One evening a potato-leek soup with an island of duck confit and pearl onions was a marvel.

Endive salad ($4.75) and potato-leek soup ($3) were competent but ordinary.

Recommended dishes: All desserts, potato-leek soup, seafood salad, duck confit, duck breast, roast cod.

The recipe for potato-leek soup with fish in the 60-Minute Gourmet column last Wednesday omitted a step.

Also crying out for flavor was a potato-leek soup, which had a slight taste of fennel but no other.

The potato-leek soup, on both visits, was a smooth, fine antidote to the penetrating cold outside.

A potato-leek soup was anemic, the thinly sliced dull brisket was outclassed by its homemade apple sauce and the pork chops were a tad tough.

Locken's potato-leek soup was astonishingly piquant and he whipped together a lighter-than-air cheese souffle with as little effort as it would cost Bashir to make toast.

The appetizer to avoid was an evening special of potato-leek soup with no flavor and an off-putting avocado green hue.

A potato-leek soup of the day was not the expected creamy puree but a spunky vegetable broth full of sauteed leeks and chunks of potato.