Best Nouvelle Cuisine

In the silent black-and-white classic Metropolis, the future was a joyless hell where workers toiled on subterranean machines. Pastiche offers a different vision of the future: fine gourmet dining with an inventive menu and casual décor. The restaurant is in an unpretentious space left intentionally sparse, down to the bare concrete floors, a cross between modern and minimal. The wait staff is all blue jeans and smiles. Start with hummus and pita, gazpacho soup, El Diablo fries or smoked salmon. Choose from such entrées as thyme-crusted sea bass with smoked tomatoes and capers; voodoo Cajun pasta with shrimp, chicken and andouille sausage; marmalade-glazed pork loin or "curzan" pirate chicken (chicken breast with shallots, bananas and rum). Then finish with one of their delectable desserts. The future looks bright, and now it's in Technicolor.

Runners up:

2. Cuvée World Bistro, 3352 E. Speedway Blvd., 881-7577

3. TIE

• Barrio Grill, 135 S. Sixth Ave., 629-0191
• Bistro Zin, 1865 E. River Road, No. 101, 299-7799
• The Dish Bistro and Wine Bar, 3200 E. Speedway Blvd., 326-1714