The interior-design shop Homeless has done a great job of stirring mismatched items into this beautiful dark mess of a restaurant underneath their Noho store. Everything here, from the tables to silverware to water taps, is purchasable in their shop upstairs. Gimmicky, sure, but clever thinking given how good this place looks.

Because this is the home shop’s first foray into the food and beverage industry, the menu plays it safe. All the usual suspects are there: chef’s, Caesar, and crabmeat salads; starters of sea scallops, beef carpaccio, and seared foie gras.

We had a decent first course of grilled sea scallops with wasabi mayo ($105). Three to a plate, the scallop itself was nothing to write home about, but they were plump, meaty, if slightly dry, and matched the spicy mayo just fine. The grilled Portobello mushroom steak’s ($72) accompaniment of sautéed onions and bacon, meanwhile, helped transform it into a filling, hearty dish. According to the menu (and the staff) there was a sprinkling of parmesan on there too, but we’ll be darned if we could see or taste it.

Of our mains, the black cod with miso ($185) was spot on, sweet-salty with a nice fatty finish on the tongue from the fish. Again, no points for originality, but the portion and the flavours were satisfyingly big. I wish we could say the same of the roasted salmon fillet ($178), which sat on a bed of tomato and ginger salsa. The skin was pleasantly crispy, but the thick fillet was unevenly cut, so the “wings” were overcooked while the center was almost raw. The tomato-ginger salsa cut the fat of the salmon, but that still didn’t distract us from the uneven temperature and cooking, which would have been easily fixed with a meat-mallet or butterfly technique.

In the end, we left feeling less than impressed with the food and the service. If only they could have measured up to the design of this spectacularly warm and cozy cave, this could have become a real home from home.

Basement, 29 Gough St, Noho, 2854 0010. Mon-Fri 11.30am-3pm, 6.30pm-11pm; Sat 11.30am-4.30pm, 6.30pm-11pm; Sun closed. Meal for two: around $600.