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100 EATING O ne of the city's most anticipated restaurant openings this year was MAD, the wildly imaginative tapas- centric eatery that opened in River Oaks District with a six-week wait list. Partners Ignacio Torras and chef Luis Roger are much acclaimed for their first Spanish restaurant in Houston, the intimate BCN Taste & Tradition in the Montrose (an innovative interpretation of the fare of Barcelona), which translates authentic Spanish ingredients into thoughtfully crafted dishes that simply astound. Two years in the making, MAD — named, like BCN, for the airport code of the city that inspired it, Madrid — was part of the grand plan when this duo conceived BCN. Meticulous planning and recipe testing have yielded a 6,000-square-foot space conjured by Barcelona-based designer Lázaro Rosa-Violán — one that has your eyes dancing about a room awash in hues of salmon, midnight blue, and red to land on one bright shiny object after another. Velvet curtains at the entrance part to reveal a 360-degree mirrored bar and a massive Brutalist-inspired relief above the open paella kitchen. Dinner, late-night bites, and Sunday brunch are served in the 122-seat dining room. Secure a table or a seat at the bar or out on the patio, and tiptoe through the lengthy menu. Offerings include traditional Spanish Ibérico ham served with imported Pan de Cristal flatbread and tomato ($25) and Gulas, purple potato chips topped with sautéed baby eels crowned with a fried quail egg sunny side up ($16). Don't miss Roger's sophisticated, modern spin on tapas, where he takes the art of trompe l'oeil to new culinary heights. He amuses the palate with olivas líquidas, green-colored cocoa-butter orbs resembling manzanilla olives poised on a real olive branch, each "olive" built around a frozen round of olive juice that melts on your tongue, releasing the saline-tinged liquid ($12). Or, try my favorite, the cucurucho de foie, a tiny crisp cone topped with foie gras mousseline and garnished with nonpareil sprinkles ($6). You can tell Roger is having a ball in the kitchen when he takes on a comfort food classic like mac n' cheese and elevates it with room-temperature penne made with a pork-based gelatin to create a translucent noodle warmed only by a topping of parmesan foam applied tableside ($16). His MAD tomato is a bright red replica of the real deal cloaked in a thin, gelatinous peel and filled with parmesan mousse and pesto, atop a bed of pumpernickel bread crumbs ($15). After meandering through the inventive tapas and gin-soaked cocktails, move on to something more substantial, such as the arroz a la leña. Four wood- roasted rice selections are available in two- or four-person portions. The rape option for two is a mélange of saffron- tinged rice with monkfish, prawns, and spinach ($42). Also offered are grilled beef selections, from 16-ounce Iberico de Bellota skirt steak with shishito peppers ($78) to a mighty bone-in rib-eye steak with piquillo peppers ($170). MAD's signature dessert is fresa wannabe, a "Meyer lemon" that's actually a white-chocolate shell colored yellow, filled with strawberry mousse and lemon-mint compote that a crack releases onto the plate ($14). Reservations required. MAD, River Oaks District, 4444 Westheimer Road, 281.888.2770, madhouston.com. IT'S A MAD, MAD WORLD BY LAURANN CLARIDGE Trompe l'oeil olives filled with olive juice that melt on your tongue Photography Julie Soefer