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Oro 45 Elm St., Toronto. 416-597-0155. Dinner for two with wine, tax and tip, $150.

When Tarek Aboushakka left North 44 last winter, it was hugely wrenching. Twenty years he worked for Mark McEwan, and rose to become general manager of North 44 and Bymark. Anybody who ever had dinner at either restaurant or enjoyed their fabulous catering couldn't help but applaud the impeccable and affable service rendered by Aboushakka. He did a great job, but he wanted his own shop.

A guy of Aboushakka's stature doesn't walk away from North 44 and Bymark and open a hole in the wall. When he bought Oro on Elm Street,

I kissed the ground. Oro is a beautiful room that has often had a good chef, but erratic service. When the older couple who owned it sold to Aboushakka, my only worry was the food. Not being a chef himself, he had to find someone who could cook to a very high standard. They don't exactly grow on trees.

Lucky for Aboushakka, last fall while he was in the process of buying Oro, Lure restaurant (on Dupont at Avenue Road) was limping its way to closing. Aboushakka hired Lure's chef/owner, Samir Girgis, because of his passion for cooking all manner of fabulous seafood and pasta.

He did a minimal reno, making the already pretty room even nicer by putting dozens of candles in the glass partition that previously held wine bottles and adding his own moody black-and-white photographs to brick niches in the pale wooden walls.

There are three lovely rooms: The front room has a fireplace and yellow bubbly glass windows looking into the middle room. The middle room has vaguely medieval stained glass windows that show very well against blond wood and brick, and behind that is a sweet private dining room.

But the big question was: Can Sam Girgis cook meat, since Lure was all about seafood? Consulting history gives the answer: Before buying Lure in 2005, Girgis was chef at ViBo, the Bloor Street West scion of the old Villa Borghese. ViBo served all manner of carnivorous Italiana, deliciously.

Which is precisely what Girgis is doing at Oro, and much more than he did at ViBo. Who but a modernist would make goat-cheese gelato and put a dollop of this astonishingly yummy confection (just sweet enough to make a point) atop a tart of caramelized onion, leek custard and fragile pastry, with its side

salad of blanched white asparagus with porcini? Or turn minestrone on its head by basing it on seafood and roast

tomato, instead of meat? Even his octopus is unusual in its sweet/hot Tunisian spice rub. And how clever to sauce lobster and cauliflower ravioli not with cream-based bisque but with intense lobster jus.

Although he is offering Lure's trademark grilled whole fish (perfectly cooked, filleted, served with fab couscous with pistachios, fennel shards, lots of parsley and chunks of lemon), Girgis's love affair with meat is made manifest all over the menu. His osso buco is fork-tender, his roast chicken breast about as plump and moist as it gets, and his take on the meat du jour, pork belly, is entertaining: Girgis updates surf 'n' turf by pairing sweet pork belly with huge scallops and shrimps and buttery Savoy cabbage. He shaves fresh artichokes into nicely textured risotto, with duck confit for a rich kick.

He riffs on lamb with a collection: lightly smoked ribs (surprisingly delicate), grilled sausage, pistachio-crusted chops and pulled osso buco. This is a chef with a creative mind. We know (and love) pulled pork, but he pulls lamb osso buco - not as sweet as pulled pork but just as tender and with more flavour.

Am I surprised that Aboushakka's chef is so wonderful? About as surprised as I am that the service at Oro is silken smooth, attentive and sweet - like Aboushakka himself. If 20 years with Mark McEwan taught him anything, it was how to manage staff like a champion.

Aboushakka isn't the guy fabricating the cloud of lemon sabayon in the fragile tart, or inflecting rich white chocolate semifreddo with pistachio, but he's the enabler - his place at the helm guarantees that it all happens - with dark chocolate fudge on the side and caramelized blueberry on top!

jkates@globeandmail.com