The single panel of glass that separates the sleek, oak-paneled dining room and a gleaming open kitchen, where cooks prep and tweeze quietly, may suggest exhibitionist tendencies from the chef, Steve Lancaster.

But his restaurant, Poise, much like other Michelin restaurants helmed by fellow British chefs — Kirk Westaway (Jaan), Paul Longworth (Rhubarb), and Lewis Barker (Sommer, now closed) — serves food with familiar flavors with tolerable bouts of theater. The hospitality genuinely means well. Nothing is showy.

A recent meal began with a trio of photogenic snacks reminiscent of the ones I had from a year prior: chicken parfait tart encircled with edible flowers; cured cherry trout over a net of sable biscuit; a sunflower-shaped cheddar tart that feels like a nod to Thomas Keller. There are dishes that could emerge from other kitchens, too — a crudo-like hamachi with herb oil; chorizo nested in potato espuma under a hail of black truffle — and would probably turn jaded diners away if not for how flawlessly balanced they are.

A quiet showstopper may be Lancaster’s play on a coq au vin, wherein chicken, singular bone intact, pointing up like a deity, isn’t unlike tsukune in texture. It’s moist but still tastes meaty. And amidst all the foam, there is bacon and onion that doesn’t joust for attention. It’s a chicken dish in the same way that the Lancaster’s sweetbreads was, last year, when it gave me chills: a full-bore expression of what a new coat of paint could bring to richly layered classics.

Note: Pictures include both menus from 2025 and 2024.