It’s been almost two years since we last visited Cioppino, the signature restaurant in the Ritz-Carlton Key Biscayne. Back then, it had just been named one of the best new restaurants in America by Esquire’s John Mariani. The appellation was understandable. The food was excellent and the servers were knowledgeable in their dishes and attentive to our needs.

Today the menu is pretty much the same. But the chef and staff have changed, and I can’t imagine Mr. Mariani coming back soon. The flavor has fled from most of the dishes, service was slow and it seemed our waiter was uncertain who the chef was.

However, our opening dish, the Burrata ($16), was fabulous. Think of it as the virgin cut of a mozzarella: softer, creamier, smoother. It’s flown in twice a week from Italy. And it’s always fresh, because once you cut it you have to serve it. It arrived at table with some haricot verts and a bit of extra virgin olive oil. The Insalata di Barbabietole ($14) was an attractive salad of carpaccio-thin, sliced red beets topped with baby greens, walnuts and bleu cheese crumbles. This could have been a beautiful dish with the sweetness of the beets marrying the creamy bleu cheese, but the vinaigrette was way too vinegary with a heaviness of olive oil as well.

An intermezzo of passion fruit sorbet with fresh raspberries was the perfect palate cleanser in anticipation of our pasta choices. Cioppino offers an assortment of pastas and risottos in the menu’s Primi Piatti section. However, in retrospect, our dishes were not exactly like the ones on the menu, so choices can’t be accurately paired with their prices. Suffice to say that the dishes run from $18 to $28. We enjoyed a Pappardelle ai Funghi, the wide egg noodles blending well with the slices of wild porcini mushrooms. The menu said the Lobster Risotto included zucchini. Although we couldn’t find any in the dish, the creamy, cheesy rice shared the bowl with so much rich lobster we didn’t really care. Loving all dishes duck, we were looking forward to the Tagliatelle all’ Anatra: thin egg noodles with a duck ragout. The serving of pulled duck meat was very generous, but, while we expected a richness that would come from hours of roasting, there was absolutely no flavor to the meat.

It was the same with the Branzino alla Griglia ($38). The Mediterranean Sea Bass was grilled to perfection. The light, oily fish literally melted on the tongue. But it had no taste whatsoever. The bed of grilled, seasonal vegetables was pretty much the same. We turned to the signature dish, Cioppino Mare e Fetunta ($32). This was a very Tuscan bouillabaisse filled with sautéed clams, mussels, shrimp, baby calamari and an abundance of lobster meat, served with a little pomodoro, shrimp stock and fregola sarda (Italian couscous). It was very nice, but could have been so much better with the addition of a little fire.

It took quite some time for each of our dishes to come from the kitchen. A couple at the next table — by this time the only other occupied table in the restaurant — was complaining about the wait. We asked our waiter who the chef was. He named three different people and we spent the next five minutes deciphering who was actually responsible for the menu. We finally got that it was Chef de Cuisine Ramon Guerrero, who has cooked all over the world and, locally, at Ago, Pacific Time and Nemo. When we asked if Guerrero could come out and discuss the menu with us, we were told he was too busy. It was 10:45 p.m. and, counting us, there were only four diners in the restaurant. How busy could he be? We discovered the next day that Guerrero wasn’t even in Cioppino that evening, which could explain the dip in quality, although the staff should have been up to the challenge.

Happily, desserts are still the domain of Executive Pastry Chef Frederic Monnet, whose Soufflé di Cioccolato ($15) was worth the extra 15 minutes’ wait. We opened the high and airy confection with its creamy center so decadently chocolate and poured in the accompanying sour cherry reduction and relished every bite.

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Cioppino   ADDRESS: 455 Grand Bay Drive, Key Biscayne, in the Ritz-Carlton PHONE: 305-365-4156 HOURS: Lunch noon to 2:30 p.m.; dinner nightly 6 to 10:30 p.m. FOOD: Northern Italian SERVICE: Befuddled PRICES: Appetizers $10 to $16; entrées $18 to $42 WINES: Choice selection of domestic and international labels ATMOSPHERE: Old World classical with a contemporary charm RESERVATIONS: Requested CREDIT CARDS: All major credit cards