Downtown’s Water Grill Sports a Vast Array of Seafood

Some people are biased against “corporate� restaurants--and with good reason: Most of the time the food is less impressive than the profit margins.

The new Water Grill--in downtown Los Angeles’ Pacific Mutual Building by the same people who run Santa Monica’s I Cugini and Ocean Ave. Seafood--may be an exception.

They’ve gone out of their way to get a vast range of fresh seafood, of a sort you rarely see in Southern California restaurants. There are Canadian and Santa Barbara spot prawns, many with the roe still attached. Instead of ungainly New Zealand green mussels, you’ll find Prince Edward Island mussels.

And then there’s the look of the place--highly designed around a fish-and-water theme, but with a preservationist’s eye that keeps the dignity of the old building intact.

So far, the best things seem to follow the less-is-more principle. The point of ordering a piece of Copper River salmon comes across most clearly when the fish is simply grilled and served with the lightest of sauces.

There are more complicated dishes--for instance, an osso buco of monkfish (the fish has rather thick bones, but no marrow).

But the best thing about the Water Grill might be its fresh shellfish platters, which come as close as anything in Los Angeles to duplicating the fruits-de-mer experience at a Left Bank brasserie.

Well, almost. Water Grill waiters take the shellfish service ritual much more seriously than their brusque Parisian counterparts. First, the waiter solemnly dresses you with a plastic bib. Then he carefully lays out a fresh white napkin, on top of which he gingerly places an oyster fork, a nutcracker for the lobster claws, and an extra-thin two-pronged instrument useful for removing the tiniest creatures from their shells.

The experience is alarmingly similar to sitting in a dentist’s chair. But then oysters make a much better prize than a toothbrush.

Water Grill, 523 West 6th St., Los Angeles (213) 891-0900. Entrees $9.75-$25.