San Francisco’s Mint Plaza has been a revolving door of restaurants over the years.

So many have come and gone that it’s hard to keep track of them all.

Here’s hoping Oro, which opened last year, has sticking power.

I think the downtown location, while an easy hop across the street from the Fifth & Mission garage, can be a hurdle. It’s hard for people to remember that behind the imposing ornate edifice of the historic Mint Building is indeed a plaza ringed by restaurants.

The three-story Oro presents a sleek veneer with floor-to-ceiling windows and a steel-cable glassed staircase that dominates the first floor.

The restaurant also has a lot going for it, most notably Executive Jason Fox of San Francisco’s marvelous Commonwealth restaurant.

When I was invited in as a guest of the restaurant recently, I started with a Scarlet & Gold ($13) cocktail served in a pretty retro glass. This is the perfect sip for those who want something delicate and not-so-boozy. With gin, fennel, lemon, soda and a froth of egg white, it was light and refreshing.

What makes the menu so fun is that you can make a meal out of a traditional appetizer and entree or several snacks and single bites if you’re more in a grazing mood.

The single bites are just that — one-bite wonders that you order by the piece. That makes it especially accommodating if you’re dining with someone who has wildly different tastes than you. This way, you can each have what you want without any leftovers.

The Dungeness crab salad ($5 each) came neatly wrapped up like a present in a nasturtium leaf. Bite into the neat little package and you taste the creaminess of the crab salad, along with avocado, plus the brightness of grapefruit.

The ciccoli ($5 each) is a crisp, airy spherical fritter of pork sausage sitting on a gem lettuce leaf and topped with spring onion remoulade, chow chow and of course, a tiny chicharron. It may be small bite, but it’s a powerhouse of flavors.

Who doesn’t love hummus ($6) these days? Oro takes it a step farther by adding lamb fat to it and dusting it with a little sumac. Served with raw radishes with their green tops still attached, the hummus was creamy, nutty and redolent of the flavor of lamb without any meat actually being in it.

Scallop crudo ($16) came bathed in almond milk and garnished with green almonds, and pickled rhubarb. It reminded me a little of Peruvian ceviche with its milky sauce and hit of tartness.

Oro does all its butchering in-house. As such, charcuterie is a specialty here. You can try one or get all four varieties for $21 as we did. A big wooden board is brought to the table, heaving with salami coto flavored with ras el hanout, saucisson sec with nutmeg, coppa made with red wine and paprika, and coppa di testa (pig’s head). Alongside is a spritely green strawberry mostarda, pickles and plenty of warm slabs of bread. The chef also added dollops of creamy duck liver mousse crowned with fermented grape jelly, and pork pate with pistachios that was wrapped with bacon.

If you are a charcuterie fan, you will go to town over the selections here. I especially loved the mousse and pate. And what I appreciated about all the cured meats was that they didn’t taste heavily of salt. Instead, you could really taste the natural sweetness of the pork itself.

After all that meat, it was on to some veggies, specifically roasted carrots ($7) dolloped with yogurt, nettle salsa verde and dates. With is warm, Moroccan-like flavors and the hits of sweetness from the dates, it made for a really satisfying dish.

On the menu, the entrees read simple. But what you are served is anything but that.

The swordfish ($22) was some of the best I’d ever had with its medallions sauteed till deeply golden and its meaty flesh somehow made more tender than usual. It was served in a slightly spicy n’duja broth with plump clams and a perfect soft-cooked egg. The only miss was the golden fry bread on the plate, which was too greasy.

Chicken ($22) gets a roulade treatment, so that each juicy slice has both white and dark meat. Whole ramps with their roots fried for a crispy contrast were draped over the top of the chicken. Underneath were hidden puddles of a thick sunflower seed porridge, with the seeds taking on the role that a grain normally would.

For dessert, we shared chocolate mousse ($12) that was like a S’more that actually tasted like the great outdoors with its sweet potato and pine ice cream giving a resiny note. The dessert resembled a baked Alaska with its cloak of torched meringue. For a fun touch, a few candy cap mushroom meringues were strewn along the bottom. There’s a lot of marshmallowy meringue on this dessert, so it can get quite sweet. But you’ll be hard pressed to stop eating it.

The next time you find yourself downtown, don’t just walk past the old Mint like always. Instead, check out Oro for a nice surprise.

Also Nearby: Volta