Triple George Grill has a mix of intimate booth seating, open areas and spots at the bar. Photo by Ralph Fountain.

It's not unusual for a restaurant to present a mixed bag -- sometimes in one area, sometimes across the board in food, atmosphere and service -- but I've never understood why. If you're going to take the time and trouble to do things well and have the skills and skilled staff sufficient to accomplish excellence in some areas, why would you not extend that standard to all things?

Yes, consistently achieving high standards is an intricate waltz; that's why restaurant management is much more difficult than it looks. But some manage to do it, and do it flawlessly.

Triple George Grill isn't one of them. I'm sorry to report that -- truly -- because the dark-wood-lined spot has provided a much-needed boost for downtown, where there are too few offerings for tourists, locals looking for a taste of the good old days and those of us who work in the area and are endlessly looking for lunchtime and after-work dining spots.

But the good news is that the low spots are easily fixable, and the high spots sufficient in number that I think management can make the necessary repairs, should they so desire.

Let's start with service. Food came out of the kitchen a little too slowly for such a quiet evening, but the biggest disparity was between staff members. The hostess was friendly, efficient and competent; the assistant waiter one of the best we've encountered lately. But whoever motivated them hadn't similarly inspired our waiter.

Case in point: Dinner at Triple George, in keeping with the restaurant's San Francisco-fishhouse theme, includes some of the city's best sourdough -- hard-crusted, with a resilient interior that clearly conveys the tang of the fermented starter -- plus pats of butter, a relish plate of olives, pickles, baby corn, carrots, tomato and the like, and a bowl of lemon wedges.

As I said, dishes were somewhat slow in coming out of the kitchen, and so we went through more of the bread and the relish tray than we would have otherwise. Thus we weren't really surprised when our assistant waiter cleared them between our appetizers and our entrees. What did surprise us was when he returned with a full complement of all. This was the same guy who had, unasked, brought us glasses of water to accompany the wine we'd ordered.

Perhaps they should promote him because, after the initial opening and pouring, our waiter -- who was pleasant enough and seemed intelligent -- never topped off wine glasses that were completely empty at times, and did little more than stop by now and then and utter, from a few feet away, the standard, "Is everything all right?"

The inconsistencies extended to the food. A large Dungeness crab cake ($9.50) was full of lump crabmeat with little filler and lots of flavor, but was way overbrowned on one side.

The house-specialty Shrimp George ($20.95), which had been butterflied and stuffed with crabmeat, had lovely flavor (not to mention a pretty reasonable price), but had been overcooked until some verged on the rubbery.

A New York strip steak ($26.95), had pretty good quality for a Choice grade (and I give them credit for putting that on the menu, when most places serving Choice or lower try to obscure the fact) but was more medium than the medium-rare we ordered.

A side dish of creamed spinach ($5) was crisp and flavorful, cloaked by a cream sauce that was bland to the extreme.

The side dishes that came with our dinners included a mix of fresh vegetables (broccoli, carrots, zucchini) that was crisp-tender and delicious and a rice pilaf that, while not stellar, contained enough wild rice and seasoning to lift it well above most rice side dishes. But the mashed potatoes were oddly bland -- even for mashed potatoes.

And a warm double-chocolate-walnut cookie ($3.15, plus $2.50 for ice cream) was well-flavored, but quite hard-crusted instead of the gooey Mrs. Fields clone we expected.

The wine list, too: Varied, fairly priced, but odd in that it was arranged by price, and no vintages were listed. Our 2004 Cosentino Winery CigarZin Zinfandel was just what we were looking for and reasonable at $46, but it contained quite a bit of sediment -- which our waiter might've noticed if, well, he'd poured the wine.

Only the Clams Casino ($11.25) escaped the paradox; the tiny littlenecks were cooked and seasoned perfectly and were succulent and wonderful.

Like its sister Lady Luck that's currently being renovated across the street, Triple George has loads of potential. Whether that will be realized will depend, in both places, on how much both owners and management care.

Las Vegas Review-Journal reviews are done anonymously at Review-Journal expense. Contact Heidi Knapp Rinella at 383-0474 or e-mail her at hrinella@ reviewjournal.com.