Okay, take a good look at the plate. Now remove one thing—maybe two. Ahhhh, isn’t that better?

The food here tends toward the excessive, the flashy. “Our Famous Tortilla Soup,” for example, is as adorned as a Vegas showgirl. (For that matter, the owners have always had nightclub aspirations, and the place also shows it—especially at night.) But once you battle past the shimmying tortilla strips, the star-dusting of grated cheese, you discover that she’s just a country girl at heart, with chunks of grilled chicken, carrot, celery, hominy, and a richly satisfying broth to provide body. You can take the girl out of the country...

The same is true of dishes such as the panko-crusted rainbow trout. It comes adorned with a smoked shrimp and squid “relish,” accompanied by a chipotle hollandaise, bedded on extremely good vegetables and further adorned with assorted sprigs and slivers. But all the parts are good, if not altogether necessary. (We’d eliminate the hollandaise.) The fish may have a farm-raised taste, but the coating is delicate, the portion size generous to a fault.

Chef/owner Thierry Burkle first made his mark at the late, lamented l’Etoile, during its time one of the city’s best French restaurants. Though The Grille’s menu emphasis is more American, with some pizza and pasta Italian accents, the technique remains. Consider the rack of lamb in a cumin-scented demi.