DAVID NELSON / ON RESTAURANTS : Elegant Eatery Switches to French <i> Haute Cuisine</i>

In the spirit of rugged American individualism, restaurateur Will Howard has set a course against the current and switched the menu at his genteel Issimo from classic Italian to almost militant French.

The point of a recent visit to this quiet, discreetly elegant eatery in La Jolla’s Bird Rock district was to compare Howard’s timeless cooking with the fare at all the new Italian houses that have crowded into the San Diego restaurant marketplace in the last two to three years.

It was a surprise to discover that, except for a couple of lonely gnocchi and an entree of osso buco , French dishes had shouldered Italian mentions off the menu.

Howard’s great virtue and occasional failing as chef/restaurateur is a thoroughly painstaking approach with every preparation and presentation. Dishes, from the viewpoints of both tongue and eye, are usually difficult to fault. But a problem that persisted in the past was the tortoise-like service. Entrees sometimes arrived three hours after the order had been placed. This difficulty finally seems to have been mastered, and not at the expense of the cooking, which remains masterful.

Howard, whose father, artist Wing Howard (painter of the murals of idealized Italian ports that brighten the dining room walls) took the family for extended stays in France, explained his switch in culinary affiliations as a reaction to trends.

“Everybody was opening Italian restaurants, and all the French ones closed, so I’ve taken Issimo 98% French,” he said, adding, “French food is my main love in life anyway, with extra cream and butter.”

The French Issimo also has broken a few price barriers; the majority of entrees cost $29.50, and the veal chop forestiere (in a rich mushroom sauce) runs $34. Howard said the prices are mitigated somewhat by the fact that meals do include a salad, a rare gesture at a restaurant of this class.

Luxury ingredients predominate, sometimes to the point of the effete and even the arcane. The espresso, for example, is not brewed from any old beans, but from a French-Turkish roast. The salad, a mixture of luxury greens that includes the obligatory radicchio and Belgian endive, is moistened not only with the equally obligatory Balsamic vinegar, but with two olive oils, chosen for complementary fruity and mellow qualities.

Other luxury touches preface and conclude the meal. Tiny amuse gueules arrive early; these recently were tiny wedges of egg mousse, a novelty with a cheese-like consistency and a sharp mustard bite that seemed like a soignee deviled egg, and round toasts mounded with a smooth and delicate liver pate. To cushion the check, the kitchen sends out chocolates and twists of candied orange peel.

Starters--priced mostly at $10 or higher--include such luxuries as top-grade, Petrossian brand smoked salmon and caviar imported from France. Also on the list are a tart of sweet Vidalia onions, Scandinavian cured salmon ( gravad lax ) with mustard sauce and fresh, truffled foie gras pate. Several items are encased in beautifully light, well-browned puff pastry cases, including a saute of fresh wild mushrooms ( enoki , chanterelles, oyster mushrooms) in a marvelous reduction of brown stock, Sherry and cream touched with more than a little garlic. A serving of carrot pancakes showed that potatoes are not the only vegetable that can make it in the crepe category; topped with blobs of creme fraiche and salmon caviar, these were good but not overly interesting.

The menu usually lists six soups, an abundance of choice that once was a hallmark of grand restaurants but largely has been abandoned. None were tried, but the list reads well, and often includes saffroned mussel soup, creams of watercress and mixed bell peppers, a “rustic” spinach and curried carrot.

Entrees, sent from the kitchen under silver domes and on hot plates, generally rely upon reductions of rich, first-rate stocks, sometimes creamed and/or flavored with a distinctive herb, wine or spice. Anise brings up the flavor of Norwegian salmon on a bed of creamed, dilled cucumbers; lemon and capers do the same for the unusual paupiettes (stuffed packages) of thinly sliced swordfish. Parsley, generally under-used as a flavoring agent, is the dominant item in the cream sauce served over halibut.

Rather too much thyme swam through an otherwise exquisite, lightly garlicky Madeira sauce that moistened a plate of pink, juicy medallions of lamb filet. This was thyme with a vengeance, and it overpowered the delicacy of the meat. On the other hand, an abundance of mustard in the creamed stock reduction that sauced a special duck ballotine brought out the full richness of this rarely encountered specimen of classic French haute cuisine . The meat, boned and stuffed with spinach and ground pork, seemed to have been wrapped in pastry, but actually was encased in its own skin, roasted to crisp, pastry-like finish. This was a rare, elegant dish, and so rich that a little went a long way, although Issimo served a large portion.

Among other entrees from the standing list are grilled bobwhite quail on a bed of chanterelle mushrooms, sauced with game stock and Port, and a sirloin in green peppercorn sauce.

The separate and lengthy dessert list devotes half of its 18 choices to chocolate, all of them rich, some unbelievably so, including a remarkable pot de creme with Meyer’s rum that seems like chocolate butter. A plate of five chocolate fantasies--including the white chocolate ravioli stuffed with hazelnut mousse and the fudge-like “ecstasy” torte--is daunting but delicious, and easily shared.

Issimo

5634 La Jolla Blvd., La Jolla

454-7004

Dinner served Monday through Saturday, closed Sunday

Entrees $27.50 to $34. Dinner for two, including a moderate bottle of wine, tax and tip, about $100 to $160

Credit cards accepted