A chic-looking restaurant serving Mediterranean-style cuisine with Spanish and Italian touches in downtown Mesa? Sounds almost too good to be true.

That’s what I thought when Café Azul opened eight months ago at the Marriott Mesa Hotel just north of Main Street.

Café Azul’s appearance certainly turned out to be as advertised. The polygon-shaped building on the northeast side of the hotel has a couple walls of tall windows that look out on a fountain, waterfalls and a multi-level courtyard.

Inside, a large fountain dominates the center of the restaurant. Blue mosaic tiles create a “stream” in the concrete floor. Orange mosaic tiles glisten on round columns.

Dramatic light fixtures — huge, inverted pyramids — hang from the ceiling. Back-lit glass panels with grass silhouettes provide a backdrop for the polished granite bar.

It seems like a perfect setting for dinner before a show at the nearby Mesa Arts Center, or a nice place to enjoy a glass of wine afterward.

But while the décor has remained unchanged over the course of my four visits this year, the same can’t be said of the menu.

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