If Amelie were to visit San Francisco, she’d likely choose Firefly for a romantic dinner. This is haute comfort food served with a dash of adorable quirkiness set on the residential end of 24th Street in Noe Valley (or rather, its steep slope). Finding an open spot here, even on a week night, is not easy. When our party of 8 had finally arrived, we were urged toward our dinner selections by the prompt, firm service. The menu was put to the challenge of our hard-to-please demographics: two of us lenient kosher, one staunch vegetarian, one pregnant and the rest hearty carnivores and foodies. We were relieved that there was no need for a recitation of specials—the menu here is always up-to-date and ever-changing.

In the snug dining room, we fretted over the relative toxicity of sea bass, calamari and yellow-tail in order to advise our expecting friend, while sampling some spicy Russian River reds. The wine list favored nearby Sonoma vineyards; we noted with interest several offerings from Dry Creek, along with a tasteful selection of European vintages.

With the first course we remained skeptical of Firefly’s charms—while the tempura fried blue lake beans with sichimi peppers and shiso-miso aioli were perfectly-textured salty treats, the baby lola rosa salad with pickled chioggia beets seemed sparse and strangely flavored with mint and pistachios. The chilled carrot soup proved delightful with a dollop of cumin yogurt, and after our puzzlement at the slightly off-putting color of the accompanying black bean dip, we tore into the fresh, perfectly crusty bread with abandon.

The carefully plated, amply-sized entrees were served quickly and gracefully—each one a praise-worthy composition.  Though we sampled every dish, the most raved about  proved to be Firefly’s famous chicken breast, served with crispy roasted potatoes, baby carrots, grilled salad and lemon-thyme jus, and achieving that rare combo of crispy and moist. Unfortunately, our earlier fish deliberation proved fatuous, as the yellowtail was too salty and over-cooked for the mom-to-be, and with its square cut carrots, appeared to her like so much pot pie!

The black tea braised pork shoulder was also too generously salted, though cooked expertly and nicely set off with prunes and orange zest. For the veggie, risotto cakes stuffed with buffalo mozzarella in a tangy tomato sauce were tasty but unexceptional. After some fumbling with the final bill tally (diners are advised to bring cash and keep track of your order-- no separate checks here), we took off for a post-gustatory neighborhood stroll. Overall, Firefly proved pleasant and hearty, but not as flashy as we had hoped.

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