Like the new girl in school who slips to the back of the classroom unnoticed, Canyon Ranch Grill tiptoed onto the Miami Beach dining scene in December amid the glitz of gazillion-dollar hotel, restaurant and club openings.

Although this pretty, smart and talented new kid hasnt yet joined the popular crowd, it should only be a matter of time. Make a date to introduce yourself.

Located on the site of the old Carillon Hotel, the monolithic block of white stone is warmed inside by tropical blooms, wood and water accents and the sincere welcome of crisply uniformed doormen and hostesses.

The dining room is done in pumpkin and brown tones with driftwood batons and polished stone disks suspended from the ceiling like an Oriental screen. The exhibition kitchen is oddly framed in faux brick that seems more appropriate to a grade B ski lodge, but the overall effect is calming. Servers are friendly but not always knowledgeable about the menu.

For those who know Canyon Ranch from its ascetic outposts in Arizona and Massachusetts, this bears no resemblance. For one thing, there's alcohol, including organic spirits and craft beers. The 60 bottles on the exceptional wine list were chosen not only for pairing potential but for sustainable, organic and/or bio-dynamic production. Sadly, markups are high at three to four times retail.

When it comes to the food, flavors are clean, fresh, precise, sometimes surprising and utterly satisfying. The menu displays calorie, carb, protein and fat counts for each dish, and judging from the small but determined-looking posse of ladies in velour sweat suits, it is finding its weight-conscious target audience.

Chef Alex Asteinza, a New York native with Cuban roots, brings more than a decade of experience and an obvious passion to the kitchen. Even super-crisp breadsticks get dramatic treatment, reaching skyward like pointy vines.

Especially recommended dishes include a tasty roulade starter. Packets of scorched poblano peppers are rolled around a delicious combination of diced fresh shrimp and savory goat cheese. Toasty pumpkin seeds add earthy texture.

All the tiraditos and marinated fish dishes we sampled were superb, but it is the snappy shrimp in a Thai ceviche with pomelo juice, cilantro, crunchy jicama and a fiery hit of bird chile that I would come back for again and again.

Other seafood is equally well handled, including classic steamed mussels with a potent, saffron-flecked broth and charred octopus with smoked paprika and starchy fingerling potatoes.

A large fillet of local snapper is wrapped in salty duck prosciutto that does the job of well-cured bacon, lending salty, smoky bite to the tender fish, served over a comforting hash of corn and tomato. Black bass in a chai broth with a mélange of Indian spices is a riot in the mouth.

The braised Caesar, an intentionally wilted but still crunchy salad, is topped with a tangy anchovy dressing and a perfectly runny poached egg.

The most caloric dish on the menu, a crab pappardelle, was a bit mushy but sublimely tasty with loads of lemon zest and sweet red peppers in the creamy sauce.

Kids are thrilled with an outrageously delicious mini hamburger made with ground buffalo and served on soft, buttery buns. The disappointingly flabby fries, made of artichoke, might have been better if they had made it to the table hot.

The only other minor disappointment was cauliflower three ways with a kicky puttanesca sauce and "couscous" made from the scorched tips of the vegetable that was more intellectually stimulating than satisfying.

Desserts are a surprising strong point, including a richly satisfying warm chocolate cake with vanilla yogurt sauce, a bitter orange crème brulee with a brittle caramel crust and baked berries with a nub of lemon pound cake that provides just enough sweetness to make you feel as though you are really living it up. And sure enough, you are.