Gourmet magazine hailed it as one of the best restaurants in America. Hugh Hefner turned the property into a mini Playboy mansion for a three-day Super Bowl bash brimming with celebrities. And just about everyone connected to the local theater scene breezes through to debate the merits of Tony Award nominees while supping on some rather ambitious fare.

The spotlight has shone brightly on The Prado at Balboa Park since it opened in 1999. Nestled within the historic House of Hospitality, its proximity to the Old Globe Theatre and the Japanese Friendship Garden typify an auspicious succession of supremely located restaurants spawned by none other than David and Leslie Cohn.

The Prado has many siblings that all reside in high-pitched neighborhoods – Kemo Sabe and the Corvette Diner in Hillcrest, Indigo Grill in Little Italy and a colorful cluster of Gaslamp joints that include Mister Tiki Mai Thai Lounge, Blue Point Coastal Cuisine and Dakota Grill & Spirits. But only those with a discerning eye can tell that The Prado is related to any of them.

A liberal dispersion of glass art by Martin Blank (a protégé of glass wizard Dale Chihuly), adds a touch of whimsy to the Spanish colonial architecture, which dates back to 1915. Electric candles and deer antlers also run rampant. The trappings are decidedly Cohnesque when you observe the couple’s proclivity for implanting chic and comfortable themes into their properties. With this one, they inherited a spacious patio enhanced sufficiently by the trees and flora that surround it.

Contrary to what many assume, The Prado doesn’t land squarely in the fine-dining category. It’s too accessible to be rated as stiff, yet too historic and pretty to be called casual. And meal prices are a couple of notches below what you’d expect for park-atmosphere dining, especially if you dabble in drinks and appetizers in the lounge during happy hours.

The dinner menu offers colorful and contemporary dishes that Chef Jeff Thurston dolls up with precise gourmet details. His Jumbo Lump Crab Cakes, for example, are served atop three miniature plops of apple-fennel salad and each sporting a dot of chili aioli. Cooked to an even crisp, the crabmeat is bound together with cream rather than breadcrumbs, which adds to their superior quality. We also tried the Trio of Skewers, a finely presented appetizer of tender skirt steak, chicken breast and giant prawn sitting in their own little puddles of various sauces. The dish became even livelier as those sauces began converging on the Asian slaw in the middle of the plate; cashew-curry, chipotle-honey and mango-ginger added wildly good flavors to the cabbage.

The salads we ordered were craftily presented, too. My companion’s Red Beet medley came with herb-whipped goat cheese underneath and potato hay on top. Mine was packed tightly into the shape of a large hockey puck; thus the name Prado’s Pressed Salad. Despite its overdose of candied walnuts, it had everything going for it: strawberries, figs, shaved asiago cheese and a sensible measure of sherry-shallot vinaigrette.

Even the Black Bean Soup we shared carried high tongue-and-eye appeal. Inside that spider-web design of heavy cream on the surface was toasted cumin. Diced red onion lurked not far beneath.

My companion, who recently discovered the joys of Osso Buco at other restaurants, thought he’d give the Prado’s pork version a try. A lot of oohing and ahhing ensued as the meat fell away from the bone by merely staring at it. The pork is cooked for at least four hours in pale ale, and then served with white corn, sweet potato mash and tomatillo-cilantro sauce.

The newest entrée on the menu is Maine Lobster Mac and Three Cheese, which has been popping up in similar versions on big-city menus throughout the country over the past two years.

“Some people are afraid of it,” quipped our waiter. But I wasn’t. The lobsters are flown in live each day and weigh about one-and-a-half pounds apiece. Their tail and claw meats are used in whole chunks. And the main shell serves as a stunning garnish. The lobster jibes remarkably well with the trio of cheeses – muenster, asiago and fontina – as well as the hint of black truffles that get tossed in. My only caveat was that the orecchiette (pasta ears) is too thick a choice for the combination. It’s a painfully filling meal if you eat more than half of it.

Other kicky delights include Sashimi Grade Ahi over black licorice risotto, a 10-ounce New York Steak with veal jus, Wild Mushroom Risotto and Seafood Paella simmered in lobster-saffron broth. There isn’t a plain-Jane dish in the house.

Desserts are made on site. A single serving of fabulous Steamed Lemon Cake with berry compote put us on the actual Prado for a calorie walk-off. But stick around later, and the lounge offers live entertainment three days a week, from 7:30 to 10:00 p.m. The all-girl lineup features Alicia on Tuesdays, Danielle Lo Presti on Wednesdays and Ashley Matte on Thursdays.