By Gloria Glyer

Big eaters and light lunchers both will find something to like.

"Are you ready to order?" asked the amiable server at 4th Street Grille. Were we ever.

We started with the shrimp quesadilla, calamari, garlic fries, grilled steak salad and grilled tuna salad. Then we moved on to sandwiches-pastrami Reuben and grilled vegetable sandwich-and the main events: the sea bass daily special; meatloaf; penne with smoked duck; linguine and clams; and pork loin chop.

Desserts? Are you kidding? Bring one of everything: white-chocolate cheesecake with raspberry coulis; vanilla-bean crème brûlée; tiramisu with housemade chocolate sauce; apple crisp with vanilla-bean ice cream; and chocolate brownie.

Isn't that a lot of food for just nine people? Nope. It's just your average order for a Dining Divas lunch party. We pass the plates around the table and sample everything. As we offer gentle critiques of the food, we eyeball the surroundings, too.

If the day of our visit to 4th Street Grille in downtown Sacramento was typical, the restaurant bustles at lunchtime. There's a long, inviting bar, booth and table seating, and a semiprivate room in the back. Black-and-white photos of old-time Sacramento hang on the walls.

Executive chef Jeramie Smith and sous chef Arturo Medino make everything from the appetizers to desserts. Ron Fleming is the primary owner of the restaurant, which opened more than 12 years ago.

Melanie Twombley was our server. She did not have to refer to a crib sheet to relay the daily specials, and she took time to describe each dish. The service staff filled water glasses promptly and replaced used tableware before each course-all in all, they were professional and attentive.

Of the appetizers, my personal favorites were the shrimp quesadilla with roasted pasilla peppers and ancho chile sauce, and the garlic fries, mildly seasoned with red chile flakes and scallions. The grilled vegetable sandwich and the pastrami Reuben also were worthy of a return visit. The veggie sandwich was stacked high with portobello mushroom, eggplant, roasted red bell peppers, red onions, zucchini and Jack cheese. The stacked ingredients melded perfectly, without one overpowering another. It was wonderfully messy, too.

Did you know that the Reuben probably was named for Reuben Kulakofsky, an American grocer in the late 1950s? The 4th Street Grille version features tender pastrami, Swiss cheese and Thousand Island dressing on dark rye bread-a beauty of a sandwich.

A mildly sweet wasabi vinaigrette accompanied the grilled tuna salad. It came with shaved fennel-an ingredient that restaurants don't use often enough. The tuna was moist and not overly grilled, but the fennel and the dressing put the salad over the top-until I tasted the out-of-season tomatoes. Still, the salad was a good choice and will be even better if you order it during tomato season.

The grilled steak salad, however, was a disappointment. A scanty smattering of hazelnuts, along with red onions, avocado, mushrooms and balsamic rosemary vinaigrette, could not make up for the tough, overcooked slices of beef, which were impossible to cut.

The white beans under the sea bass were pleasant, although they did nothing to enhance the dish's eye appeal. The flavors were all right.

For those on a one-big-meal-a-day regimen, the pork loin chop would be perfect. The chop was extra thick, tender and easy to cut, served with a delicious Jim Beam brown-sugar sauce, sautéed apple slices and a generous helping of mashed red potatoes.

The fried onions made the meatloaf, but the gravy was ladled on too heavily. Fennel appeared again in the linguine and clams, but chorizo made the dish slightly greasy. The penne with smoked duck needs tweaking-the flavors did not mesh well.

Of the desserts, I liked everything except the brownie, which was puddinglike in the center, heavily crusted on the outside and impossible to cut into with a fork. The tiramisu was outstanding, and the white-chocolate cheesecake sat upon a contrasting pool of raspberry coulis that was delicately tart without overwhelming the cheesecake. The apple crisp (a generous serving) was sweet but not cloyingly so. Each dessert was large enough to share.

The Divas Speak

Said Paulette Bruce-Miller: "I really enjoy the look of the restaurant, especially the beautiful bar. A good location for a single person, but the music is too loud." She liked the apple crisp but felt the meatloaf had been overhandled, and she didn't care for the duck pasta.

Gayla Mace praised the business-friendly setting and the service staff's professionalism. "The calamari was nice, the tuna perfectly cooked with a sweet and spicy salad dressing, and the sea bass over beans good," she said. But there was too much gravy on the meatloaf, she opined, and the brownie was very hard. And she knows a good brownie: The one at Mace's restaurant has her name on it. Mace's makes a great meatloaf, too.

Peg Tomlinson-Poswall was hankering that day for a Reuben, and she was not disappointed. She also liked the moist, flavorful pork chop and the tasty desserts. She gave one dish a mixed review: the tuna salad. "I loved the ahi but hated the tomato garnish," she said. "I got it that it was a takeoff on a tuna-stuffed tomato, but not before tomato season."

Cuisine: California
Setting: Big-city cafe with sophisticated overtones
Service: Professional and knowledgeable
Prices: $$

For the rest of this story pick up a copy of Sacramento magazine's June issue.