A well thought-out spot

A trio of tapas from the Savant Project (clockwise from right): chicken eggplant quesadillas, skirt steak egg rolls, and cheese polenta logs with parmesan aioli. (ZARA TZANEV FOR THE BOSTON GLOBE)

On Sundays, the owners of the Savant Project pull down a giant video screen on the wall: time for a few rounds of Space Invaders, plus a match or two of Scrabble and maybe a cutthroat rock-paper-scissors contest. It's game day at the nerdy-cool Mission Hill restaurant and bar, but even when it's not, a playful spirit prevails. The menu is largely a collection of steak egg rolls, polenta logs, and other finger foods, and cocktails have names such as the Yoko No No, Mangria, and the Three Nymphs (a menage of beer-based concoctions: the Blonde, the Brunette, and the Redhead). You can practically hear whoever wrote the drinks list giggling as you read it.

That's not to say the Savant Project takes itself lightly. It's run by a group of 20- and 30-somethings with serious backgrounds in hospitality and cheffery, co-owners Luis Sanchez and Benny Kraines, plus chef Isaac Kaufman and consulting mixologist Clif Travers (he of the cocktail list). They've chosen an apt logo: an image of Rodin's "The Thinker" holding a martini glass. ("The Drinker"?) Even if he's downing a Pumpkinhead - pumpkin vodka, Goldschlager, and Frangelico - the wheels are turning. It seems the Savant Project is merely the first planned installment of Sanchez and Kraines's group LuckySavage Lounges, which "is building a lounge empire," according to its website.

If the Savant Project is any indication, they will be benevolent rulers, plying their subjects with attentive service, good music, and a warm atmosphere: copper-colored pressed tin tiles above white wainscoting, hardwood floors and dark wood chairs, a small, be-muraled lounge area.

And plenty of polenta logs. It's bad for the polenta trees, but it's good for us. The consummate bar snacks are polenta fries, really - cornmeal wedges with crunchy outsides that resist the teeth then yield to soft insides, the texture of polenta pleasantly rough on the tongue. Treated with the faintest amount of truffle oil, they're served standing in a glass beside a tub of aioli. It's extraneous; the logs are best on their own, without distraction.

A peanut mustard sauce, however, makes a serving of already good tempura vegetables even better. The vegetables are dipped in the lightest batter, then fried into greaseless spears. Their delicacy is complemented by the deep flavor of peanut, perked up by the mustard.

The menu leaps from pub grub to Asian to Tex-Mex: Chicken eggplant quesadillas are served on adorably doll-size tortillas, and though the earthy eggplant sounds out of place, it works unexpectedly well with fresh salsa and avocado cream.

Stranger, leaping back to Asian, is the tom yum soup. It's a study in umami, the savory fifth taste that occurs in ingredients like mushrooms, featured here along with chicken. It's appealing but tastes little like the tom yum you get at a Thai restaurant.

These appetizers hail from the "tapas" portion of the menu, which is where the Savant Project's culinary strength lies. There are also seven entrees, two of them burgers, and none as good as what came before. The beef burger would be excellent if it a) was served on a different bun (it's currently sandwiched on something that looks like an Au Bon Pain reject; it's inlaid with weird orange confetti that might be shreds of cheese) and b) spent less time on the grill. It has the welcome taste of an actual backyard burger at a summer cookout, but the meat is too charred. It's sad, when it's still somehow magically medium rare inside, that the burned taste dominates. Though the burger is described as "cheddar-stuffed," the cheese is more dispersed throughout than concentrated in a blob in the center. (A beef slider appetizer is perfect, however - you could just order a bunch of those.) And a veggie burger, though studded with discernible vegetables, is too mushy inside. Both, however, are accompanied by shoestring fries that are very good while they're hot.

Steak frites comes with yucca fries, an innovation that sounds more enticing than it is. They're still hard; the yucca needs to cook longer than a potato would. (Yucca chips might be easier, but "steak chips" doesn't have the same ring.) The steak itself comes presliced and reassembled in a strange pile. The meat is full of flavor and cooked appropriately on the rare side, but it's impossibly chewy.

Panko salmon is better, with well-crisped skin but no discernible panko. It comes with sinus-clearing wasabi mashed potatoes and asparagus. Tuna steak is nicely rare in the middle, but the heirloom tomatoes it's supposed to come with look suspiciously like plum tomatoes. And something billed as "vegetarian paella, bamboo rice" bears little resemblance to paella and contains no bamboo.

But never mind. Gorge on the little plates, drink some of the well-devised cocktails (the Savant Project doesn't have a full liquor license, but they dance around it so nimbly you won't miss the hard stuff - try the Tijuana Tea Bag), and go right to dessert. There are three. A cup of berries that have been soaking in sake are served with a dollop of lime whipped cream; it's refreshing, but our batch of berries is beginning to taste a bit fermented. Churros come with a piquant chocolate-chili sauce; on one visit they're underdone, on another they're too crisp. And a duo of creme brulee - ginger and espresso - is excellent.

Even though some dishes could use a bit of tinkering, the Savant Project manages to satisfy the appetite, and a need. Mission Hill - the stamping grounds of many hungry students and hospital workers, among others - now has another stylish place to get weekend brunch, a sandwich for lunch, a drink after work. The owners took a risk with the location - a glance in during the weekend after Thanksgiving reveals a nearly empty room; if the Savant Project were in Cambridge, it would have been busier. But the following weekend things are bustling. And with time, as its reputation grows - and with a rotation of DJs, movies, and special offers (half-priced tapas on Sundays!) bringing in new patrons - the Savant Project could just be the beginning of a lounge empire. Either way, the clever heads behind it are ones to watch - it will be interesting to see what they bring to Boston in the future.