O'ahu star chef Hiroshi Fukui left L'Uraku last year, but his haunting, melt-in-your-mouth misoyaki butterfish remains on the menu — it's a L'Uraku signature dish as much as it is a trademark of Fukui's skill. (And it's also on the menu of the deft chef's new Hiroshi Eurasion Tapas.)

Sure, restaurants are known for their signature dishes, but these days they also are often linked inextricably to their chefs. Would Emeril Lagasse's eponymous restaurants "BAM!" without the chef's ebullient personality?

But L'Uraku has dealt with Fukui's departure stoically and carried on with business as usual.

Outwardly it's hard to see much change. Besides the butterfish ($18 lunch; $19.25 dinner), the foie gras sushi ($7.75) is still there. So are seared sea scallops with bacon-takana (pickled mustard cabbage) ragout and kabayaki (soy-based sauce often made from eel stock) beurre blanc ($4.85). They appear on Hiroshi's menu, too, almost word for word, in an unspoken tug of war.

The dining room's lipstick-red banquette and multicolored umbrellas hand-painted by artist-chef Kiyoshi are still there. And after nine years, the cutesy design feels out of touch with the current trend of clean, contemporary lines. The inescapable jumble, reminding me of unflattering, graffiti-style children's art using every hue from a 64-crayon pack, plasters many surfaces — including menus and the garage elevator. The artwork distracts from the space's warm lighting, wood panels and expansive, zigzag windows. Despite rainy weather on a lunch visit, I eyed the few tables outside, enclosed by a manicured, wraparound hedge.

A few restaurants become classic institutions for resisting change. But in the practical restaurant world where diet trends and staff flip-flop overnight, not adapting often ends in unpalatable results. The work of sous chef Edison Ching and his partnership with chef-kitchen manager Kawika Cahill helped L'Uraku avoid the way of the dinosaur.

Under corporate chef Shuji Abe, of International Furusato Inc., the two men — both not yet 30 — keep the kitchen running to produce the Euro-Japanese cuisine the restaurant's patrons are so fond of. To the delight of Nihonjin and many of downtown's let's-do-lunch business crowd, the menu continues to display local and Japanese ingredients rendered into fusion dishes with classic French and Italian techniques.

The kitchen turns out reasonable reproductions of Fukui's recipes, but the culinary refinement and subtlety are gone. However, even without the precision, the food is still good. Ching and Cahill have tweaked the menu, adding touches that play nicely with the rest of L'Uraku's popular favorites.

At dinner, a raspberry reduction and truffled Nalo micro-greens gave a berries-in-the-forest glow to the soft, earthy flavors of a luxurious, teensy, over-the-top sushi construction of foie gras and pepper-seared 'ahi with grilled portobello ($7.75). A pan-seared duck breast glazed in orange juice, Hawaiian vanilla and soy sauce ($23.50) reflected Ching's appreciation of our local salty-sweet tastes.

Ching's current favorite dish is the miso-braised short ribs ($24.25). He explained, "Let it cook really slow for three to four hours. It's simple, but you let it take its time. Your final result is a piece of meat so soft you can break it with your fork. ... At the end, you get a totally different piece of meat compared to when you first started."

The process mirrors his own career: Straight out of high school, Ching started out as a dishwasher at Sekiya's, the old-school saimin and teri-burger spot. He worked his way through that kitchen before joining L'Uraku as a tempura cook. In 4 1/2 years, he learned all the stations under his mentor Fukui, eventually becoming sous chef. (Fukui himself started as a dishwasher at Furusato.)

I found Cahill's influence — he has worked at Donato's, Sarento's and Aaron's — in beef carpaccio ($8.50) and a vegetablesaffron risotto studded with asparagus and assorted fresh mushrooms ($23). Haphazardly squeezed blobs of miso aioli marred the pretty flower pattern of thinly sliced beef. The rice dish was served al dente, as I requested, but it was more lumpy than creamy.

An excellent, well-seasoned bouillabaisse ($29.95) displayed what the two chefs can achieve. The smooth stock, a perfect balance of the robust flavors of tomatoes and the sea, was laden with fresh, succulent seafood: a half lobster, fish slices, Manila clams, mussels and large shrimps.

Meals at L'Uraku aren't seamless. A disparity in starch accompaniments baffled me more than once. Only a few dinner menu selections list starches with entrees. My dining companions and I were confused when a side of risotto arrived with the bouillabaisse, rivaling my entree portion of it. Had we known, we wouldn't have double-ordered. At lunch, pork cheeks braised in veal stock, red wine, miso, herbs and vegetables ($24 Power Lunch includes salad and dessert) were deliciously tender but came with rice, not the whipped potato puree listed on the menu.

Sometimes plates arrived hot, even if the food on them wasn't. Occasionally, worn plates with gray scuff marks did little to show off nice presentations. And though service was always polite and friendly, empty dishes weren't removed promptly and often were left cluttering the table.

In spite of these wrinkles, I admire Ching and Cahill's inventive, localized fusion cuisine, revealing a daring spirit and sense of freedom with ingredients. Ching's short-rib dish just may become his calling card — and a new signature for L'Uraku.

Reach Helen Wu at hwu@honoluluadvertiser.com.