen sauces, a dozen sides and a dozen dishes beyond the baked potato. The irreverent steakhouse was born.

Other chefs followed suit. Jean-Georges Vongerichten of Jean-Georges tried his hand at the French American steakhouse in Las Vegas with Prime, and he’s also just opened V Steakhouse in the Time-Warner Building in New York. Tom Colicchio of Gramercy Tavern opened Craft, which, while not strictly a steakhouse, owes something to the format Splichal pioneered. And in L.A., Wolfgang Puck and Spago executive chef Lee Hefter are planning to take over the Regent Beverly Hills’ restaurant and turn it into a high-end steakhouse, something Hefter has been itching to tackle for years.

Meanwhile, back at Nick & Stef’s, the concept is faltering because of poor execution. Consistency is almost an article of faith with steakhouses. But here, medium rare is not always medium rare. And the quality of the beef can vary dramatically from one visit to the next.

Lately, the menu doesn’t seem nearly as compelling as it once was. Gone is the modernist chilled seafood platter that made such an impression early on. Gone are some of the better dishes, in fact. And there is no longer anything memorable about the food. Over several recent visits, the cooking has been wildly inconsistent, and my last meal here was so dispiriting I doubt if anybody I took with me would ever make the trek from the Wells Fargo Center’s garage again.

I have had food that was oversalted, that was overcooked, that tasted as if it had been reheated in a microwave. But I’ve had some good things too. Here’s the nitty-gritty.

Splichal’s reinvented shrimp cocktail, made with meaty grilled shrimp tipped over the rim of a martini glass filled with a punchy barbecue sauce, and garnished with a feathery stalk of celery, is a worthy start. Grilled asparagus salad with hard-boiled egg and Black Forest ham passes muster, but the ham could have been cut less thickly. And the classic iceberg lettuce wedge is decent too, updated with a Point Reyes blue cheese vinaigrette. Oysters at any of Splichal’s restaurants are superb.

The most interesting appetizer I tried was Maine diver scallops, sliced into rounds and presented as a ceviche with a little pink grapefruit pulp and a scattering of pink peppercorns and some golden caviar. The delicate sweet taste of the scallops sang through the dish.

But poor ahi tuna is so overdressed that it’s hard to savor the quality of the fish. And Kobe beef tartare gets translated as rubbery strips the size of French fries, beginning to discolor, set on julienned apples, carrots and red bell peppers in a perfectly awful sweet-hot dressing, a guaranteed wine-killer if I ever met one. I could go on, but I don’t think anybody would really want to hear about the mushy corn and rock shrimp blini stranded in a sea of whole-grain mustard sauce.

We move to the main event: steak. I have this to say: The prime rib, at $48 for 16 ounces, had more flavor than any of the steaks I tried and better texture too. I can also recommend the thick Kurobuta pork chop. I was looking forward to the New York strip, aged for an extravagant number of days in the restaurant’s own aging room, but ended up leaving half of it on my plate. Although it was ordered medium rare, it wasn’t at all juicy, and it tasted gamy, more like a ripe grouse than a well-aged steak. The rib-eye, also aged in-house, doesn’t even come with a bone, and while the flavor is moderately good, the texture is blubbery. What a disappointment. Lamb chops don’t taste like lamb, but rather like some indistinguishable protein called meat.

And the sides! Who wouldn’t go for the “super” mashed potatoes -- more butter, more cream? Except they’ve been overworked until the texture is more gluey than dreamy. Another time, they resemble lumpy porridge and are oversalted. Order the creamy grits with mascarpone instead. And stay away, please, from the crispy blue cheese potato cake, which is strong and rich enough to kill the most ardent appetite. Rosti potatoes, a fluffy mound of grated potatoes topped with sour cream, is pleasant. And some people love the sweet potato fries.

Vegetable sides offer interesting alternatives to creamed spinach, such as summer beans with almonds or a trio of snow peas, snap peas and English peas that is sadly overcooked but still delicious.

Desserts don’t make a brilliant showing. Of course the creme brulee is all right, and there’s a textbook pecan pie with a tender short crust. “L.A. cheesecake” is supposed to be lighter than New York style, but this one seems about as hefty, brightened up with a raspberry coulis. And the mile-high lemon meringue pie is all sweet gooey looks, with very little lemon bite.

The service seems to be running on autopilot. The prevailing style is impersonal and corporate. When -- and it’s not often -- you luck onto a waiter who seems to know what he or she is doing, it feels like a gift. Sometimes the host station isn’t manned. Sometimes the host will lead you straight to the worst table in the room. If it’s truly the last table, fine. But when the room is half empty and it’s late enough that there’s no danger of an unexpected rush, it’s simply mindless.

Five years on, this brave new steakhouse is seriously in decline. It feels as if nobody -- not the kitchen, not the management, not the service staff -- cares. The Patina Group is high enough on the concept of Nick & Stef’s to have opened two more, in Manhattan and in Washington, D.C. This should be the flagship. What gives?

*

Nick & Stef’s Steakhouse

Rating: 1/2 *

Location: Wells Fargo Center, 330 S. Hope St., Los Angeles, (213) 680-0330; www.patinagroup.com.

Ambience: Sleek contemporary steakhouse with an active bar, natural light and a crowd that’s primarily business and tourists. An “aging chamber” where slabs of prime slumber means no one has to ask “Where’s the beef?”

Service: Runs the gamut from warm and professional to robotic and/or inattentive.

Price: Dinner appetizers, $7.50 to $15; steaks, chops and grills, $19 to $48; sides, $4 to $6; desserts, $5 to $12.

Best dishes: Oysters on the half shell, grilled shrimp cocktail, diver scallop ceviche, Caesar salad, pork chop, prime rib special, sirloin burger, garlic French fries, sweet potato fries, “L.A. cheesecake.”

Wine list: A focus on California Cabernets, Bordeaux and Burgundies, most with very high markups. Corkage complimentary.

Best table: One of the booths along the windows.

Special features: Private dining rooms.

A glassed-in steak aging room.

Details: Open Monday through Friday for lunch from 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., Monday through Thursday for dinner from 5 to 9:30 p.m., Friday and Saturday from 5 to 10:30 p.m. and Sunday from 4:30 to 8:30 p.m. Full bar. Valet parking complimentary at dinner with validation.

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.