Not since Frank Gehry's brilliantly imaginative aquatic design for Rebecca's in Venice (remember those crumpled-aluminum crocodiles floating overhead and the den of the crystal-beaded octopus?) has restaurant led its customers on so wild a voyage under the sea. In the role of Captain Nemo this time is designer-restaurateur Pat Kuleto, who created the eye-popping interior for Farallon, a few steps off Union Square. But the talk of the town is the seafood cookery of his partner, Mark Franz, who displays a creative side we only glimpsed during his years as executive chef of Stars. Franz is dazzling the city with exciting new dishes and fishes it hasn't seen before, and he has brought back the science of the artful sauce. San Francisco takes pride in its seafood houses, but there has never been one like this.

But before you dip into the cuisine, slip into your wet suits for the plunge into Farallon's exotic submarine world. The journey begins as you pass under a scalloped awning into the "jelly bar." Where kelp-twined pillars glow from within and luminous hand-blown jellyfish, tentacles trailing, seem to drift above. Next stop, the "caviar" staircase (embedded with fifty thousand indigo marbles) that leads to mezzanine bar under a night sky. Seashells in cleverly fabricated textures and shapes are everywhere in the more casual dining room with scallop-curved booths. Beyond lies the most elegant room of all (reserve a booth or a table there). Hollis Rhodes' paintings of early San Francisco fishing scenes unfold on one wall. Slowly, you become aware of the sea creatures inhabiting the space around you--giant sea urchin shells (chandeliers), the nautilus (table lamps), blue squid of mesmerizing beauty (light in the open kitchen), and coppery fish scales (a range hood). Kuleto and his talented artisans haven't missed a marine motif.

Relying on ten or more purveyors, Franz draws in wild and farmed fish from all over the world, including a few varieties from the fish-rich waters around the Farallon Islands, thirty miles west of the Golden Gate. On any given evening you'll find species you've never tasted, and Franz knows exactly how to heighten each fish's distinctive qualities.

Among the starters (you may be tempted to make a dinner of them), a haunting sauce of Santa Barbara sea urchins (a delicacy all too rare: most end up in Japanese sushi bars) is a profound taste of the sea with sweet peekytoe crab from Maine atop truffled mashed potatoes. Occasionally, the sauce, thickened with miso, is also paired with grilled Spanish mackerel. A molded tartare of that mackerel--is the equal of Le Bernardin's in New York City. Franz is trying to persuade more fishermen not to export the roes of fish such as salmon, cod, and flounder, which he uses to make his own caviars--a treat with raw oysters or with the house-smoked salmon sturgeon, gravloks,and little buckwheat blini. Choice shellfish turn up in the iced "indulgence," including, on one visit, Wellfleet oysters and Pacific Northwest's sensational pink ("singing") scallops.

Don't miss the exquisite "pyramid," which pays homage either to all those jellyfish or to I. M. Pei's addition to the Louvre. After the visual impact, it is the flavor of the prawns, sea scallops, lobster, and leeks suspended in shellfish aspic and set on a vibrant saffron sauce that will linger on the palate. It's one of Franz's signature dishes, as is the gingery "pillow" of salmon, scallops, and prawn mousse: Wrapped in cabbage leaves, steamed, sliced in half, it looks like a pastel and tastes like a dream with a foie gras clulis. And oh, those sauces! A green cardamom shellfish sauce, for example, deliciously dresses up roast turbot with a delicate lobster "boudin." An out-of-fashion tarragon hollandaise suddenly seems au courant as a glaze for a roasted wild lake trout from Michigan.

The all-Stars team includes not only several sous-chefs from that restaurant but also Emily Luchetti, who, with Darcy Tizio, makes the most seductive, flavorful desserts in town. Once you've tried their runny hot chocolate fudge cake with malted-milk-ball ice cream or their fruit pastries, order the "small endings"--pistachio nougat, chocolate Arc de Triomphe cookies, butterscotch lollipops, lemon madeleines, and many more. After you have been fully immersed in Farallon's deep-sea pleasures, this enchanted collection of miniatures will land you sweetly on earth.