In the beginning, people were filing into The Dumb Coq for its name alone, but beyond the attention-grabbing moniker — more on that later — there is a lot of thought and passion behind the food and drink offered at downtown Honolulu’s newest bar.

The timing of the bar’s opening is great for downtown denizens who need chill time before hitting holiday pau hana traffic or who find themselves needing a respite from the season’s shopping chores.

While others tinker with cooler-than-thou menus that fail to satisfy, The Dumb Coq is anything but el pollo lolo. Though relatively simple at first glance, chef-owner Yoon Kim’s traditionalist menu is carefully crafted to outdo just about everybody in town for quality and value. He takes a smart, sensible approach to a handful of classic dishes anyone would be happy to inhale.

Now, on a menu with only about a dozen items, I should have been able to try every dish, and at most restaurants it’s an easy feat. Yet in three visits I’ve gotten through only half the menu. The moules frites ($15) and Dumb Coq burger ($15) are my downfall. No matter how much I try to resist their allure — and I have pretty good willpower — their siren song gets me every time, and well-intentioned attempts to order salads and other dishes fall by the wayside because these dishes don’t leave much room in the opu for other fare.

At most restaurants here I am leery of ordering the mussels because they typically end up overcooked and rubbery. This is not the case with the moules here, plump and juicy Penn Coves splashed with white wine and sauteed with garlic and parsley, then served with a heap of shoestring fries that disappear in no time.

As for the burger, my search for the best in town is over. The idea of local, grass-fed beef is great, but I find it tends to be lean and rather flavorless. Not so here with the beef patty made from Kauai’s Makaweli beef. This too is juicy, fresh and flavorful even if you ignore the generous end-to-end topping of crumbled applewood bacon bits. Extras of avocado and an egg accompany the usual lettuce and onion.

In spite of “coq” in its name, there isn’t a definitive chicken dish on the menu. Oh, the fowl makes an appearance in saltimbocca ($14) and street-style Lil’ Tacos ($7), but there isn’t a classic coq au vin or roast chicken.

That’s because Kim, who grew up in the industry working at his mom’s Korean restaurant in Connecticut and arrived here as a partner in Soul de Cuba, can’t stop calculating costs in his head. He just thinks that for price and value, a Costco roast chicken is hard to beat. Nevermind that some prefer and find value in people-watching and the conviviality of dining out with friends, rather than staying home.

In addition to starters of the tacos and moules frites, there is a trio of pork belly sliders ($9), the thick-cut pork balanced by the brightness of Dijon mustard and coleslaw.

The classic Cobb salad ($14) has proved to be popular. A Mediterranean salad ($12) is a simple mix of lettuce, cucumbers, tomato and kalamata olives, topped with a tiny dice of feta and tossed with honey balsamic dressing.

Those who pine for a credible Croque Monsieur might try the Coq Monsieur ($14) variation, built on sourdough instead of airier, fluffy brioche. That might be overlooked when biting into the crunchy, satisfying layer of Gruyere. For the same price, many opt for the Coq Madame with egg, but my crush is on the crunch.

Not to be missed is the soul-warming, fall-friendly French onion soup, rich in onions and beef stock, and again topped with a layer of toasted Gruyere.

More dishes are planned, but Kim isn’t rushing it in favor of capably executing what’s already there. He hints at wraps and pastas.

Last, about that name: On the simplest level, Kim was born in the year of the rooster and played with that idea.

As difficulties arose from readying the space and he read up on the fowl’s traits, he learned that roosters often sit on the nests of hens to show their worthiness as mates. He saw that as gallant and sometimes as fruitless a gesture as running a restaurant in a town teeming with them.

Of course, being a journalist, I have no qualms about asking the rude question: “Does that make you the dumb coq?”

“I guess so,” he said.

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Nadine Kam’s restaurant reviews are conducted anonymously and paid for by the Star-Advertiser. Reach her at nkam@staradvertiser.com.