In late July, Enotria Restaurant and Wine Bar closed its doors for five months and spent plenty of money to renovate its digs.

Yet its apparent strengths and weaknesses since reopening in February have little to do with square footage and décor.

For a fine-dining restaurant that is also a wine bar, Enotria is doing OK – but not as well as we expected.

It could be more fun, more interesting, more engaging, better organized and, for wine novices and enthusiasts alike, more educational. Its food could be better and more daring. Its overall identity and sense of purpose could be made clearer to the first-time visitor.

For instance, over the course of three visits to Enotria, no one beyond the wait staff stopped at our table to discuss wine. When we asked one server for a recommendation, the answer was less than profound.

There was no one to warn us that if we nibbled on the pickled red onions next to our pulled pork sliders, the reaction on our palates would make a flight of red wines taste like nail polish remover (an interesting but pricey lesson we discovered the hard way).

Sure, by our final visit we managed to have more fun than waiting for the cable guy to arrive. But we never really came to grips with what Enotria was supposed to be about – a celebration of food and wine.

That last stop at Enotria benefited from our lowered expectations, when we focused our sights on the wine bar instead of the restaurant, and opted to snack rather than dine.

We ordered several small plates instead of two big ones, and embraced the informality of sipping and nibbling and mingling. In this way, we saw glimpses of what worked and reminders of what had not.

The crab mac & cheese with butternut squash and pancetta was above average, with rich silkiness and an array of flavors loaded into a single dish. Those pulled pork sliders were delicious, too, as were the fish tacos, which might hold their own with the reigning champ in that division – Chando's Tacos (just up the street).

But – and it's a pretty big "but" for a wine bar – how would we know how these dishes would taste and what wines would go with which plates? There was no help on the menu, though there easily could have been.

What's more, those small plates may have too much going on – too many components, too many different flavors, not enough unity – for practical wine pairings.

A place like this needs substance behind the concept, and there is plenty of promise at Enotria – a talented if tentative 28-year-old chef and an earnest (and new) 26-year-old sommelier. But Enotria needs a better game plan for them to showcase their talents.

It starts with the basics: food, wine and service.

Enotria has a superior wine inventory, with an impressive sweep in variety and price point. The vintage wines are notable, as is the number of wines by the glass and, even better, by the taste (an inexpensive splash).

Enotria – from the Greek, meaning land of trained vines – also positions itself as one of the city's better restaurants, but it simply falls short based on the food we tried.

The New York steak (nestled next to a tasty parsnip purée) was most noticeable for its overbearing gristle, and at $29, it would have been worth the money only if it could have been fashioned into a section of Lady Gaga's evening gown. The risotto was overpopulated with mushrooms and was so under-seasoned it was baffling. The lamb, too, had but a hint of rosemary from the marinade, no sauce to speak of and, given the excellent lamb we have had at, say, Boulevard Bistro and Bistro La Petite France, this was a sad way to spend $27.

We were more impressed with dessert, especially a creative take on crème brûlée – the version at Enotria came in crunchy, phyllo-type layers and was superb.

Beyond lackluster entrees, we were perplexed by the unnecessary unease surrounding the wine service.

What do I mean by this? In my adult life, the only recurring nightmare I have (that does not include Rachael Ray talking with her mouth full) has me back in high school, taking a test for which I did not study.

This unpleasantness came rushing back to me at Enotria all three times. We would look at the menu and notice the 10 wine flights – small pours from different bottles, showcasing various styles.

This looked like fun: note the variations, inspire our palates and, perhaps, find a couple of new labels we would get to know better.

We ordered three flights – nine glasses – in three visits. Our server would collect the menus, bring the glasses, rattle off the names – Chateau le Cedre, Tardieu-Laurent, Feraud-Brunel – and, vamoose – he or she was gone faster than you could say "tobacco and black fruit on the nose."

We had just heard a blur of funny-sounding words pronounced by a Californian, all in the span of four seconds. Wouldn't it have been wise to leave behind, say, a laminated sheet listing the wines, their order on the table, a little history and some tasting notes for us to compare with our observations? If wine snobs want to go without guidance, at least make this an option.

Whenever I notice such oversights, I wonder if management has actually sat in the chair of the customer. If it would, things would change dramatically.

When you visit a restaurant, you're coming in from a busy day and maybe you're chatting. In our case, we had been talking about everything from the dark developments in the Middle East and the developments with Tyreke's aching insoles to whether we would miss a certain redheaded broadcaster if the Kings abandoned Sacramento.

To tell you the truth, we couldn't even remember which flights we ordered and, mere moments after our server walked away, we couldn't get the order of the wines straight.

Fun? Like plantar fasciitis. If our server had come back with a No. 2 pencil, my nightmare would have been complete.

It got worse – and no, Rachael Ray did not amble in eating fish tacos. When we had finished nibbling on our appetizers, including a gooey and bland ricotta gnocchi, it came time for our entrees.

I was having the lamb and, this being a wine- focused place, wouldn't it be fun to yield to the expertise of Enotria's highly trained staff? Surely, when they are not open for business, they all stand around tasting wine, taking notes and working on cutting off the last syllable of French words.

So I asked our server. He muttered something that sounded like "Châteauneuf-du-Pape," but without an explanation. I asked which wine and winery he was talking about.

He said he would only bungle the pronunciation and pointed to it on the page. We started with uneasy, then awkward and finished with confused. For this, it was going to cost us upwards of $100. Yes, it was just like attending a post-Rick Adelman Kings game.

For much of the past year, Enotria has focused its energies on its renovation project. Now is the time to addresss the fundamentals that lead to success.

ENOTRIA

1431 Del Paso Blvd., Sacramento

(916) 922-6792

www.enotria.com

Hours: 11:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. Tuesdays and Wednesdays, 11:30 a.m. to 11 p.m. Thursdays and Fridays, 5-11 p.m. Saturdays, 4:30-9 p.m. Sundays.

Full bar? Yes.

Vegetarian friendly? Yes.

Takeout? Yes.

Overall: 2 1/2 stars (pretty good)

Mixed results from the kitchen, along with occasional confusion involving the concept of how wine and food work in harmony, translates into a disappointing performance. As a result, our high expectations were not met, leaving plenty of room for improvement.

Food: 2 1/2 stars (pretty good)

Tentative entrees that were sometimes underseasoned and unimaginative. Small plates and appetizers may be the way to have a better experience here. However, sometimes the smaller plates seemed too busy, with all kinds of flavor components that made the food tough to match with wine.

Service: 2 1/2 stars (pretty good)

One of our servers for dinner was first-rate and had a professional command of our table – knowledge of food, impeccable manners, a professional presence. Our server in the wine bar was engaging. But one server in the dining room didn't seem ready to take the floor and didn't know enough or connect with us enough to heighten our experience.

Ambience: 2 1/2 stars (pretty good)

The extensive renovation means a bigger and better building, but the place could use a little more soul and be a little more fun.

Value: 2 stars (fair)

If you go with the small plates, they can add up fast if you hope to make a meal out of them. And the entrees didn't impress enough to warrant the relatively steep prices. The wines, however, are reasonably priced and the list has a wide range. It's also impressive that you can order a taste, a flight, a glass or a bottle. That puts you in control of what you spend and how you imbibe.

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Call The Bee's Blair Anthony Robertson, (916) 321-1099.

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