“That’s not at all what I was expecting” is the refrain in David Nichols’s Greenlake dining room, one of the city’s most poised, pleasurable restaurants. Here, fried eggplant melts like gnocchi, and the dungeness salad refines sturdy winter vegetables into delicate, almost summery compositions. These smaller dishes might precede housemade pasta or detail-oriented duck. Even the space transcends new-construction blandness thanks to supersize white wainscoting and a layout that invites conversation.