May 23 (Bloomberg) -- Landmarc is much loved for many reasons. Few of them make sense.

The fries. (They're frozen.)

The simple interior. (It's cold, dark and bizarrely accented with rebars, the steel rods that reinforce concrete.)

The fair prices. (Four bucks for a cup of tea.)

At the original, 100-seat Tribeca location, expect to wait an hour for a table on weekends. An even starker 300-seat Landmarc just opened on the third floor of the Time Warner Center, in the coveted space where Chicago chef Charlie Trotter once planned to make a name for himself in New York.

Uptown is less charming than downtown. No matter. Even though it's open 19 hours a day, 365 days a year, it fills up fast. (Reservations at both locations are accepted only for parties of six or more.) The new Landmarc, like the old, has an almost incomprehensible allure.

Brilliantly or fortuitously, chef Marc (as in Landmarc) Murphy has tapped into an underexploited niche: New Yorkers who desire to take pleasure in an unexamined, somewhat upscale meal. Yes, there are rebars. But there are capers, too.

Think too much and you'll find the place hard to like. The food is OK. The hostesses dress down, sometimes in jeans. The servers are in T-shirts. It's beyond minimalist; it's closing in on grim. The long, curving bar looks as though it belongs in an Edward Hopper canvas, had the artist painted in black and white.

You'll pour your own water (usually too warm) from a carafe. You can share appetizers, but no extra plates arrive.

Nice Light, View

It's better in the daytime. The light feels good. And there is a modest view, buildings on one side, a corner of Central Park on the other.

Then again, the croque-monsieur is a luncheon item, and the bechamel on ours had the texture of cold mashed potatoes. ``Sorry,'' said the waiter. He did not remove it from the check.

One friend, a steady shopper in the center, found the food too downscale: ``Eating here doesn't make me want to spend $500 at Bebe,'' she said.

The wine list is large and famously fair-priced. Plenty of choices, almost all decent, few great. There's an exaggerated claim that you can purchase bottles ``at a fraction of the prices you would normally see on a wine menu.'' Not true, although the prices are remarkable for Manhattan. I was thrilled with a 1996 Baron de Ley Gran Reserva Rioja for $44. It was faded and delicate, reminiscent in style of an old red Burgundy. I savored it in a clunker of a glass.

So many flaws.

The bread is thick country white that never seemed particularly fresh or fragrant. Toasted, it invariably arrived a little burned.

Salad Letdown

Salad greens are ordinary and the dressings nearly tasteless. A notable exception was the chorizo vinaigrette that saturated an assemblage of potato cubes, onions, tomatoes and watercress sitting under pan-seared monkfish that lacked a sear. Yes, sausage dressing. I shudder still.

I love marrow bones, but not these. Tried twice, they refused to be anything but A&P soup bones. The implement of extraction appears to be a sharpened popsicle stick. There's plenty of that extra-crispy toast. Plus sweet onion jam that obliterates everything.

The menu is very large. Here's what to eat: steak.

Well, you can first nibble successfully. The warm goat- cheese profiteroles, delicate, creamy and accented with garlic, are lovely, their only blemish being the price: three modest bites for $11. Even better are the smoked mozzarella-and-ricotta fritters, crunchy outside and creamy within, served with a tomato-sauce dip.

Steak Success

All the beef is extremely good, even though it is graded choice. The steak tartare, made with filet mignon, is chunky, beefy and mustardy. The skirt and the strip steaks, each less than $30, are fatty, juicy and bloody. And since they arrive sitting atop french fries, so are the fries.

With the steaks come perfunctory, plate-filling, minimally dressed greens, the signature embellishment of the Landmarc kitchen.

Let's say four of you want to order four different steaks. Fun, right? Not quite. All come with the same pile of fries. Your immediate reaction -- let's ask for different veggies -- brings immediate rejection.

No substitutions.

Tasty Cones

Of the six house-made mini-desserts, only the creme brulee is just right. (Grainy mousse, too sweet tiramisu -- I could go on.) The alternative is tiny sugar cones filled with ice cream or sorbet from the wonderful il Laboratorio del Gelato on the Lower East Side. Easy decision to make.

Despite so many failings, there remains a lure. Even now, knowing that the fries aren't fresh, the beef isn't prime, the salads are badly dressed and the plate will be a bloody mess, I feel the urge to return. For a steak.

There's a reason so many of us go to restaurants like Landmarc: They're predictable and non-threatening. They deliver dining without complications. Wash your meal down with plenty of well-priced wine and you might obliterate disturbing thoughts that you really shouldn't be enjoying yourself.

The Bloomberg Questions

Cost? Prices range from $7 for a small salad of mixed field greens to $34 for the rib-eye steak or filet mignon (with fries and greens).

Sound level? Industrial decor comes with factory-level decibels.

Date place? Perhaps, if you're going steady with Rosie the Riveter.

Inside tip? Resist attempts to be seated in one of the ``enclosed pods,'' unless you like the idea of dining in a replica of the Gemini space capsule. The ``open pods'' are fine.

Special feature? OK, sometimes the wines are a steal. Try the 1995 Krug Champagne for $240, a perfect match for steak tartare.

Lunch? Yes, and breakfast, too.

Will I be back? I hate to admit it. I will.

Landmarc is at 10 Columbus Circle in the Time Warner Center. Information: +1-212-823-6123; http://www.landmarc- restaurant.com.

(Alan Richman is a restaurant critic for Bloomberg News. The opinions expressed are his own.)

To contact the writer of this story: Alan Richman at thecritic@optonline.net.

Last Updated: May 23, 2007 00:11 EDT