Made brand-new in 2005, Amaryllis is an elegant new addition to the downtown Delaware Avenue area, with a sunken dining room and beautiful, exposed brick walls. A creative and delicious menu rivals that of the storied Rue Franklin, in whose kitchen the co-owners and chefs met.

The best new restaurant in town is not the current darling of the country-club set, where the parking lot is packed nightly with SUVs and Lexuses and denizens of the northern ‘burbs are flocking to be seen as much as to enjoy a good meal.

I am awarding that designation to a small Buffalo restaurant that quietly opened its doors just a month ago and where we met our good friend, Jane, for a belated birthday celebration one evening last week.

The name of the new dining spot is Amaryllis, and while its address is 675 Delaware Ave., you will find the entrance to this restaurant located in the lower level of the Westbrook Apartments on North Street between Delaware and Franklin Street. If you’ve been in Buffalo for a while, you will recognize it as the site of the former St. George’s Table, David’s Table and, more recently, Peninsula.

It’s a comfortable space featuring a large circular bar and tables on two levels. Glass blocks are used effectively to divide spaces in an unobtrusive way. Handsome, but the focus of Amaryllis clearly is on the cuisine, not the trimmings.

The co-owners and chefs are Matthew Harrington and Jennifer Stainrook, the former a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America and the latter trained at the California Culinary Academy in San Francisco. They both have worked at Brodo and met when they were in the kitchen at the Rue Franklin.

That last fact is very telling. Asked to compare the meals we experience at Amaryllis, I would immediately draw a comparison with the superb fare at the Rue. The food at Amaryllis is consistently excellent, each dish we sampled was top-notch and obviously made with loving care. I wish Harrington and Stainrook many years of success and encourage those who value the finest in food to make reservations.

We began our meal by sharing two appetizers: seared scallops with “glass” potatoes and foie gras sauce ($9) and smoked pulled pork served on a roasted corn blini ($8). The half dozen small scallops were sweet and succulent, the potatoes had been sliced very thin and then baked. Hold them up and light passes through them, just like glass. The Carolina-style pork had been smoked and then braised with beer. The flavors were subtle, the roasted corn in the blini, a small buckwheat pancake, provided a nice complement to the pork.

Other appetizers on Amaryllis’ fall menu include tuna sashimi with passion fruit/scallion dressing ($9); seared Hudson Valley fois gras served with grapefruit marmalade and Rub Red grapefruit infused honey ($8); goat cheese and potato timbale with tomato compote, an appealing vegetarian option ($8) and split pea soup with ham and crostini ($6).

We also ordered two of the three salads available—a very tasty Caesar salad with anchovies ($7) and a spectacular salad of organic greens and dried cherries dressed with a white balsamic vinaigrette and topped with warm, shredded duck confit, a combination of duck meat and fat that had the consistency of crisp bacon ($8). I savored every bite of the salad.

It was very difficult to choose among the entrees; they all were appealing.

I loved my vegetarian selection—three sautéed golden polenta cakes topped with shaved Parmesan cheese and accompanied by a tomato sauce and an unusual, and very good, salad of fresh Italian parsley with a hint of mint and marjoram with a citrus dressing ($17). Served without the cheese, this dish would appeal to vegans.

The guest selected roasted domestic rack of lamb—which actually was two nice-sized chops—coated with a peppercorn mélange and served on a bed of flageolets (small green beans that had been cooked until just tender in an herb broth and are a classic French accompaniment to lamb) and roasted oyster mushrooms ($24). The lamb arrived cooked medium rare as ordered; the guest reported it was very good.

Jane choose very wisely with her pork loin chop that had been seared and then roasted and was served accompanied by a sweet potato gratin, sautéed napa cabbage and a cider sauce ($22). Special note must me made of the delectable gratin, consisting of layers of thin slices of sweet potato that had been cooked with a custard made from egg and heavy cream.

Other entrée selections include crispy striped sea bass served with coconut lime curry broth, jasmine rice and eggplant chutney ($19), roasted monkfish with caramelized shallot/potato puree, carrots and a red wine sauce ($20) and grilled shell steak with potato puree and maitre’d butter ($22).

There also is a small “bar menu” consisting of a sandwich made of the same pulled pork we enjoyed in an appetizer at $7, a grilled organic burger (the beef and many of the organic ingredients come from Blossom Hill Farm in Dayton) at $8 and the menu’s only fried item: hand-cut French fries accompanied by homemade mayonnaise and homemade ketchup ($4).

Our dessert selections, all at $6, also were outstanding. I enjoyed a Napoleon consisting of pound cake, fresh raspberries and lemon curd. The guest—known in some circle as the King of Crème Brûlée—gave an “excellent” rating to Amaryllis’ version. The caramelized sugar topping cracked nicely when he tapped it with a spoon. The custard was silken. And Jane loved her sautéed apple slices served in a phyllo cup with apple brandy crème anglaise. Also available are baked Alaska and a chocolate torte.

Amaryllis is open for dinner from 5-11 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday and from 5 pm to 2 am (with food service stopping at 1 am) on Friday and Saturday. There is seating for 70. While there were only a few other guests the evening of our visit, you will want to make reservations to assure seating as word spreads about Amaryllis.

The entrance to the restaurant on North Street includes several stairs. Entry for those challenged by chairs is available via the elevator from the lobby of the Westbrook Apartments. Parking is available on the street and in the Westbrook parking lot.