Chef/owner Ronald DeLuca Jr., formerly of Blue in the North Hills, has reappeared at Pangea in Shadyside, which opened in May. At his new fine-dining restaurant, he continues to favor eclectic combinations of flavors, techniques and influences, and at its best, the food is fresh, flavorful and playful. But the many fine qualities of Pangea tend to be overwhelmed by an excessively long and slightly pretentious menu.

Some of the tastiest appetizers were well-executed versions of restaurant standbys. A long platter held three elegantly assembled limestone lettuce wraps ($8), each piece of lettuce topped with just the right amount of thinly sliced, medium-rare beef, deliciously sharp pickled onions and crunchy fried cellophane noodles. Wild-caught crispy shrimp ($9) are equally scrumptious, with paper-thin batter shells that remained crisp despite the sweet chile glaze.

One of the more creative appetizers, the Elysian Fields lamb tagine ($9), could easily stand in for a smaller main course. Served in a small ceramic dish, braised cubes of lamb melted into chewy Israeli couscous and diced sweet potato, and preserved lemon shone against a backdrop of mellow Moroccan spices. A brown bread-crumb topping was a distinctly inauthentic touch, but added a nice textural contrast (though I could have done without the minted creme fraiche. While counting calories at restaurants is often futile, that doesn't imply that every dish is improved by cream, remoulade or creme fraiche).

The best of the salads was a complex mix of spicy arugula and slightly bitter belgian endive, balanced with sweet fuji apple, red onion, a mild gorgonzola and a bright champagne vinaigrette ($8). But it's likely to get lost among so many options.

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Pangea

2 stars = Very good
Ratings explained

736 Bellefonte St.
Shadyside
412-621-3152
www.pangea-shadyside.com

• Hours: Tuesday-Friday 11 a.m.-12 a.m., Saturday-Sunday 12 p.m.-12 a.m.
• Basics: Though an evening here doesn't come cheap, Pangea's mix of styles and influences make for an entertaining culinary tour, though some interprations are more sophisticated than others.
• Recommended dishes: Arugula and Belgian Endive Salad, Crispy Shrimp, Limestone Lettuce Wraps, Elysian Fields Lamb Tagine, Cioppino, Elysian Fields Lamb Loin, Sour Cherry Napolean, Strawberry Chiffon Cake.
• Prices: Salads and tapas, $6-11; tapas flights, $12-18; entrees, $19-35; sides, $3-6; desserts, $6; wines by the glass start at $9; wine flights start at $12; bottles start at $37.
• Summary: Not wheelchair accessible; nonsmoking; park in nearby city lot or on street; credit cards accepted; reservations encouraged on weekends; corkage, $15.
• Noise level: Difficult to judge at time of review.

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Though the menu seems to place an emphasis on tapas, the scope and interest of the entrees suggests that the kitchen expects a fair number of diners to have a more traditional three-course meal.

Artichoke- and fennel-crusted halibut ($23) proved to be slightly misleading. A thick halibut filet was covered in sliced artichoke hearts and roasted fennel, but they lacked the crispness that I expected from the word "crust." However, the fish itself was flavorful and moist, as if it had finished cooking beneath the protective cover of the vegetables.

One of the best dishes was the cioppino ($25), with a vibrant, aromatic base of tomato-fennel-fish broth begging to be slurped up, along with sweet, soft slices of red pepper and onions, and abundant, perfectly cooked shrimp, clams and chunks of a mild white fish. My only problem with this dish was that it really shouldn't have been called cioppino because it lacked that dish's distinguishing characteristic -- crab.

These dishes all had something important in common: They were among the most streamlined, straightforward options on the menu.

In general, the tapas flights were weaker options. I was disappointed by both the seafood cakes ($17) and the crostinis ($14).

By far the worst dish I tried was a trio of phyllo tartlets that not only exemplified the types of dishes that give catered weddings for 300 a bad reputation, but also fell into some of the worst traps of modern cooking. The first tartlet of ratatouille and whipped roquefort was "garnished" with smoking rosemary -- literally, a rosemary sprig that had been lit on fire and was smoking. While infusing dishes with aromatic smoke is trendy, and I've experienced delicious versions, this interpretation looked and tasted like a culinary joke. Another selection contained berries and creme fraiche, causing me to wonder whether a dessert had accidentally been delivered to our table along with the appetizers.

The menu also suffers from the culinary equivalent of using $3 words when nickel ones will do. Why say beurre compose when you can say compound butter? Six different dishes listed "heirloom tomatoes" -- never mind that this menu debuted months before tomato season, so using heirloom tomatoes simply meant they were using a more expensive kind of tasteless tomato.

These kinds of faux pas suggest that the culinary buzz words and modern techniques are put in place not because the chef truly believes in their importance, but because they are trendy and help justify higher prices.

The wine list offers some similar frustrations. It is an interesting list, with a number of wine flights that have already proven popular. But it is poorly organized and doesn't list wine vintages. It's also unusually expensive. There is currently only a single option for less than $40. Estrella Pinot Grigo, which sells for $37 at Pangea, retails for $7.09 at the state store (SLO, minimum order 6 bottles). More expensive wines offer far better deals, such as the 2004 Charles Krug Generations, which retails at the state store for $53.09 (SLO, 6 bottle minimum) and is available at Pangea for $110.

Drink service, however, made me a little wary of encouraging diners to splurge on more expensive bottles. A glass of rose was too warm, suggesting it had lingered at the bar for more than a few minutes before being delivered to our table. A cocktail of Bluecoat gin and grapefruit juice with a salted rim was also too warm and the glass had been dipped rather than rolled in salt, a lazy move that resulted in an unpleasantly salty drink.

Service at times was professional, even impressive, but I was distracted by moments of outright buffoonery -- a server wordlessly tried to pull a menu out from under my elbow. Different servers described a single dessert in markedly different terms. The host was dressed almost too formally in an expensive-looking black suit, but at one point a member of the staff walked from the restaurant office through the dining room dressed in athletic shorts and flip-flops.

The room itself is a little bare, and it hasn't changed much from it previous incarnation as Costa del Sol. It's still a little too chilly, and the music seemed more appropriate for an irritatingly trendy club than for a fine-dining restaurant.

These problems are all the more frustrating because it would be a shame if Pangea went the way of its recent predecessors at 736 Bellefonte. The restaurant inspires some harsh criticisms, but it does so because its aspirations are high, and with some time and work, those aspirations are not totally out of reach.

DeLuca's passion is evident, and he clearly has talent, but these qualities need to be tempered with restraint and a more rational evaluation of his own and his staff's capabilities.