Review: Olenjack's Grille

You can barely pull discernible flakes and strands of fish from the smoked salmon chowder—thick as a chip dip—but you can't miss the chunks of potato as big as parking lot gravel or the kernels of corn. Stay with it and you can find those fish pieces—smoky rich fish as big in style as the soup from which it comes.

Olenjack's has steaks, as all restaurants must. The Kansas City strip drooled its juices into a rosy pool when cut, though it's far from hypnotic. Its richness is too subdued, its silkiness blunted with pockets of gristle. Next to it, a lump of mustard greens, sautéed into a pleasing Southern mush, releases its cleansing bitterness.

Meat tumbles off the baby back rib bones, espresso-glazed, bitter and sweet, more dry than chewy. But they have a good, swift kick of spice. Detail: As much thought was put into the side of wet napkins, perfect white warm towels rolled as tight as toquitos, arranged with fighter squadron precision, slices of lemon wedged between.

Striped sea bass rests on fingerling potatoes over a crawfish butter sauce that is remarkably restrained, permitting the seasonings and the delicate bass to unleash on the palate unencumbered. It's covered with a crust as wispy as a camisole.

Finish with a key lime tart—creamy stiff custard assertive in citrus with a thick brittle crust, deftly salted.

Olenjack's is pure Americana: chef-driven, understated and pleasing. With tight technique and a sure sense of craft, it sketches New American culinary-scapes with Southwestern inks and Southern penmanship and zero pretensions. In retrospect, its exurb interior makes perfect sense.

770 Road to Six Flags East in Arlington's Lincoln Square, No. 100, 817-226-2600. Open 11 a.m.- 10 p.m. Monday-Thursday, 11 a.m.-11 p.m. Friday and Saturday, 11 a.m.-9 p.m. Sunday. $$-$$$