Chef John Niese of The Palm presents Broiled Crab Cakes. (photo/alandeckerphoto.com)

Last year when news got out the The Palm was planning on opening in San Diego, I thought, not another steakhouse Downtown! It took me at least a month or two to mosey on in there, and what I discovered is that to consider The Palm just a steakhouse is really selling it short. It is actually a good old-fashioned American restaurant, a neighborhood eatery and a local watering hole.

Although the tables are covered with white tablecloths and the waiters are in full aprons with ties, the dining room feels like a casual San Francisco bistro. Dark wood floor and wainscoting meets creamy butter-colored walls and high ceilings. The décor takes a whimsical turn, as it is a Palm’s tradition to place caricatures of local notables, along with Hollywood and sports celebrities all over the walls. Guests dine while a smattering of bobblehead-looking portraits watch over them. Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman (on opposite walls, thank goodness), Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks are joined by a selected “Who’s Who” of San Diego. Supervisors Ron Roberts and Dianne Jacob are depicted along with anchorwoman Kimberly Hunt while “ours truly,” San Diego Metropolitan publisher, Gary Shaw strikes a contemplative pose above a comfy corner booth. (My stomach grumbled with envy, given the conspicuous and inexplicable absence of the “Wafflehead,” Downtown’s breakfast maven whose visage has loomed over Centre City from billboards for the past 15 years.)

The menu has all of your steakhouse favorites: a New York, a filet and a porterhouse for two. It also offers — and this is what I like about it — many other fine-fare offerings like veal piccata, veal marsala, an assortment of pasta dishes and quite a good selection of seafood dishes including live lobster.

The appetizer list includes a to-die-for lobster bisque, a chilled shrimp cocktail, fried calamari and clams casino. I almost always start with the bisque; it’s only $6.50 and is so creamy and flavorful that I can’t resist it.

The salads are inventive and I love the fact that you are offered a choice of dressings. The housemade Russian is sublime and it’s wonderful on the “Gigi Salad” ($10), a combination of iceberg, tomatoes, red bell peppers, bacon, avocado and chilled green beans. It’s topped with a good-sized portion of chilled shrimp (hence the Russian dressing).

I’ve had the steaks at The Palm and enjoyed them very much but much prefer the signature items like the pastas and veal dishes because you don’t see them on many non-Italian restaurant menus these days. The “Veal Marsala” ($24) comes in a large shallow bowl. Good thing too — the tender, ribbon-thin veal is smothered in mushrooms and “gravy.” Deeply colored and slightly sweet, the marsala sauce is sublime. Order it with a side of their creamy mashed potatoes and drop a dollop on the side of your plate (that’s why I call it gravy). It is just plain good eating.

The lunch menu and bar menu offer one of the best burgers I’ve eaten. (If you ask real sweetly, you can have it at dinner too, although it’s not on the dining room menu.) It is a pound, at the least, of freshly ground beef, perfectly cooked, topped with your choice of cheese (I went with bleu) and served with thin-cut housemade fries. Treat yourself to it for a business lunch — oh, did I mention that The Palm is open daily for lunch — another thing that sets it apart from local steakhouses.

Desserts are of the larger-than-life, made-for-table-sharing ilk. Save room for the carrot cake a la mode; it is worth getting uncomfortably full over. Be sure and look for Gary Shaw on the walls, though you may not recognize him at first as he has recently (and explicably) acquired eye-patch, beard and mustache. Hmm, I can’t imagine who would do something like that.

— Terryl Gavre