EQ has dropped the E, kept the Q and added ''bar.'' The alphabetic reshuffle is meant to signal a new, sporty personality and a more casual menu for what used to be a miniature temple of fine cuisine. In the end, EQ was simply too ambitious and too expensive for the West Village. So Dennis Foy, the chef, and Estelle Quinones, an owner of the restaurant, decided to revise the format and turn over the kitchen to the sous chef, Enrico Wahl.
The accent at Q Bar is distinctly Asian now, with appetizers like a thick, fiery Thai lobster stew with galangal, oysters with rice-wine mignonette and carrot soup with ginger juice and black pepper oil. The theme digresses here and there. Ancho butter gives sirloin steak a Southwestern twist and striped bass with roasted salsify does not claim any particular ethnic heritage.
The same is true of the pan-fried skate with celery-root pure in a shellfish reduction. More characteristic of the Q Bar approach is cod with Chinese glass noodles and smoked-pepper sauce, and sauted shrimp satay with a millet pancake.
The flavor palette seems to mimic the technicolor martinis that emanate from the restaurant's two bars, carried on trays by waiters who have not quite adjusted to the idea that Q Bar, despite the name, is really a restaurant. Meek, quiet diners can languish indefinitely.
The desserts change from one night to the next, although there is always a fruit tart, a chocolate gateau and a weird but wonderful creme brulee spiced with lemongrass, fennel seed and bay leaf.
Q Bar, 267 West Fourth Street, Greenwich Village; (212) 414-1961 . Dinner entrees, $10 to $21