Big plates, small portions

Sigh. What next? Romanian-Bangladesh fusion with high notes of Madagascar peppers and sauces tinged with the blood of well-born spider monkeys?

You think that sounds ridiculous? Well, what would you think if you asked a server at a new fusion restaurant to explain its concept and he told you with complete earnestness: “It means we have big plates and small portions”?

That’s exactly what the well-dressed server at Eurasia Bistro (129 E. Ponce de Leon, 404-687-8822) told me two weeks ago. I tapped my phantom hearing aid but Wayne assured me I heard correctly.

I’m not sure why the former tenant, Cosi (which briefly renamed itself Cosecha), left this spot near the square in Decatur. I certainly liked the food there and the dining room — basically a classy brick vault — had more style than any other in Decatur. Eurasia has retained the architecture but re-knickknacked it with a few mercifully tasteful Asian artifacts.

I quite honestly don’t get the concept. Clearly there’s a lot of Thai influence, for the owner also operates Northlake Thai. (There’s also an out-of-place-feeling Chinese influence here and there.) The European influence, our server assured us, is French, and “that’s why we have the big plates.” Yeah, whatever.

We saw nothing remotely French even in the presentation of this cuisine, unless we are to believe that all pretty plating owes its style to the French. That’s my way of saying, yes, the food looks good. But, as for its preparation, it’s about as French as Tater Tots — far from the elegant French fusion of haute Vietnamese cuisine.

Is the food bad? No. In fact, much of it is good, but mainly for snacking. We started with the ominously named “black plate,” a sample of many of the appetizers ($10 each). Apparently, “black plate” is code for “fried pu-pu platter” in the mythical land of Eurasia. Nearly everything on the plate, the decent chicken satay excepted, had been fried. It’s all served in wonderful shapes and angles and most of it — the vegetarian spring roll excepted — tastes good. I especially liked the stuffed crab claws with chili sauce ($7 separately) and the shrimp in herb spring roll pockets with kiwi-mango sauce ($6 separately). The curry puff stuffed with minced beef is boring ($4 separately).

A soft-shell crab is available separately in an unpleasant brown-butter tamarind sauce ($9), but a quail rubbed with Thai spices, served with papaya salad, is a good choice. There are also mussels steamed in coconut milk with curry spices and garlic ($8) and, maybe the best choice, rice-battered fried calamari with a jalapeño salsa ($8). More traditional Thai starters like nua nam tok, nam sod and tom yum soup are also available but oddly not identified by their native names.

By all means visit the restaurant and snack to your heart’s content on any of the starters. Entrees pose more challenges from a conceptual point of view, especially when served, like my steak, in an enormous white bowl that belongs in a Lewis Carroll account of the Mad Hatter’s tea party a la Indochine. An itty bitty filet mignon is actually quite tasty over a “noodle cake” sauced with Indonesian curry sauce. The rather low price, $12, makes it agreeable despite its oddity. Wayne’s poached halibut was served in a light soy sauce, with cross-hatched asparagus ($10). Loved the fish, didn’t care for the sauce much.

Other entrees are less appealing. Eurasia Bistro isn’t Cosi by a long shot and it’s more marketing than gastronomy. Still, it’s worth a visit.

Here and there
I was worried when Calavino Donati lost her chef at Roman Lily Cafe, but the doe-eyed young woman who dresses like a telephone lineman has been cooking quite well herself. She put roasted sardines on her new menu but promptly took them off, retaining them as an occasional starter, since nobody would order them. You people need to get with it.

Wayne and Rose D’Agostino attended the latest dinner by Geneva Francais and gave everything but the high price a thumbs-up. Unfortunately, the former owner of the African Brown Bag says she will discontinue the special dinners due to poor turnout. I wish Geneva would get into a new restaurant and stay put.

I received quite a few e-mails and calls after my review of Star Steaks and BBQ, Tom Catherall’s new venture in the old Indigo location. With only one or two exceptions, people agreed with my fundamentally disappointed assessment of the restaurant. The common litany of those who objected to my review was to accuse me of nostalgia for Indigo. Gimme a break. I don’t blame Catherall in the least for trying out a new concept. I just find the restaurant beneath the quality of his others, which I mainly love.

As it happens, I have tried a few other barbecue spots recently. I visited Fat Matt’s Rib Shack with my friend Lee Orr for lunch one day. It was my first visit in a long time and the place was a smoothly running madhouse. I thoroughly enjoyed my chicken and will return to sample the ribs some evening when I can find a parking spot.

I remain completely devoted to Daddy D’z in my own hood, Grant Park. I don’t think the ribs have a close competitor in the city, though their messy service on paper plates is a considerable discouragement. I also like the smoked turkey. Check out the new, tasteless sculptural sign of a pig declaring: “I’m dyin’ for Daddy D’z.”??