Many a restaurant has gone eclectic cute, festooning itself with bric-a-brac and doodads, from whaling harpoons to antique coffee mills. It sometimes comes across as just Corporate Canny. Salvation Café, for a decade a quaint Newport landmark, is so wackoid random with its décor that only sincerity or mental instability can account for it.

Any restaurant with a full-size Gulf gas station sign by the front window aims to warn off suits and culinary snobs who don’t deserve good food. At Salvation, anything visually or edibly interesting is fair game. Lining the corridor by the restrooms are 1950s record covers. Above one table for two is a beauty parlor helmet hair dryer. Around a nearby banquette (upholstered in vegetarian palomino pony hide) are such random items as Japanese juice cans, cactus candles, and a pixie cookie jar.

Rather than the result of a mutated interior decoration gene, this is to apprise/warn diners about the menu. It too expresses personality and preferences, namely Indian and Far Eastern cuisine, with the occasional Jamaican, Italian, French, Mexican, and so on thrown in for good measure. The restaurant was established in 1993 by Susan Lamond, who is now is co-owner with Lisel Woods. Chef Alex Hart Nibbrig is in charge in the kitchen.

Two special appetizers available on our recent visit were typical of the offerings: blue cheese-fig fried wonton-skin "purses" and tempura nori. We could have been whacked in the taste buds with the Mediterranean meeting the Orient or with a taste treat that out-Japaneses the Japanese — batter-frying seaweed? What a confident idea.

Bear in mind that the menu is no more hoity-toity than the décor or paper napkins. There are only 11 entrée choices, plus daily specials, ranging in price from an $8.50 pad Thai (two bucks more with shrimp) to $25 for a grilled rib eye steak. The menu lists decidedly toward the Indian subcontinent, with three of the regular dishes containing curry or hot vindaloo sauce.

There are plenty of beer choices and wines by the glass. From Sunday through Wednesday, there’s a ridiculously reasonable chalkboard special: for $7.50 you get your choice from among three entrées, plus a glass of Guinness or a good beer. I had a small carafe of hot sake ($7), which was mild and smooth.

The appetizers offer a special treat for the indecisive: "Angel/Devil Wings" ($7.50), chicken wings divided into a sweet teriyaki sauce side and "red chili hell." We started with an old favorite here, vegetable dumplings ($5.25), five of them served in a bamboo steamer. They were tasty, but not as plump with filling as I’d recalled. We’d hoped to make up for that with the signature Salvation calamari ($7.50). Again, the portion was modest, but delicious. The squid rings were crunchy from being rolled in coarse cornmeal, so the dish could retain its texture after being tossed in a sweet and slightly spicy sauce.

There were no portion concerns with the entrées. Salvation’s linguine with shrimp ($16) was quite tempting, its spicy chipotle cream sauce having proved quite enjoyable on a prior occasion. A special intrigued me a bit more. The lemongrass chicken ($16), which centered around a thick slab of chicken breast, was nicely crispy from grilling yet moist inside. With it was a generous pile of lo mein noodles, mixed with vegetables and straw mushrooms, in a cold peanut sauce. The dish was light on the billed cilantro, though.

Johnnie had the Malai Kofta ($12). The chickpea croquettes were pleasantly seasoned with curry, quite different from the spiced falafel described by our waitress. Delicious, though, under a tomato and coconut sauce, studded with fat golden raisins and almond slices. Accompanying it was garlic naan flat bread and steamed spinach.

Spinach was the hit of the plate across from us, flash fried to green puffs that melted in our mouths. Fried spinach is available among the most delightful array of side dishes I’ve ever seen, joining the sweet potato tamale, cilantro mashed potatoes, and lemon-coconut rice. That last item was also on the plate with the perfectly cooked teriyaki salmon ($14.50). Every morsel was well enjoyed.

Since it was described on the menu as a Salvation favorite, we had to try the chocolate mousse ($6). We all enjoyed it, even though it was lighter than the bittersweet the three of us prefer. Milk chocolate-lovers have a perfect right to their odd preference, I often forget. "They can’t help it," noted our dining pal Baiba, her taste buds trained in Europe. "They were born that way." In the interest of fuller research, I also ordered the pistachio rice pudding ($6). I was not disappointed. I don’t think you will be, either.

Bill Rodriguez can be reached at billrod@reporters.net.