When I reviewed Towne Hall in Greenspring Station earlier this year, I said its food was good but it was noisier than any new restaurant I had ever complained about. I would have bet my firstborn it couldn't get any louder.

Then I heard the restaurant was going to start serving hard-shell crabs. The name changed to the City Crab & Seafood Company, and I assumed it was now a crab house, filled with banging mallets. If so, they would have had to drag me back kicking and screaming.

Well, I was wrong. The restaurant isn't a crab house. It does have a new concept, seafood as opposed to casual comfort food, and it does serve steamed crabs, although not when I was there. The owners are the same, as are the restaurant's polished good looks. The long, narrow dining room is contemporary, with a bar in front, simple lines, lots of wood and glass, neutral colors, comfortable booths and soft lighting.

What's more, since my last visit, something has been done to turn down the volume. I couldn't figure out what: There's no more fabric in the room than there was before. Maybe it was just that we were sitting farther from the bar and the happy-hour crowd.

Like the old menu, very little on the new one costs more than $20. Light fare, pastas and salads are under $15. And this is good stuff: fresh fish grilled, blackened or oven-roasted with interesting preparations -- you get to mix and match. There are crab cakes, of course, and under the "crab" section are listed Florida stone crab claws, steamed Maryland blue crabs and Alaskan king crab legs.

Only the crab legs were available that night. When I asked the waiter about them, he steered me instead to a lobster bake. At $14.94 before 6 p.m. and $19.95 after, this should have been a bargain. It includes a 1 1/4 -pound lobster, clams, mussels, corn-on-the-cob and new potatoes. Alas, the lobster meat had been steamed to wet mush. The rest of the meal was fine, but it didn't make up for the lobster itself.

A pecan-encrusted grouper with butternut squash puree, rice pilaf and asparagus could have been a knockout, but the grouper was overcooked and the rice undercooked. It crunched. Monkfish with rock shrimp etouffee was better -- the fish was fine -- but its sauce was uninspired. The fish was draped on top of mashed potatoes and covered in the mildly spicy, thick brown stew-sauce. The plate cried out for a little greenery.

The kitchen worked with a surer hand when it came to the signature crab cakes. They had character as well as lumps of crab. Order them with the crisp-edged hand-cut french fries and the restaurant's fresh-tasting coleslaw. Small yeast rolls, reminiscent of what you get at an Eastern Shore seafood house, come with dinner and are just right with the crab cakes.

First courses shine. If we had come here for just appetizers and drinks, we would have gone away happy. The soup of the day, shrimp bisque, was spectacularly creamy, not too thick, not too salty, and filled with fat pieces of shrimp. Oysters on the half shell arrived icy cold, fat and fresh.

The "City Crab Pu-Pu Platter" is a must-have in spite of the silly name. The assortment included lightly crusted calamari, just-seared chunks of ahi tuna (as meaty as good beef with a sesame crust), fried onion slivers, enormous buffalo shrimp and cocktail-sized pieces of spring roll. With these came various dipping sauces, from a mango barbecue sauce and a blue cheese dressing to a wasabi mayonnaise.

City Crab knows the importance of a good homemade dessert. When they add chocolate sauce, it's a nice, thick, fudgy one. If it's chocolate you crave, there's a pleasant Oreo ice cream pie or, even better, a warm brownie with ice cream. This time of year the fresh fruit cobbler of the day is apple -- well worth ordering -- and for those who want something light, there was a strawberry mousse concoction with a crisp cookie crust topping.

Much is promising here. If the kitchen can avoid the cardinal sin of seafood houses -- overcooking the seafood -- they've got themselves a winner.

City Crab & Seafood Company

Food: **

Service: ***

Atmosphere: ***

Where: Greenspring Station, 2360 West Joppa Road, Lutherville

Hours: Open daily for lunch and dinner, Saturday and Sunday for brunch

Prices: Appetizers, $3.95-$14.95; main courses, $12.95-$31.95

Call: 410-339-6300

Outstanding: ****; Good: ***; Fair or uneven: **; Poor: *