The recently redone inside space is all plush Moorish textures Well-worn wooden floors, blood-red walls, crisp white table settings, leafy palm fronds and voluptuous draperies all coalesce to create a cool, exotic ambiance that suits the soulful live piano music emanating from the entrance.

The menu is a continental fusion of cuisines that is hard to pin down.  Appetizers include a decent tuna tartare with chives, tomatoes, avocado and crispy wontons in a surprisingly tame caper wasabi dressing. The Tangier Salad with spinach, feta cheese, candied walnut, roma tomatoes and raisins in a simple balsamic vinaigrette was fresh and crisp.

The entrees we tried were rather uninspiring, often combining too many flavors at once. Though the grilled Atlantic salmon filet was large, juicy and tender, it was weighed down by the caper butter sauce, porcini mushroom risotto and three-color cauliflower over which it was served, and the seafood fettucini’s shrimp, scallops and calamari were overwhelmed by the ill-conceived addition of green peppers in the half-briny, half-creamy sauce.

Carnivores will enjoy the hangar steak or the cognac peppercorn steak served with English mustard mashed potatoes. The list of wines by the glass is small, so your best bet is to go for the well-priced daily happy hour drinks and nibbles in the lounge area as you wait for one of the live music shows.

-- Eric Rosen