Chef Jeff Moschetti earned a nice, comfortable reputation while working at Dragonfly, Ferre, and Beau Nash. These stints put him just under the city’s upper tier. Some people harbored doubts about his skill, however—and his work at One 2 One has this crowd shouting, “I told you so.”

As evidence, they might cite a bowl of steamed clams served in a bile so salty the Dead Sea would taste bland by comparison. Or the watery slop he dares to label crab cakes. He puddles a “Cajun” sauce around this mess, adding more weak liquid and surprisingly little flavor. Seared scallops also feel mushy. And they struggle in a pool of water he mistakenly calls verjus. Each meal there has been so brazenly, stubbornly unappetizing that we once had to restrain a friend from walking back to the kitchen on a mission to teach Moschetti how to cook.

On the plus side, pizzas are surprisingly complex and the room itself is sleek and modern. But service borders on amateurish—mains arriving two or three bites into the appetizers, wine poured only after reminding them four times about the order. Consider One 2 One as Applebee’s at steakhouse prices.