Aloe Restaurant (CLOSED)

With its bottle-lined lime-green walls, this underground dining room looks like a mash-up of European, Asian and Southwestern influences—an appropriate backdrop for a restaurant subtitled “a little of everything.” Some dishes, like hanger steak served with cheese-filled Tater-Tots, nicely riff on global standards, while others could benefit from a bolder hand: spaghetti with fava beans and artichokes is bland, and “sticky-sweet” fried calamari is not that different from any other fried cephalopods around town. It’s the more unusual combinations, like flaky seared skate cut by orange beets, or a waffle topped with crispy duck breast, cherries and maple syrup, where Aloe’s M.O. is most successful. And desserts like the mascarpone gelato-stuffed doughnut-beignet hybrid topped with chocolate sauce are pure, delicious excess.