Warm Comfort

A single dessert is prepared each evening as the last course of the prix fixe meal. Midnight velvet cake with brown-sugar frosting was a neat square of devil's-food cake with icing that resembled Canadian maple-leaf candies in both its pleasantly grainy taste and its firm texture. Rice pudding was not a wobbly custard but a haystack of buttery rice pebbled with raisins. The mound was set before us in a shallow bowl, and our server poured chilled heavy cream over it, the thick liquid seeping through the sticky grains of rice.

The servers don't miss a beat as they perform these tasks -- finishing desserts, dipping soup, parceling bread. They take their cues from diners, leaving starry-eyed couples alone and chatting with more garrulous customers. Somehow the ambience is defined more by the staff than by the restaurant's physical space, a boxy room on the first floor of a midrise apartment-and-condominium building. The dark room draws its character from tall plate-glass windows, candlelight, white tablecloths and eclectic paintings.

Jennifer Silverberg

Richard Perry's new restaurant offers a prix-fixe menu most remarkable for its consistency.

Details

Sun.-Thu. $23.95/person
Fri.-Sat. $24.95/person

314-367-4100. Hours: 5-10 p.m. Sun.-Thu., 5-11 p.m. Fri.-Sat.

4501 Lindell Blvd.

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More About

• Rick Perry
• William Grimes
• Fruits and Vegetables
• Foods

Lindell Terrace is perhaps most remarkable for its consistency. Service does not seesaw from one visit to the next. Not only is the staff well trained, we also felt as though they wanted to be there. Likewise, the kitchen chooses not to perform a high-wire act, turning out culinary stunts next to utter washouts. Instead, farmstead ingredients and simple preparations dovetail to create many exceptional dishes -- and not a single flop. Richard Perry has his name riding on it.