Overall rating:

Is it an Academy award-winning film with Catherine Deneuve? Well, yes. But no.

Becky Stein/special (ENLARGE)
The beef tataki is one of the best dishes at Steel.
Becky Stein/special (ENLARGE)
The bento box is used as a clever device for offering a selection of desserts, including selections of chocolate.
Becky Stein/special (ENLARGE)
A family style dish of beef tataki, Korean Beef, and Mandarin Orange Chicken.
Becky Stein/special (ENLARGE)
The look is bold and beautiful, with a stunning water curtain spanning the entrance as a portal into the teak-bathed dining room.
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Is it Southeast Asia? Yes ... but again, no. Indochine has become a cultural term for pan-Asian cuisine and seems to encompass, right or wrong, everything from China to Japan.

Or at least that's how Steel, a shiny new penny-of-a-restaurant in Plaza Midtown, interprets the term.

Fresh from Dallas, Atlanta is the concept's first stop outside the Lone Star State. Its menu spans the mysteries of uni shots (with smelt roe and a quail egg, served with champagne) and the delicacies of Vietnamese shaken beef. It sports a sake list, however timid, and for the Philistine, a side order of wasabi-laced mashed potatoes.

The look, designed by the Johnson Studio, is bold and beautiful, with a stunning water curtain spanning the entrance as a portal into the teak-bathed dining room awash with dramatic drop lighting and a massive pea-colored banquette called the "wasabi booth." Its beauty beguiles and ultimately bewitches, but in trying to be many things to so many people, Steel becomes just another pretty face.

Think of Steel as the restaurant equivalent of daytime television. Sip a sake-tini, order some easy-on-the-tastebuds-type treats like shrimp-and-pork dumplings and flitter away an evening. Pithy? Heck no. This ain't even Oprah. It's hard to take a restaurant that serves sushi alongside Mandarin orange shrimp all that seriously.

And yet, like Springer, Steel has its moments. Furtively tucked between the fallacy of Australian lobster tail and a Vietnamese clay pot of tofu and veggies are some enjoyable dishes. But before we get to that, let's examine that lobster: removed from its shell, the once succulent meat is cut into what appears to be a cross between cubes and slices —clubes? Do we know? – then dusted with sea salt and chili pepper and fried like so much calamari, then plopped back into its shell to be served alongside three spicy chili sauces. It's completely forgettable until you realize it costs $65. Time for a commercial break.

Mandarin orange shrimp fares more like Dr. Phil – sautéed with orange peel in a sweet, slightly sticky sauce, plump shrimp and a few crunchy green beans are candid and enjoyable. And a beautifully arrayed dish of beef tataki is going for the daytime Emmy: seared tenderloin underneath thin slices of jalapeno and a dot of siracha sauce is possibly the restaurant's best offering. Korean beef has the flavor of a store-bought Chinese five spice rub – a little too sweet – until it pulls out a fine performance with kimchee and a scrumptious veggie pancake.

Sushi runs the gamut from straightforward nigiri and sashimi selections to a conical tower of tuna that would make Montel blush. And Vietnamese shaken beef has been dumbed down for daytime, with cubes of tenderloin stir fried with sliced onion, served over wilted greens with cherry tomatoes.

No lime, salt or pepper for dipping, though the meat is lusciously tender and sweet.

The bento box is used as a clever device for offering a selection of desserts, the best of which is a brandied fruit Foster messy with strawberries and bananas macerated in sugar and booze and served hot over ice cream. It's like a sloppy wet kiss. A chocolate maki roll is a surprisingly unusual soft white ganache wrapped in dark chocolate, but is delicate and oddly out of place when served with dense chocolate "volcano" cake (volcano because it's molten, not erupting) and overwrought (also non-erupting) banana egg rolls.

There are many artifices to Steel's lovely exterior and not much soul beneath it. And yet we watch, remotes in hand, waiting for the next kooky catfight.

Food: Indochine, meaning pan-Asian
Service: Spot on service, with lots of fun and giggles
Address, telephone: Plaza Midtown, 950 West Peachtree Street, Suite 255, 404-477-6111
Price range: $$$
Credit cards: Visa, Mastercard, American Express
Hours of operation: Open for lunch Monday through Friday from 11 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., dinner Monday through Wednesday from 5 to 10 p.m. and Thursday through Saturday 5 p.m. to midnight.
Best dishes: Shrimp pork dumplings, beef tataki, shaken beef, mandarin orange shrimp
Vegetarian selections: Veggie entrees of tofu in a clay pot, vegetables with Chinese egg noodles
Children: Possibly in early evening hours or for lunch
Parking: Adjacent parking garage, with complimentary valet
Reservations: Yes
Wheelchair access: Yes
Smoking: No smoking inside
Noise level: Medium
Patio: Still to come this spring
Takeout: Yes
Website: www.steelatlanta.com

KEY TO RATINGS
Outstanding: Sets the standard for fine dining in the region.
Excellent: One of the best in the Atlanta area.
Very good: Merits a drive if you're looking for this kind of dining.
Good: A worthy addition to its neighborhood, but food may be hit or miss.
Fair: The food is more miss than hit.
Restaurants that do not meet these criteria may be rated Poor.

Pricing code: $$$$$ means more than $75; $$$$ means $75 and less; $$$ means $50 and less; $$ means $25 and less; $ means $15 and less. (The price code represents a meal for one that includes appetizer, entree and dessert without including tax, tip and cocktails.)