About a year and a half ago I gave the now-defunct restaurant, Noon, a glowing review. Months later, on a subsequent visit, I noticed the quality of the dishes had suffered a steep decline and it made me wonder, what happened?

Keeping the original look and feel of the space, AKA Wine Bar has taken over where Noon fell off and features a completely new menu.

Co-owned by the talent behind Muse and Kensington Wine Bar, AKA offers a focused menu of starters, mains and desserts, along with an equally concise selection of wines.

The wines are categorized into “deep and dark” reds, “clearly delicious” whites and “tongue tickler” bubblies; I start with a glass of Rutherglen Estates’ “The Alliance,” a tangy Marsanne and Viognier blend from Victoria, Australia ($9). My boyfriend tries Indica, a hoppy pale ale from Eureka, California.

To start, we pick the tart flambé ($10) and the confit tomato and honeyed chèvre roulade ($11). Served on warm flatbread, the tart flambé is available in two varieties — caramelized onions, bacon lardon and crème fraîche or artichoke, sun dried tomato, Parmesan and prosciutto.

Both are tempting, but the lure of the bacon and caramelized onions is too hard to pass up. The balance of sweet and salty is great and the dish is thoughtfully topped with fresh scallions and drizzled with crème fraîche.

The presentation of the tomato roulade is fantastic and it tastes even better. Stuffed with honeyed goat cheese, the zesty dish is further complemented by fresh mint leaves and crostinis. Vibrant and bold, the combination’s flavour is stellar.

For his main, my boyfriend tries the mixed grill ($22), a protein explosion stacked into a veritable tower of Alberta lamb, farmer’s sausage and skirt steak, topped with a perfectly cooked fried egg. This dish reminds me of dining in Spain, where eggs play a primary role in many regional dishes.

We love it. The sausage is smoky and surprisingly light, the lamb is tender and the steak is cooked to perfection — medium rare and juicy. Served with homestyle potatoes, this little heart attack is worth the meat sweats.

I select the confit chicken leg ($17), an interesting dish consisted of crisp roasted chicken legs and corn jus served with diced sweet potatoes. The corn jus is nice, with a subtle flavour reminiscent of polenta. I’m not blown away, but the chicken is both juicy and crisp. Overall, the dish is a great value.

To go with our meals, we try a side of the steamed greens ($4). Truth be told, our dishes are substantial enough, but we’re excited to try the night’s gai lan. Steamed to perfection, this unique feature of Chinese broccoli is lightly buttered and big on flavour.

Ending our night, we have the chocolate beignets ($7) with espresso anglaise and berry salad. Sadly, it was our least favourite of the night. Beignet is the French term for fried dough and it’s usually topped with icing sugar or jam for sweetness.

This dessert lacked the sweetness we were looking for; the beignets were dull and the espresso anglaise and berries, shockingly, weren’t enough to save them. You can’t win em’ all — next time we’ll try the raspberry and pear shortcake ($8).

With a great range of reasonably priced dishes and wines, AKA Wine Bar offers fresh, local cuisine without breaking the bank.