Can you tell in the first minute of sitting in a restaurant whether it will be good or not? I would posit yes, much of the time. There’s a social psychologist named Nalini Ambady who does work in “thin slices,” or judgments made about people based on very little data. She says we’re pretty good at that as a species. (But who knows, maybe fish are better.)

Case in point, this weekend: Went to Chateau Soho on South Howard in Tampa. It was formerly a Pepto Dismal pink and called Chateau France and I can’t remember what it was before that.

From the moment I sat down, I braced for impact. Vermillion walls and weird little curtains at glass-brick windows, plus corny stained-glass windows waaaay high on the walls. The restaurant is stuck with an albatross of a space, but a designer could nibble at the margins a bit.

What last year was straight-ahead old school French has become Creole French, at least in name.

Perfunctory doesn’t begin to describe the veggie that appears on every plate: those tiny bagged carrots steamed soft with onion in an aggressively sweet sauce. I think that carrots as a side vegetable generally is risky behavior, especially if it’s those whittled little guys. Too much like school lunch. Anyway, meats come under way too much sauce, dessert soufflés are undercooked, the bread’s compound butter is a yucky combination of flavors (strawberry and pesto, for real).

I think the kitchen needs to think deep thoughts. Chateau Soho is right across the street from MacDinton’s, the most thronged hangout in all of Tampa. How to get some of those folks to walk across the street for dinner? Give them something fun, moderately priced, accessible and not too big a commitment. But also something that fills a void (OK, there’s gelato, Chinese, tapas, and Mexican/Southwest nearby—that leaves a lot of options).

So, what do I do with a meal like that? Basically, I don't review it for the paper. People already seem NOT to be going here, and unless something changes significantly, they probably won't. (Recently I thought I'd review Novo on Fourth in St. Petersburg. Another too-bad-to-review-and-no-one-seems-to-be-eating-here-anyway situation. Found out on Friday that it's closed.)