In House Cured Alaskan Salmon resembled silky tartare, topped with a tangy apple-brown mustard seed salad and crispy Weiser Farm potato chips. LeFevre even found ways to incorporate sweet corn kernels, hard-boiled quail egg, salmon roe, and dill.

Spicy tuna is played-out in L.A. Japanese restaurants, but LeFevre found an original take on the theme with his Cucumber Rolled Spicy Big Eye Tuna. Plenty of restaurants mask poor quality tuna with copious amounts of mayo. Not at Water Grill. LeFevre minced high-quality tuna, wrapped it with thin sheets of cucumber and accented the fish with heart of palm puree, tart ruby grapefruit and spicy tobiko wasabi dabs.

The first entrée centered on a juicy Grilled Columbia River White Sturgeon slab that LeFevre surrounded with roasted beets, tiny pickled onions, coriander-spiced Garnet yam puree, slightly-bitter rapini and vegetable-flecked Israeli couscous beads.

California “Pacific Ridgeback” Swordfish was even more satisfying, meaty steak with a nice sear. The fillet was spooned with Tuscan salsa verde and plated on roasted garlic Swiss chard that was stripped of its bitterness with roasted garlic. Thin-sheathed polenta “batons” looked like French toast sticks, but were completely savory, coated with a zesty red pepper and tomato ragout.

Blueberry Mascarpone Cake was basically an exemplary blueberry muffin with a crisp crust that had plenty of give. Fresh blueberries and candied corn kernels paired with blueberry sorbet and a streak of blueberry sauce came with a scoop of fluffy crème fraiche ice cream.

Red Velvet Pudding was rich, with a molten chocolate center. The plate also hosted a scoop of tangy Mascarpone ice cream, even tangier raspberry sorbet and a Cocoa nib streusel crumble.

With the check, we received complimentary mignardises: chewy hazelnut macarons with an intensely nutty flavor that crept up on me, sweet pates de fruit and tiny lemon squares studded with poppy seeds.