Like the Federalist up the hill, Spire is the luxury dining room of a boutique hotel, with aspirations to serve one of the best and most expensive meals in town. The implicit question posed to chef Jeffrey Everts and chef de cuisine Matthew Morello is: if we give you top dollar, how are you going to spend it, and how will we know? The conventional answers are to buy outstanding produce, add a lot of intricate handiwork, or provide an experience akin to being temporary royalty. The Spire team has tried to mix and match the first two methods, with some good results, especially when ingredients can carry the dish. When the ingredients aren’t astounding, though, the cheffery can seem silly.

On a quiet Sunday night a month after the restaurant’s opening, the " front of the house " still seemed hastily assembled. The kitchen isn’t open, but it’s visible behind windows and metallic curtains. At first glance, it seemed like a view of a deserted cafeteria next door. The menu descriptions were both overly detailed and sometimes a little off. The " matsutake " mushroom in one dish was actually a maitake. The French accents were there in " crème " but not in " fraîche " or " brûlée. " The " chiogga " beets weren’t chioggia beets (the stripy kind); they were baby purple or white beets. Our waiter was overly talkative. Even if he guessed we were foodies or critics, describing every item on every platter was more help than we needed, and rubbed off some of the magic. And the background music — a mishmash of jazz samba, disco, delta blues, show tunes, gypsy violins, and whatnot — was as distracting and jarringly downscale as the mock-switchblade steak knives.

Still, one can eat very well here, even considering the prices. Food began very well with a complimentary micro-salad of three kinds of radishes in a citric dressing, topped with radish sprouts. The waiter’s description of them as " heirloom radishes " brought a smile. For me, the black radish actually is an heirloom food, under its Yiddish name schvartze rettich.

The bread basket is very good, although you should be warned that what is described as " wheat bread " is tricked up with sunflower seeds and the " farina roll " is a toasted hard roll, but the Boston brown bread is actually that.

Appetizers are somewhat oddly grouped into two courses, the first being substantial small plates, the second being salads and a small plate of seared scallops. My favorite was the heirloom-tomato salad ($11) with slices of red, purple, orange, and green-striped tomato worked into a turreted castle with cherry tomatoes on top. A sliver of manchego-type goat cheese provides a little contrast, but this is primarily a study in remarkably early tomato goodness, perhaps helped along with a touch of vinegar. I also greatly enjoyed those seared scallops ($12), with the three baby non-chioggia beets and some cress in a wisp of sauce with a hint of vanilla.

I thought " butter-poached Maine lobster " ($16) an ideal way for hotel visitors to have the obligatory lobster without the inevitable overstuffed feeling. The portion is a claw and half a tail (cut crosswise) of impeccable lobster in a clear sauce with little gnocchi, some parsnip, and wild mushrooms, though not the artichokes the menu mentions. I also liked the gamy " La Bella Farms squab " ($12), four bits of livery dark meat and a bone-in leg, with lots of black-trumpet mushrooms, some unsalted corn nuts, and a foamy, New York–style emulsion sauce.

The " lobster broth, summer-root vegetables " ($10) is amusing, with the waiter pouring a teapot of broth into a bowl of some diced vegetables. But the broth isn’t strong enough, the flavors don’t come together, and you eat all the vegetables and part of a lobster claw right away and then look at this bowl of pallid broth, wishing you’d had the heirloom-tomato salad instead. The dish of pan-seared foie gras, baby-pineapple " chops, " and Szechuan peppercorns ($18) is cheffery gone daft. What you have is a long rectangle of plate with a yellow heap at each end. One heap is topped with a domino of foie gras on a thin pineapple candy chip. Underneath are some marinated pineapple chunks that provide an interesting contrast to the buttery liver. The other heap is made up of pineapple pieces with the skin on, carved into the shape of pork chops. Why the chef picked that shape is beyond me. Does anyone know of an association between foie gras and chops? This might have been a clever garnish for chops.

The misnamed mushroom was part of a dish of turbot and cranberry beans ($31). For the record, the matsutake mushroom I thought I ordered is a Japanese pine mushroom (Armillaria matsutake or A. caligata), which is a large, gilled mushroom with a remarkable spicy aroma. It commands such a considerable price in Japan that the Japanese fly to the Pacific Northwest to pick them. What was in there was a maitake (Polyporus frondosus), part of a very large mushroom with pores, not gills, that we call " hen of the woods. " Nice, but not the same thing at all. The turbot was dusted with corn meal and fried, a good treatment for such a mild fish. The Provençal sauce, mostly capers, was very good, but the cranberry beans were underdone.

A special on poached cod ($28) was a warning of what can happen when ingredients can’t carry the dish. The small rectangle of codfish was almost tasteless, and so was the broth, despite containing asparagus, many chanterelle mushrooms, and a few underdone fava beans. The only flavor was kaffir-lime leaves. The waiter said, " Think Thai without the lemongrass. " Yes, but also without the shrimp paste, coconut milk, chilies, and basil.

Millbrook Farms venison ($36) is sliced from the loin of game-farm venison so tender (despite being quite lean) that it largely lacks the gamy flavor of wild venison. It’s somewhat like the mild flavor of beef filet mignon, and it’s wonderful meat, if not typical of the animal. The underlying cubes of ripe peaches and parsnips are both surprising and suited to the meat. There are also a few potatoes the size of 25-cent gumballs. Bobo Farms duck breast ($32) is in some ways similar, although a little slice of foie gras on a lingonberry short cake provides an extra thrill, and the underlying puy lentils create a more substantial base.

Spire’s wine list features some very fine bottles, but does dip into the $20s and $30s more often than many other high-end lists this year. By the glass, you really ought to try the Châteauneuf-du-Pape Château des Fines-Roches ($15 glass/$45 bottle), packed with fruit and flavor, yet as soft as many California merlots. Speaking of merlot, the 1999 Estancia ($10/$29) is clean and good, but nothing close to the Châteauneuf. On the white side, a New Zealand sauvignon blanc, Goldwater " Dog Point " ($10/$31), is more classically French than I expected, with flowery and grassy aromas, but not so much of the tropical fruit of other New Zealand wines. Even a Duck Pond pinot gris ($8/$25) from Oregon will improve the odds for pinot grigio drinkers. Hot tea ($3) is correctly served from a china pot, but decaf coffee ($3) was burnt.

My favorite dessert was citrus-poached nectarines ($10), five slices of scrumptious fruit, with a cylinder of slightly sour crème-fraîche frozen soufflé. The warm chocolate cake ($10) is basically an undercooked brownie, but saved by the terrific cherry-mascarpone ice cream on top. A plum-and-pecan tart ($9) is laid out prettily on a round of linzer crust, but the alleged " star-anise ice cream " is mild vanilla. Lemon " crème brulee " ($8) is a nice job, perhaps overshadowed by a bit of genuinely sour lemon sorbet. It’s supposed to have lavender biscotti, but my notes say " almond. "

Dinner ended with a tray of tiny amuse-gueules, each described by the waiter: a bit of chocolate truffle, cherry paste, chocolate fudge, sugared almond, and elephant ear (from a mouse-size elephant). Décor runs to earth tones, motifs of spires and circles, and those metallic, translucent curtains. The restaurant is on the second floor, with a view over Tremont Street to the cemetery and the buildings full of lawyers beyond.

Robert Nadeau can be reached at RobtNadeau@aol.com