I love fried chicken, and I love waffles, but I’ve never grasped the appeal of chicken and waffles, a dish found at lots of soul food places. Sure, it sounds fun, and it looks great on the plate, but fried chicken already has a breaded or battered coating, plus there’s a good chance you’ll be getting a standard soul food side dish like mashed potatoes or macaroni and cheese, so why add even more starch? And who wants maple syrup on fried chicken?

Sure enough, when I tried the chicken and waffles ($13) at Melba’s, a small, handsome spot that recently opened in Harlem, it confirmed my belief that these are two great tastes that do not taste great together. It didn’t help that the chicken was HoJo’s-quality, or that the waffle was soggy (a frequent problem for this dish, due to the steam coming off the chicken).

Fortunately, Melba’s has other things going for it, starting with a standout entree that’s worth the trip uptown: wine-braised short ribs ($16).This dish is stewed to death at many restaurants, so that the meat becomes nothing more than a vehicle for the braising sauce.

Melba’s version is cooked to the point of tenderness but not mush, which results in the beefiest short ribs I’ve ever encountered.You can taste the red wine, yes, but you can also taste the red meat.It’s like a great stew combined with a great steak or burger, and it’s ideal for warding off that autumn chill.

Other entrees, including grilled salmon ($17), stuffed whiting ($15), and turkey meatloaf ($12) are middling – not bad, but nothing special.All come with two side dishes – one that’s preordained and one that you get to choose. I found that substitutions are no problem if you ask nicely.

So skip the cheddar grits cake that comes with the short ribs (sounds good, tastes just okay) and ask to replace it with the killer mac and cheese, which is full of browned edges and three cheeses. (It is also available in a full-size portion for $11). Also get the collard greens. Like many of the city’s more progressive soul food joints, Melba’s stews them with smoked turkey instead of a hambone or bacon, and the results are agreeably smoky and pungent.

In fact, you can have a very good meal at Melba’s by getting side orders of the collards and macaroni ($3 each when not paired with a main course) and one of the appetizers, the best of which is a pair of teeny-tiny hamburgers served on biscuit buns. Unlike the flat, White Castle-like sliders that are replicated around town, these little beef-bombs are plump spheroids, no wider than the biscuits they sit upon or the pickle chips that sit atop them. They’re a smidge overpriced (for $7, you should really be served three of them, not two), but they’re fun, playful, and tasty. Sort of like chicken and waffles, only better.

Melba’s, 300 W. 114th St. at Frederick Douglass Boulevard, 212-864-7777.