Chef Adrian Deacon has spent years crafting a bold menu at elegant Bin 595, an easy-to-miss fine-dining destination in Plantation's Renaissance Hotel. He's not afraid to add chocolate to goat cheese atop wild mushroom ravioli or serve a vodka-braised Maine lobster. In a meat and potatoes town, his spuds are a mascarpone cheese potato purée with black truffles.

Originally from Jamaica, Deacon melds Caribbean, Latin and American cuisine. The mix, while not always successful, can be memorable. But even a creative chef has to consider practicalities in this economy; there are too many empty tables on prime nights. Deacon says he's adjusting the menu for the second time this year, adding a few less expensive dishes from the comfort-food realm, tweaked with his special touch. Yes, there will be mac and cheese, but his version will be an elaborate casserole with Maine lobster and crab.

Whatever your budget, you can expect a classy experience. The dining room has a cozy wine bar, aqua and red circular banquettes, dark wood, colorful lights and large pillars that divide the 170-seat space.

The staff is excellent, well-trained, accommodating and gracious. When we ordered a glass of wine, our server showed us the bottle and poured as elegantly as if we'd selected the priciest vintage. (California picks dominate the 70-wine list, with 15 by the glass.) We were refreshed by a palate cleanser of passion fruit sorbet and treated to warm towels after our meal.

To start, soups are fantastic. A crab chowder special was delicious, packed with jumbo lump crab, corn, a hint of allspice and brandy. But it's hard to top Deacon's rich, soul-satisfying conch chowder with its aromatic spices, fiery scotch bonnet pepper, Bahamian conch, potatoes and even a tostone, the stock finished with a splash of sherry and cilantro syrup.

A griddle cake, with roasted corn, crab and lobster is a wonderful medley of tastes and textures, though it could have been warmer. We liked our starter of diver scallops so much that on our next visit we ordered an entree that paired scallops and prawns rubbed in island spices, grilled on sugar cane skewers and served with a pineapple guava sauce and risotto with sweet peas, crab and sun-dried tomatoes. Sweet.

We were disappointed in the wild king salmon; it was a little well-done for our taste and lacked pizazz despite its champagne beurre blanc sauce, Ikura caviar and citrus cre`me frache. The best part of the dish were the perfectly cooked asparagus and carrots and intriguing truffle potatoes.

Wild mushroom ravioli are nice and plump, simmered with asparagus, baby spinach, sun-dried tomatoes, baby leeks and roasted fava beans. They're bathed in a champagne-white truffle cream sauce with a dollop of goat cheese and a little chocolate -- interesting but too busy.

The juicy, nicely grilled New York strip is a crowd-pleasing choice, as is the pan-seared yellowtail snapper. Dusted with spices, the moist and flaky butterflied fish is paired with coconut curry basmati rice with a pineapple ginger beurre blanc sauce.

There are creative dessert choices like the fun, filling dulce de leche-banana spring rolls with coconut gelato in an almond tuille basket, plus standards like tiramisu, cheesecake and warm Bailey's chocolate cake with a molten center.

Some may prefer a glass of fine cognac (priciest is a Louis XIII de Rémy Martin at $175 a glass), an after-dinner drink or liqueur-spiked coffee. One advantage of dining at a hotel: You can stay for breakfast.