A new spot in Monterey travels the culinary world, offering something for everyone – with a surprise or two.

A menu featuring fried artichokes and cioppino suggests a restaurant highlighting Central Coast flavors. But then there’s caprese, linguine and pizza, so perhaps Italian is more the focus. Hang on, though – a classic Caesar salad followed by a New York strip? This is steakhouse territory.

Lighthouse Bistro is something unexpected. The lunch menu offers gyros and shawarma, but also a turkey club sandwich. That word – unexpected – even applies to the team’s culinary ethic. On a Saturday evening, one might see the kitchen readying for orders of the more popular dishes. This particular weekend, however, there are no Mediterranean meatballs and no baklava for dessert.

“I’m waiting for my wife,” explains Ralph Elrayes, who created the concept with Chef Sunil Sthapit.

Responsibility for the two items has not been passed on to another member of the kitchen team. When she is out of town, her specialties are on hold.

Already a painstaking dish, the bistro’s baklava involves cashews, walnuts and rosewater. It’s a more subtle presentation, with nuanced notions ranging from bittersweet to floral – a welcome break from the cloying nature of more common baklavas. Kibbeh is a meatball found across the eastern Mediterranean prepared with bulgur wheat and pine nuts.

“You have to take a little time,” Elrayes says of the kibbeh. “It’s homemade.”

If kibbeh, baklava and a rustic hummus give the restaurant a Middle Eastern flair – Elrayes is from Lebanon – there are a few more surprises in store.

“People come for the momo,” he adds. “No one is doing momo.”

For the unfamiliar, momo is a carnival, a stampeding horde, a rush of sensations all at once. It is swarthy and spicy, herbal and nutty flavors packed into a morsel of a dumpling. One would insist that garlic and ginger are two of the instigators.

“It’s simple – bone marrow, cabbage, onions,” the chef points out, shaking his head. Unable to find marrow he likes, Sthapit substitutes “a lot of fat.”

The chef is Nepalese, one of the regions where momo is a culinary devotion. And he cautions guests to take the dumpling in one bite, whether it is steamed or fried. The filling – in this case beef or chicken – is juicy with exceptional zeal. (Take his advice if you happen to be wearing white.)

Another Nepalese dish – choila, or tender beef in a spicy sauce – can be found on the lunch/brunch menu. There are, however, many more familiar options.

The restaurant’s full name is Lighthouse Bistro Global Cuisine, and that is something Elrayes and Sthapit mean literally. The industry long ago strayed over the confining lines of a cuisine. Yes, there remain kitchens that concentrate on regional or national dishes. But in the era of fusion and experimentation, it is not uncommon to find chefs dabbling with traditions.

At Carmel’s far-reaching Pangaea Grill, for example, staid Old World items like duck breast and mushroom ravioli share menu space with poke and kimchee fried rice. The aptly-named International Cuisine in Pacific Grove features everything from gyros to stroganoff and tacos.

“I picked popular items – rack of lamb, fish and chips, clam chowder,” explains Elrayes, who created the concept. “I did global because everyone likes something different.”

Eclectic menus of this nature are a departure from fusion cuisine. Fish and chips arrive at the table with a bottle of malt vinegar. Pancakes come with maple syrup.

Elrayes admits that it was difficult, in the beginning, for staff members to grasp the full range of offerings. The restaurant opened quietly in May, replacing the Mexican diner Mando’s – itself a transplant from Pacific Grove.

Sthapit began testing Nepalese dishes after taking over the space, while still under the Mando’s name. “He asked if I had any ideas,” Elrayes says.

And thus Lighthouse Bistro, a place with no culinary boundaries – except when it comes to preparation.

“Everything is from scratch,” Sthapit observes. So if a certain spouse is away, baklava will wait for another day.

LIGHTHOUSE BISTRO GLOBAL CUISINE, 570 Lighthouse Ave., Monterey. 884-5663, lighthouse-bistro.com.