Rack and Grace Lamb must go through a lot of signs. A sliver of real estate adjoining Jewel Bako, the flagship of their bantam-sized restaurant empire, has housed at least three different restaurants in the last year and a half. First a Chinese restaurant was planned; then the space became a Japanese grill; then a Korean barbecue joint. Now, after extemporizing with sushi, it has become Degustation, a tapas joint.

In classic Lamb style, the experience is rigorously engineered, and the casual mood that typically attends tapas is a victim. Degustation isn’t a place to relax as you knock back simple snacks and gulp wine. The only seating is at a counter facing the wide-open kitchen, so food, not one’s companions, remains the center of attention. The neatly composed plates are tapas-size, but many of them feel more like entrees writ small, with little meats, sauces, and vegetable sides. Thus three thin slices of lamb loin ($12) arrive rare on a bed of delicious small mushrooms and sauced with what the menu calls “chlorophyll,” a brightgreen smear with a fresh, chimichurri-like parsley and garlic flavor.

Chef Wesley Genovart, whose front-and-center frying and grilling provides both sustenance and entertainment, cooks in a recognizably Spanish dialect, with avant-garde touches and some strokes of brilliance. In a briny mussel broth, under an intimate canopy of grapefruit foam, crisp-fried baby artichokes ($6) make an unexpectedly natural partner for a Kumamoto oyster. The two creatures might not have met without Mr. Genovart’s matchmaking; but here they complement each other beautifully. The same creativity stuffs the barrel of a small grilled squid ($7) with savory beef short rib, turning it into a delicious, sausage-like hybrid. Pork-flavored lentils on the side reinforce the dish’s earthy edge.

Menu items in scare quotes typically indicate that a chef isn’t above a little playfulness, and indeed Degustation’s “tortilla” ($6) provides a whimsical couple of bites. It inverts the usual omelet-like Spanish tortilla: Instead of layers of cooked egg with potatoes, pouches of soft, paper-thin potato slices enfold gooey quail yolks flavored with sweet shallot confit. A roast beef sandwich ($10) isn’t in quotes but elicits a smile nonetheless, with heaps of rosy, chewy beef on a tiny piece of bread, accompanied by aromatic foie-gras mayonnaise.

Rare-cooked Spanish mackerel ($12) is set on top of crunchy shredded apples and sauced with a russet puree of chorizo and fennel, another unlikely but triumphant pairing. It’s the less adventurous dishes that are less successful, like an oil-poached halibut filet ($16).The fish is moist, and the accompanying peppers perfectly fine, but the dish as a whole doesn’t add up to very much, and certainly doesn’t merit its position as the menu’s costliest item. A similar fate befalls a pair of seared scallops ($10) set off with a citrus-fruit salad, and a single whole grilled shrimp ($8): They’re tasty but not special, particularly not when compared to some of the other choices. Fortunately, when the average dish costs $10, ordering a dud by mistake isn’t a huge sacrifice. It takes about five of these plates to fill a standard belly. Conveniently, $50 buys a tasting menu of five courses chosen from the menu by the chef; but a little arithmetic shows that choosing your own five a la carte costs just about the same.

Other notable hits include the pork belly ($14), four crisply grilled slices of which slant atop an Asian-tinged bed of scallions and mushrooms drizzled with a sherry reduction; a grilled quail ($12) with super-succulent meat and a tart-sweet glaze, best eaten with the fingers; and a poached egg afloat in wonderfully deep-flavored chicken broth ($6).

The menu is sorted strictly by price, not by category, so desserts fall confusingly near the top. Fresh strawberries ($4) are toasted with a blowtorch and served with refreshing, strong ginger granita and a foam whose bright eucalyptus flavor, if you can get past its cough-drop and bath-product associations, complements the sweetness excellently. A “tarte tatin” (quotes mine) goes down a little easier: It’s just a lone browned sheet of phyllo laid on top of a cool caramel-poached apple, and enriched with a dab of mint-spiked yogurt foam ($5).

The list includes just a dozen wines, but they’re interesting, value-priced, and all sold by the glass or bottle. An unoaked merlot blend from the Carinena region (not to be confused with the carinena grape) has wonderful easy depth ($7/$35). A creamy, juicy rosato from Italian vintner Alois Lageder ($7/$35) drinks almost too smoothly, despite what the list praises as its “elegant bitter twist.”

The restaurant does many things right, but a little more comfort would go a long way. The small room’s atmosphere is close and stilted – each dish is passed deliberately overhead from the cooks in front of you, to the servers bustling behind you, who then put it down in front of you again – and the name is both unappetizing and grandiose. The terrific, fun cooking has staying power; it doesn’t need the solemnity.

Degustation, 239 E. 5th St., between Second Avenue and Bowery, 212-979-1012.