What does it say in these dour economic times when a new downtown Bellevue restaurant is so slammed on a Friday night they run out of martini glasses?

Our waitress was filled with apologies. They were sending someone over to Crate & Barrel for more, she said, but meanwhile the Perfect Pearl Martini (made with Washington's own Dry Fly gin) was served in a double-old-fashioned glass.

I don't frequent the local bar scene enough to say for sure, but my empirical evidence suggests Pearl, open since mid- November, is Bellevue's bar of the moment. Foolishly arriving reservationless at 7 on a Friday night thinking we'd eat in the 100-seat lounge, we found no room at the bar or in the upholstered conversation pit. We gratefully grabbed the last pair of vacant chairs at one of several tall communal eight-tops.

Later in the lounge, the younger set was on the prowl to the beat-beat-beat of a techno tom-tom. Downing pork sliders and super-sweet Wild Shiso Drops, they were taking advantage of a late happy-hour deal: Wines by the glass, draft beer, signature drinks and small plates are half off from 9 p.m. until well after midnight every night.

Those who go for the food will find the menu embraces diversity with mixed success.

Risotto could not have been better. Crowded with an array of fungi (oyster, chanterelle, cremini and tiny straw mushrooms), the rice was precisely poised between creamy and firm and robustly flavored with porcini broth and reggiano-parmigiano. At lunch, the same marvelous mushrooms enhanced flattened pan-seared chicken breast tenders, both smothered in a savory, wine-rich brown sauce.

Grilled wagyu sirloin, fragrant with rosemary, was cooked as ordered and full of flavor but a workout for the jaws. Moist shards of juniper-braised pork shoulder were properly pliant, however. Piled with roasted fennel and arugula over warm, chunky potato salad, it was satisfying, if not thrilling.

Fish elicited more excitement. Spinach wilted with warm foie gras vinaigrette supported succulent rockfish on a plate littered with lovely scraps of seared duck liver. Honey- and miso-glazed sablefish was in sweet contrast to the subdued heat of a Thai- inspired namya sauce, a vivid orange tide pool rife with curry, ginger, lemon grass and coconut milk. The fish formed an arresting archipelago with mushroom-cap islands and delicate shoals of crab dumplings in shu-mai wrappers.

More Asian accents pop up in small plates. Kudos to "kimchee beef," rosy slices of soy-marinated steak with sweet pickled vegetables balancing the spicy cabbage. Shrimp and vegetable tempura was less alluring: the batter heavy and greasy, the soy-dashi dipping sauce excessively oily. Better to get your shrimp fix with excellent tiger prawns in a peppery, butter sauce thick with chopped garlic.

Undercooked vegetables were a persistent problem. Crunchy green beans and carrots are one thing; brittle corona beans and tough parsnips another. A fork failed to pierce boiled potatoes, an off note in an otherwise lilting arugula salad tossed with olives, peppers, capers and anchovy and garlanded with pepper-edged squares of seared ahi tuna.

Desserts were a bright spot, especially the elegant, mascarpone-filled poached spiced pear, and a butterscotch sundae topped with pecan brittle.

Pearl's contemporary "Hotel Anywhere" décor is handsome, if sterile. The rippling metallic-gray walls evoke a subaquatic oyster bed, intentionally or not. Sheer black curtains turn corner tables into semi- secluded nooks in the windowless dining room, divided in two by a luminescent half wall. The pearly glow makes everyone look as dewy as the pretty hostesses — of which they seem to have an unlimited supply.

It's the staff and the customers (a wide demographic from both sides of the pond) who animate this place. The sommelier is helpful, even if you are just ordering wine by the glass. The responsive servers clearly have had training, though some lack the anticipatory skills seasoned waitstaff acquire, that ability to "read" the table and to pace the meal. It's reasonable to expect this will improve with time, given that executive chef Bradley Dickinson and his business partner, Mikel Rogers, local boys and longtime friends, both have lengthy, overlapping résumés at places such as Daniel's Broiler, Chandler's Crabhouse and Spazzo.

After all, even oysters take a while to produce a pearl.

Providence Cicero: providencecicero@aol.com