Nobu Fukuda, the chatty and informative chef, started me off with a wonderful appetizer of sliced raw halibut in a lustrous sauce combining citrus juice, soy, sesame seeds and toasted garlic.

Sliced into little flowerets, the pale pink meat is swabbed in a zesty sauce combining ginger, hot peppers and soy.

Penne came in a bland sauce combining assorted vegetables, roasted tomato and undercooked squid.

Rounding out the meal are orange-muscat pears in a delicious sauce combining honey, orange zest and sweet wine.

The quirkiest main course and to my mind the most successful is pan-seared skate wing topped with bits of lime and sprigs of fresh tarragon in a sauce combining pistachios and parsley.

The lobsters are steamed, the meat removed and then returned to the shell beneath a rich sauce combining hollandaise, whipped cream, wine and fish stock.

"The satsivi," Lantin said, selecting the most famous of Georgian walnut dishes, made with room-temperature poached chicken smothered in a rich sauce combining ground nuts, coriander, cinnamon, vinegar, and egg yolks.

A sauce combining soy, sherry vinegar and homemade ketchup adds a sharp edge.

The beef was reasonably tasty and cooked to order, with a sauce combining mustard, Worcestershire sauce, garlic, mushrooms, cream and Irish whisky (but bitter from too much Worcestershire).

Roast Muscovy duck likewise was falling-off-the-bone tender, and its pleasingly pungent sauce, combining lime and bitter oranges, was a rousing surprise.