VENUE INFO

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• Tavern at the Temple

One side seared beef at Tavern at The Temple.

The landmark Buggs Temple now holds two restaurants and a coffee shop. (An ice cream shop, Ritter's, will open in the spring.)

Set to take advantage of foot traffic along the Downtown Canal during the warmer months (when hours will increase substantially), the casual Grille at Buggs Temple offers quick bites (sandwiches, salads), currently only at lunchtime. The top-floor Tavern at the Temple is the fine-dining arm of the venture, and one worth driving to, even during the winter months when its patio (and the skyline views it offers) is out of the question.

The Food

The seasonal menu gets straight to the point with only a half-dozen starters and seven entrees, but choosing from even one page of options is difficult. Though there are no vegetarian entrees listed, I'm told that Chef Brad Gates will accommodate special requests.

My steady date and I started with poached pears and goat cheese ($9) -- slices of Bosc pears poached in port wine, cinnamon and star anise and then topped with crumbles of goat cheese, candied pecans and port wine syrup.

Another starter, smoked trout cakes ($10), was two exquisitely textured (dense and tender) cakes of hickory-smoked trout and a ribbon of roasted poblano remoulade.

Our server enthusiastically recommended the one-side seared beef ($34). Chanterelle mushroom risotto hands over the stage to the beef -- slices of tenderloin browned on the bottom and red on the top, tender enough to cut with your fork and boosted by pungent 30-year balsamic vinegar.

Grilled yellowfin tuna ($30) is sashimi grade and described on the menu as "barely cooked." It was cold in the center, which I guess is fair enough, but the "Vietnamese duck sauce" served with it was heavy on ginger and light on appeal. Baby bok choy was the highlight of that plate.

We ended with two delightful sweets: ginger creme brulee ($6) and chocolate-hazelnut torte ($6), with a layer each of bittersweet chocolate and intense hazelnut.

The Service

Service is slightly formal and extremely professional, at least after you get to a table. On each of the three times I called the restaurant before our meal, I was given huffy, resentful attention, and the attitude extended to the hostess desk on the night we visited. Make it past the reservation and seating portion of the meal, and you're likely to be golden.

The Atmosphere

The lounge and patio serve the skyline on a silver platter; the main dining room can't compete, or maybe by design was steered clear of a showdown. It's a room verging on an identity crisis: Edgy art currently fills wall space (exhibits of Indiana artists' work will rotate) in a room otherwise aggressively traditional, down to its brass-tacked leather chairs and the scroll designs on the carpet. So wide open, it's the veldt of fine dining -- but with beams overhead and a kitchen in the corner.

The Price

$157 for two, including tax, tip and three adult beverages. Spendy, but not overly so (except for the tuna, which didn't earn its $30 price tag).

Next Time

Suckling pig -- rubbed with rosemary, thyme, sage, garlic and olive oil and then smoked over cherry wood.

Traci Cumbay / Star correspondent