One of this year’s less predictable trends has been the very high quality of new bistros, especially the smaller neighborhood places that are now the entry level of the fine-dining business. People are starting places like this not only with hope and all their friends’ money, but also with training, experience, and a sense of the market. The team at Dalia’s has worked at larger restaurants, and has created an excellent environment for the quirky neighborhood in Brookline’s Washington Square, with pretty gray walls, a variety of odd mirrors above high rails, blue fan lights, and a little bare brick. Table locations all have a sense of place and a view of the sidewalk scene. The food is visually impressive but needs some adjustments for flavor — often exactly the pattern at the larger, more pretentious restaurants we come to a neighborhood place to avoid. Some dishes are fine, and since you can afford to come back here, I think Dalia’s will find its regulars, and they will find their favorite meals. There has already been some pruning and adjusting of the menu since the opening; what still needs to be done might come down to one serious talk about salt and pepper, as in too much salt and too much pepper.

Food begins with a basket of Italian bread and a dish of pitted cured olives in fresh extra-virgin olive oil. Once you eat enough of the olives to be able to dip or pour off some of the oil, you’re in business. The bread goes fast, and is refilled.

My favorite appetizer was smoked-trout rillettes ($7), a ramekin of spreadable trout pâté with good flavors of smoke, sweet fish, and an acceptable level of salt, especially when spread on toasts or more of the bread. Our heirloom-tomato salad ($9) may have been the season’s last, but it was a good job, too, with green, yellow, and pink slices of summer flavor, good cherry tomatoes, giant croutons, and a balsamic dressing to hold everything together. I also liked "Dalia’s favorite salad" ($7), which is field greens with blue cheese, a ripe pear, a few nuts and dried berries, a nice vinaigrette, and only a few slices of dead-pink roma tomato to remind us of the end-of-summer salads.

The asparagus salad ($8), though, was overly salty every time one had a bit of bacon, which happened with almost every bite of this collection of greens garnished with hard-boiled eggs and grilled asparagus. Likewise, the chicken wings ($8) were both over-salted and overly peppery, despite an intriguing combination of spices and falling-off-the-bone tenderness. It was as though a tourist-oriented chef in Morocco had tried to make Buffalo wings from a description on the Internet.

Entrées are pleasingly small — you want to save room for dessert here — and again very good if you are selective. My favorite was the duckling ($18), a sliced breast with some braised dark meat, with a parsnip purée so light it might have a little applesauce in it, and sautéed fruit on the side. People who like to eat quail — they don’t mind working around bones — will enjoy the chimichurri-basted green pharo quail ($17). The dark quail meat is wonderfully contrasted here with pickled grapes, atop a wheat-berry salad with some green beans.

The roulade of chicken ($17) was as beautifully made and cut as any platter in a food magazine: four slices of chicken rolled around veal stuffing, with a nap of gravy; some sliced, oven-roasted potatoes; and sautéed mushrooms. The mushrooms were delicious, but the gravy and the stuffing were over-salted and too peppery by half. Grilled pork tenderloin ($18) was nicely made and sliced, but yes, too salty again, with the potato slices and ratatouille-style vegetables providing little relief.

The staff refills water glasses promptly, and there is a decent wine list, with some choices of typical wines by the glass. The 2001 Montes merlot ($7 glass/$27 bottle) we often have was not showing a lot of fruit our night. If we lived in the neighborhood, I’d just switch over to the 2000 Hacienda merlot ($6/$24), a nice option, or perhaps the 2001 McPherson shiraz ($7/$27), which was almost as soft as a merlot but fruitier than the current Montes. I know shiraz can be made into a big wine with a lot of structure, but the quaffable, mass-market Australian style can be very useful. The glass I really preferred was the 2001 Washington Hills riesling ($6/$24), a Washington State white wine in an unusually dry, Alsatian style that goes well with all kinds of food, even salty and peppery. Coffee and decaf ($2) were unexceptional.

Desserts were generally excellent, although not everything will be to everyone’s taste. There will be no arguments about the dark-chocolate mousse ($6.50), served in a thin chocolate candy bowl. It’s perfect. And almost everyone will like the Key-lime mousse ($6.50), which is fluffy and creamy enough to diffuse the sour edge of real Key-lime flavor. But some people will dote on the true-peach sorbet ($6.50) served, as in Italy, in a whole frozen peach shell; others will eat the shell and find it under-ripe. (They should try to hollow out a ripe peach to fill it with sorbet.) Some people will be delighted by the tartufo ($6.50), basically a very sweet ice-cream patty with a center of cherry liqueur; others will find it too sweet or a little like bubble gum. (I think it goes with espresso or cappuccino.) The pear tartlet ($7) is pretty good pastry with a pretty good almond base and prettily arranged pear slices, but some people may think it’s kind of familiar. Or they may be spoiled by the fabulous pastry shells at double-the-price downtown palaces of cuisine.

Dalia’s staff is very friendly and helpful. If I lived in the neighborhood, I would just explain that I don’t eat a lot of salt, and they would probably steer me away from certain dishes, and tell the kitchen to hold the salt on some others. After a few visits, I would probably think it was one of the best restaurants in the world.

Robert Nadeau can be reached at RobtNadeau@aol.com