Just back from a very nice lunch at comfortable and welcoming River Oaks with a couple of wine-tasting friends. Red wines being the theme, we stuck to dishes (mainly) that would complement what we were tasting, so let me dive in right here and say that the appetizer of beef short ribs ravioli, with sauteed wild mushrooms, garlic coulis and sherry emulsion ($8) was (1) perfect for a chilly afternoon, (2) incredibly tender and succulent, and (3) a terrific bargain. Now chef Ben Vaughn is deeply involved with deconstructed food concepts, so this was ravioli in the “new sense,” meaning that rather than being “ravioli,” it was one “raviolo,” and not only that but simply sheets of thin pasta draped over a heap of the melt-in-the-mouth beef. Did we care? I didn’t notice.

One of our party ordered the Caesar salad ($8), which, in the deconstructed sense, appears as a sheaf of hearts of romaine lettuce standing upright within a ring of puff pastry; that’s right, the salad was inside the crouton! So to speak. Another appetizer was the charcuterie plate ($8, another incredible bargain), which brings various rustic sausages, a selection of different cheeses, pickled cipollini onions and grilled flat bread. This serving is so generous that we saved some of the cheese for after the meal, to have with the last red wine and espresso.

Now I hate to be a disappointment to readers of Whining & Dining, but since the three of us were tasting red wines, we all opted for the tournados of beef tenderloin ($15), not very imaginative, perhaps, but certainly appropriate. The beef, cooked properly to medium rare, came with creamy, glossy mashed potatoes, sauteed baby green beans and a rich and flavorful truffle bordelaise sauce.

So that’s it, three guys tasting red wine and eating like robber barons on a winter night. Too bad River Oaks is so far from Downtown.

River Oaks is at 5871 Poplar, where the Cockeyed Camel used to rock. Lunch is served Monday through Friday, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.; dinner is 5 to 10 p.m. Sunday through Friday, 5 to 11 p.m. Saturday. Call 683-9305. Menus are available at riveroaksrestaurant.com.