By day, Cafe Soleil is a bustling, cheerful place. The menu, overseen by an experienced chef of 20 years, ranges from steaks to pastas to salads to sandwiches, with an emphasis on fish and fruits de mer. Everything is prepared with superb care, using the choicest ingredients from the Mediterranean cornucopia. In keeping with the new owners' desire to appeal to broader tastes, the presentation is sufficiently artistic but not so damn pretty that there is nothing to eat.

For starters, try escargot, calamari, tapas or one of the soups. Another pick for summer might be the salade poisson: marinated fish on greens with a lime dressing.

For a main course, the waiter recommended tuna au poivre: "Best thing on the menu," he promised. "It's a sushi-grade cut of tuna." The steak, cooked as rare as requested, was served on a bed of grilled asparagus in a mushroom-peppercorn sauce -- the waiter's promises of excellence were understated. Half-Californian, half-French, the wine list accommodates any meal and most budgets, with bottles from $19 to $67.

On the lunch menu, even the humble club sandwich is a feast: smoked turkey, swiss cheese and two strips of bacon on a giant, flaky croissant, served with homemade potato chips -- paper-thin slivers of new potatoes, hot from the fryer. By day or by night, the waiter's right: "Bon appetit."

-- Rob Kunkle