What Restaurant Critics Really Want : They Have the Night Off. It’s Their Money. Let’s Eat!

I’m always thrilled to discover a wonderful restaurant. That moment, however, is bittersweet, because no matter how much I loved the cooking and the experience, I know it likely will be a long time before I have the chance--or the excuse--to come back again. Duty calls: It’s on to the next new restaurant and the next and the next. And it may be two or three years before it’s time to review a find once more.

For this restaurant issue, I gave myself that excuse. I decided to write about all the places I long to go on my night off--where I go on my own money, when I can eat exactly what and where I please. I went back to all those restaurants I’ve loved, tasting once again that rustic, slowly simmered cassoulet, that sumptuous risotto, that sublime chocolate souffle. And I came up with a list of 30--a month’s worth of restaurants. The Times’ other restaurant reviewers--Jonathan Gold, Michelle Huneven and Max Jacobson--each have picked six of their favorite haunts too. And as a counterpoint, we asked a baker’s dozen of chefs where they long to go on their rare nights off.

Whittling down the lists was no easy task. We can all find something to love about almost any restaurant, if the occasion is right. This is meant to be a quirky melange, a very personal account of restaurants that appeal to our hearts and our hungers.

Campanile

There are very few restaurants where you could happily eat breakfast, lunch and dinner. For me, Campanile is such a restaurant, maybe because the food is very close in spirit to what I would cook--if I had the time to cook anymore. Mark Peel’s menus pay homage to the seasons and his food has a direct, appealing simplicity. Flattened chicken comes with a bright, bracing parsley salad. Summer’s brassy gold zucchini blossoms are stuffed with cheese and deep-fried in a lacy batter. A side of vegetables here is a glorious still life straight from the farmer’s market. All the while, Nancy Silverton bakes apples and pears, plums and apricots into intricate, delicious tarts and pastries, and when fat Persian mulberries come into season for a few weeks, she’s wise enough to serve them plain with thick cream poured over. I could as easily sit down to this kind of meal at a farmhouse in Tuscany or Provence. But I don’t think I could get breads this good anywhere else, or find such intelligently crafted desserts. And Manfred Krankl’s stunning collection of wines from the world’s greatest small producers makes drinking wine here a joy.

624 S. La Brea Ave., Los Angeles, (213) 938-1447; entrees, $15 to $26.

Musso & Frank Grill It’s a different world, a different era, once you slip into one of the high-sided booths at Musso & Frank. This Hollywood institution is a place for highballs and very dry martinis, for whispered conversations and old-fashioned American fare with a dash of Continental thrown in. After all, as the menu proclaims, the chef comes from Paris. The kindly waiters are all old-timers who take good care of you, slipping you an extra baked potato here, an empty plate there. You can sit all afternoon wresting every last bit of meat from a cracked crab or trading confidences over a chicken pot pie. At the counter, white napkins laid like place mats mark off each space. The stacked flannel cakes (served until 3 p.m.) are comforting, the shrimp cocktail isn’t skimpy and the French-cut lamb chops or the calves’ liver with bacon and caramelized onions are always reliable. But I go back for the open-face prime rib sandwich, served with its own little bowl of jus , mashed potatoes and wicked horseradish sauce.

6667 Hollywood Blvd., Los Angeles, (213) 467-5123; entrees, $9.50 to $28.

Posto

It can get boring back in the kitchen, sending out countless orders of linguine and clams or spaghetti aglio e olio , and the usual grilled veal chops, roast chicken or osso buco. Posto’s chef, Luciano Pelligrini, is more than capable; he’s just waiting for someone to come along and ask him to create a special menu (it actually happens quite a lot). Whenever I’ve done so, I’ve had a truly memorable meal. It might start, as it did one night, with spiraled smoked salmon and endive salad, a sumptuous crab and potato pancake with roasted garlic sauce, then two small pasta courses in succession--handmade garganelli with quail sauce and spectacular spaghettini and sweet Louisiana shrimp--followed by roasted squab and earthy sauteed spinach. Nobody in town has a better hand with pasta or such respect for its quality. If you allow him to do what he does best, this young Italian chef will reward you with some remarkable Italian cooking. Just, please, don’t ask for angel hair pasta with tomato and basil--it would be such a waste.

14928 Ventura Blvd., Sherman Oaks, (818) 784-4400; entrees, $16 to $25; six-course tasting menu, $48.

Chinois on Main

Chinois is, I think, Wolfgang Puck’s best restaurant. The over-the-top decor now looks somewhat dated, but more than 10 years later, Puck’s ongoing experiment in East-West cooking still manages to taste fresh and interesting. He’s wisely kept Chinois’ beloved classics, such as the whole sizzling catfish, flash-fried in a wok full of boiling oil, and the succulent barbecued baby pork ribs, served in a sticky, black honey-and-chile sauce, on the menu. But the real excitement is in chef Makoto Tanaka’s seasonal dishes and specials. Chinois is so noisy that, unless you come early, the best option is to sit at the counter and give up trying to shout. Just grab a stool and watch the cooks perform, woks on the left, French saute pans on the right. One cook pulls catfish after catfish from boiling oil; another throws live lobsters into a hot saute pan while his assistant separates the strands of gold and black noodles. It’s like getting a master cooking class for the price of a dinner.

2709 Main St., Santa Monica, (310) 392-9025; entrees, $19 to $29.

The Bar Bistro at Citrus

Michel Richard has split Citrus in two, turning the smaller half of his Melrose Avenue restaurant into a more casual French bistro. At Citrus, Richard is expected to always dazzle his clientele with new creations; at the Bar Bistro he’s free to offer the kind of plain, honest French country cooking that must be very close to his heart. Some nights, I’m perfectly content to sit down with a pichet of Beaujolais and a plate of rosy jambon de Bayonne (a raw-cured ham that is the French equivalent of prosciutto di Parma ) and a bowl of nourishing soup. Dishes such as oxtail parmentier , topped with a mashed potato gratin, and daube de veau , an elegant veal stew in an intense wine reduction, belong to the genre of French comfort food. Simple roasted chicken is spectacular, a whole crisp-skinned bird and a generous pile of frites for $12. And since everything comes out of the same kitchen, you’re getting the same skilled cooking and top-notch ingredients that you’d get at Citrus. And, if you like, you can order any of Citrus’ fancier desserts too.

6703 Melrose Ave., Los Angeles, (213) 857-0034; entrees, $9.50 to $17.50.

Phillip’s Bar-B-Que

I’ve got one friend who gets very nervous if he goes without Philip’s barbecue for more than three or four days. And I’ll usually try to bribe him to bring me back some of those meaty pork ribs with the lip-numbing hot--and I mean hot--sauce. Sometimes I’ll add an order of the rib tips too, and maybe just a little of the sliced beef brisket. The side dishes are edible enough, and everything comes with the usual squishy white bread to mop up that smoldering sauce. Even if you put your order in the trunk, the enticing smell of Phillip’s world-class barbecue accompanies you all the way home. It’s not a bad idea to think ahead: Few things are as reassuring as knowing you’ve got an extra order or two of ribs stashed in the fridge--just in case.

4307 Leimert Blvd., Los Angeles, (213) 292-7613; also 1517 Centinela Ave., Inglewood, (310) 412-7135; entrees, $6 to $10.25; slabs, $14 to $16.50.

Rockenwagner

If I lived in the neighborhood and didn’t have to worry about whether I was known or not, I would be a fixture at Rockenwagner’s Tuesday night Stammtisch. The word is a German term for a common table where regulars sit. Chef/owner Hans Rockenwagner, who is German, recently commissioned artist Laddie John Dill to design a stunning glass Stammtisch table large enough to seat 16. The idea has caught on, and after 8 p.m. each Tuesday, the chef plays host to an ongoing salon of regulars who show up to eat, drink and listen to a little jazz around the layered glass table. The Stammtisch menu includes snacks such as velvety weisswurst served with sweet Bavarian mustard and a dense pretzel roll, or a spicy rock shrimp samosa with cooling cucumber raita. You can order anything off the regular menu too. Rockenwagner goes back and forth from the kitchen to the table, stopping to chat, to pour a tall glass of Bavarian wheat beer for a new arrival. If it gets too crowded, someone adds another tier of chairs. It’s nice to see a chef actually having some fun in his own restaurant.

2435 Main St., Santa Monica, (310) 399-6504; Stammtisch menu, $4.50 to $9.50; entrees, $17.50 to $22.

Philippe the Original

Any time of the day, day in, day out, you can step in out of the glare, down into Philippe the Original’s dark, cavernous space to find a long line in front of each of the 10 carving stations at the front. Everybody is here for the same French-dip sandwiches--lamb, pork, turkey, beef--that have been served here since 1918, when French emigre Philippe Matthieu is said to have “invented� the now-classic sandwich. I’ll usually order the pork along with some of the exemplary potato salad and a side of sweet and vinegary slaw. Philippe’s own sinus-clearing mustard is a must. The soft French roll--given a little “dip� in the meat’s natural juices--is just right. Philippe’s lemonade is world-class, coffee is still a dime, and I doubt there’s a more gooey banana cream pie in town. But the real surprise is the list of interesting, first-rate wines by the glass (Kistler Chardonnay, Penfold’s Bin 386, Silver Oak Cabernet, Ravenswood Zinfandel).

1001 N. Alameda St., Chinatown, (213) 628-3781; French dip sandwiches, $3.55 to $3.85.

Woodside

Every neighborhood should have a restaurant like Woodside in Brentwood, a handsome American bistro with exposed brick walls, Arts and Crafts-style chairs and an open kitchen. It’s not at all a scene; you could feel just as comfortable coming here alone as with friends or even your great-aunt Ettie. The staff is warm and attentive and seems completely in love with the food. Our waitress recited the specials with such fervor one night, I wanted to order everything she recommended: golden fried calamari with fresh mint sauce, ethereal sage gnocchi served in a game-bird broth, six lovely little lamb chops with scalloped pumpkin ravioli and winter vegetables, roasted duckling with heavenly butternut squash puree and cranberry chutney. While every other chef is busy trying to out-potato Mr. Splichal, Louise Branch is working with baby mustard greens, lentils de Puy, squashes, root vegetables--whatever’s in season.

11604 San Vicente Blvd., Brentwood, (310) 571-3800; entrees, $12 to $19.50.

Bombay Cafe

It’s always hard to nab a table at Bombay Cafe for Neela Paniz’s savvy Indian food. Yes, she has tandoori, because that’s what gets people in the door, but she also has an array of unusual and vividly spiced savories and snacks. I can easily skip the main courses, the curries and the tandoori chicken (though it is better than most), and load up on exotic little dishes such as bhel puri , puffed rice tossed with potatoes, chickpea flour noodles and a trio of chutneys, or her elongated, horn-shaped samosas and the delicious morsels of fried fish. Sometimes there’s a typical Punjabi truck drivers’ snack: deep-fried naan to dip in a bowl of soupy, ginger-scented chickpea stew. Those flattened Indian “burritos� wrapped around smoldering, spice-singed lamb masala are Frankies, a snack she discovered on Bombay’s Breach Candy beach. Tender Sindhi chicken, gently poached with spices and browned in a dusting of mango powder and cayenne, is wonderful folded into a piece of hot naan. For dessert, there’s kheer, a milky rice pudding scented with cardamom, and kulfi , a cone-shaped ice-cream-on-a-stick. Here, it comes in two flavors, mango and ginger. I’ll take both.

12113 Santa Monica Blvd., West Los Angeles, (310) 820-2070; entrees, $6.50 to $15.50.

Ristorante di Giorgio Baldi

Two months ago, Giorgio was officially renamed Ristorante di Giorgio Baldi after the original partnership was dissolved. Fortunately, little else has changed. Giorgio is still in the kitchen, daughter Elena mans the door, her brother Edoardo waits tables. The beachside Santa Monica restaurant is more authentically Italian than most, a true family-run restaurant where Giorgio cooks up some of the dishes from his hometown of Forte dei Marmi on the coast of Tuscany. The food here tastes more like home cooking than restaurant food--simple, fresh, zero presentation. There’s a very good tonno e fagioli (tuna and fat white beans with mache , drenched in lemon), a delicious soup of fresh clams and white beans in a clear, briny broth, or else cacciucco, a seafood soup loaded with fish and shellfish. I love the pile of flash-fried shiitake mushrooms beside a wedge of milky pecorino cheese, the heavenly gnocchi napped in mild Gorgonzola sauce, the flavorful grilled branzino (sea bass). Come dessert, pass up the tiramisu for the homey torta della nonna (grandmother’s cake).

114 W. Channel Rd., Santa Monica, (310) 573-1660; entrees, $15 to $21.50.

Empress Pavilion

I can’t think of a better way to spend a couple of hours on a Sunday than meeting friends (six or eight is best) for dim sum at Empress Pavilion in Chinatown. Downstairs, 23 cooks, 20 dim sum cooks and 3 barbecue chefs, labor to feed the crowd; weekends they may fill the 596-seat room three or four times. The dining room is packed with big round tables covered with myriad tiny dishes, everyone reaching with chopsticks for bites of stewed tripe, roast pig and chicken feet. More and more dishes are added as the waitresses pass by with their rolling carts. The trick is to pace it out, so you won’t risk missing the little short ribs in a glorious black bean sauce or any of the exquisite and varied steamed dumplings, so transparent you can easily read the contents: shrimp and greens, chicken and mushrooms. My favorite is a boiled “water dog,� a bird’s nest soup dumpling the size of a small bowl; break into it with your spoon and you’ll find a broth so concentrated it tastes as if 10 chickens have been boiled down to get this cupful of soup. Finish off the feast with a big platter of good-luck rice noodles. And for dessert, fragile little egg custards, the best I’ve had anywhere.

Bamboo Plaza, 988 N. Hill St., Chinatown, (213) 617-9898; $1.85 to $4.80 per plate; $12 to $15 per person.

Nouveau Cafe Blanc

People from all over town used to line up outside the minuscule Cafe Blanc, attracted to the unlikely part of town near Beverly and Vermont by Tommy Harase’s French-inspired cuisine and astonishingly low prices. Luckily, Harase is back, this time in a tiny Beverly Hills storefront with Nouveau scrawled in front of the name on the awning. And in the interim, Harase’s cooking has taken a giant leap forward. He’s more confident now and definitely more skilled. And while prices are understandably higher than at his old place, the food is still a steal for this level of quality. He’s there every night, in the cramped kitchen at the back of the simple white room, sending out course after course of elegant Franco-Japanese dishes, such as a cool terrine of Japanese eggplant and nuggets of lobster, roasted rare squab in a sticky, orange Burgundy sauce, or a perfectly cooked piece of Chilean sea bass with mushroom risotto and a lobster sauce. The a la carte lunch menu is one of Beverly Hills’ best bargains.

9777 Little Santa Monica Blvd., Beverly Hills, (310) 888-0108; five-course prix - fixe menus, $32 and $38.

Abiquiu

Abiquiu, I am happy to report, just keeps getting better. Since John Sedlar closed Bikini and reopened as Abiquiu last year, he has continued to refine the menu, rethink the dishes. And at this latest reincarnation of his Santa Monica restaurant, one of the most beautiful in L.A., this highly original chef has reinvented himself for a broader audience, reduced prices dramatically and is turning out innovative, exciting and very personal Southwestern-eclectic cuisine. Upstairs, at his “outrageous tamale bar,� snack on a bowl of warming red corn posole soup stained with chile; greasy, delicious Shanghai duck tamales, and Taquitos Godzilla--shrimp piled into brilliant green taco shells with wasabi cream, pickled ginger and Japanese cucumber. Sedlar has a wonderful eye for form and color: Blue corn muffins come tied with a ribbon of corn husk; slender shrimp-stuffed chiles rellenos are served with a smear of ochre curry and peanut sauces; a fat sopa stacked with artichoke and juicy quail floats in a lacquered cumin sauce. And for dessert, his Zuni corn souffle with cool passion-fruit cream would do any three-star chef proud; it’s like eating little bites of cloud.

1413 5th St., Santa Monica, (310) 395-8611; entrees, $12 to $18.

Barney Greengrass

The top of a tony department store such as Barneys New York is hardly the most likely place to find a great Jewish deli. But that’s the address of the new West Coast branch of Barney Greengrass, “the Sturgeon King,� an 87-year-old purveyor of smoked fish. The original shop is a scruffy little hole in the wall; in Beverly Hills, the Greengrass family decided to go for something quite a bit more glamorous. Here, their place is more cafe than deli, with an expanded menu of salads and entrees. The quality of the smoked fish, flown in from New York along with genuine New York bagels and bialys, is sensational. And to ensure that New Yorkers feel even more at home, the water here is filtered by a special reverse osmosis process to taste exactly like New York City’s finest. My ideal breakfast: A platter of velvety hand-cut Nova and sable, a couple of split, toasted bialys and a crock of ivory cream cheese eaten outside on the terrace with its view of the Hollywood hills.

Barneys New York, 9570 Wilshire Blvd., Beverly Hills, (310) 777-5877; entrees, $9 to $30.

Ginza Sushiko

If the prize patrol pulled up to my door tomorrow, I know just where I’d go to celebrate: Ginza Sushiko. Even in a scruffy neighborhood mini-mall, Ginza Sushiko was the most expensive restaurant in town. At $200 to $250 per person--more, if fugu (blowfish) is in season--it still is. Trouble is, the experience is so extraordinary that it is entirely worth the money. All the while I’m eating, I keep hoping against hope that it’s not quite as good as it really is, because I’m not going to be able to afford to come back very often. Ginza Sushiko sets the standard for sushi. Part of it is the superb quality of the seafood flown in from Japan; the rest is chef/owner Masa Takayama’s refined sensibility. The meal will simply unfold--exquisite bite after exquisite bite, punctuated by the sound of fresh wasabi root grated across a piece of shark skin. The place is so small, it’s like having a three-star chef cook just for you. Behind the bar, a 300-year-old vase, blistered from the heat of the kiln, is filled with deep violet irises, as astonishing against the blue-green of the wall as the delicately nuanced flavors of Takayama’s sushi.

Two Rodeo, 218 N. Rodeo Dr., Beverly Hills, (310) 247-8939; $200 to $300 per person.

La Serenata de Garibaldi

I can never go to La Serenata in Boyle Heights without ordering some of the wonderful fish tacos, a supple, handmade corn tortilla stuffed with mahi-mahi, a sliver of avocado, a light, fragrant salsa. I love too the fat empanadas (turnovers) filled with fish and molten cheese, the little saucer-shaped gorditas of fried masa dough piled with rosy shrimp and cilantro. The Rodriguez family is justly famous for their marvelous Mexican seafood cooking and for the vibrant, complex flavors of their sauces, made with various kinds of chiles, fresh and dried. Giant camarones come in a fragrant, startling green cilantro sauce (with plenty of freshly made tortillas to sop it up). You choose the fish (halibut, salmon, sea bass, mahi-mahi); you choose the sauce. For dessert, there’s a dense, comforting flan. And on Sunday mornings, the best huevos rancheros in town.

1842 E. 1st St., Boyle Heights, (213) 265-2887; entrees, $8.25 to $18.95.

Joe’s

Some chefs can’t wait to get out of the kitchen and move up the executive chef ladder, where they spend their time writing menus and supervising. Joe Miller, on the other hand, quite clearly loves to cook. And when he comes out of his kitchen at the end of the night, tired and flushed, it’s to make sure that he’s fed everyone in his small Venice restaurant well. Somehow, I do always leave Joe’s sated, happy. The food is homey, uncontrived, completely appealing. In addition to his a la carte menu, Miller offers two prix - fixe menus each night at $30 and $38. I could easily eat the last meal I had there all over again: arugula salad with grilled scallops wrapped in bacon, roasted pork tenderloin with wild mushrooms and roasted garlic, and for dessert, a warm blueberry-and-peach cobbler. Specials such as roasted quail with pear-and-cornbread stuffing or braised lamb shank with tender eggplant gnocchi keep the menu fresh. And on weekends, he serves brunch out on the new patio.

1023 Abbot Kinney Blvd., Venice, (310) 399-5811; entrees, $14 to $17; prix - fixe menus , $30 and $38.

The Grill on the Alley

The fact that the Grill is a power lunch spot doesn’t interest me at all. I don’t go there to see anybody; I’m here to eat. The Grill’s Cobb salad is exemplary, the steak tartare perfectly seasoned and the Caesar doesn’t stint on anchovies. Like the old-time waiters at Musso & Frank, the Grill’s waiters are thorough professionals. They can size you up in a minute, know what you’re likely to order before you’ve even decided yourself. Oysters on the half shell? Here come a dozen Fanny Bays on an iced platter. Then spunky green bean and onion salad, a platter of skinny gold fries beneath an avalanche of squiggly fried onions. And, oh yes, how about a T-bone steak--rare? The menu, printed every day, seems scripted from another era entirely, when people dressed up and stayed out late. Weekdays, the Grill is open till 11, weekends till 11:30 p.m.

9560 Dayton Way, Beverly Hills, (310) 276-0615; entrees, $11.25 to $29.50.

Gustaf Anders

When it comes to fish in its many forms--and especially smoked and cured salmon or herring--Gustaf Anders, Orange County’s austerely elegant Swedish restaurant, is in a class by itself. The homemade sugar- and salt-cured North Atlantic salmon, served with a side dish of warm, creamed dill potatoes, takes salmon to a whole other level. Chef Ulf Anders Strandberg and partner Wilhelm Gustaf Magnuson not only prepare their own herring in several styles (my favorite is Icelandic herring cured in a vodka and lemon brine), they take the trouble to bake their own Swedish-style breads--orange- and anise-scented limpa , dark pumpernickel and stiff, handmade knackebrod or crispbread. Everything about this restaurant is cool and sophisticated, from the very good art on the walls to the hip jazz playing in the background and the intelligent, well-edited wine list. It’s never too soon to plan ahead for crayfish season in mid-August, when the room is filled with Swedes feasting on huge platters of the freshwater crustaceans cooked with masses of fresh dill.

Bear Street side of South Coast Plaza Village, 1651 Sunflower Ave., Santa Ana, (714) 668-1737; entrees, $16 to $31.

La Cachette

How much pasta can one city consume? Just when it seemed the Italians had completely routed the French, French restaurants have been making a comeback. Things began looking up when l’Orangerie’s longtime chef Jean Francois Meteigner opened his own informal place in the old Champagne space near Century City. His light, natural cooking, short on cream and butter, long on flavor, is very much of the moment. Sure, you can still get a slice of terrine de foie gras on occasion, but his fragile Provencal tart topped with fresh tomatoes, sweet basil and a smear of tapenade may be even more appealing--and about 1/100th the calories. Swordfish with wasabi and mashed potatoes is one of his best dishes, yet what I long for is the lamb--not the braised lamb shanks with oregano, which are also very good, but his delicious spit-roasted leg of lamb basted with olive tapenade and mustard and served on a plate of juicy flageolet beans. It’s a great wine dish. For dessert, try to nab a piece of his tarte tatin , fat wedges of caramelized apples on a wisp of crust with a big scoop of chilled, softly whipped cream on the side. It’s a knockout.

10506 Little Santa Monica, Los Angeles, (310) 470-4992; entrees, $13 to $20.

Koutoubia

I don’t get the chance to eat as much ethnic food as I’d like. One place that I love, though, is Koutoubia, a charming, family-owned Moroccan restaurant in West Los Angeles. It’s perfect for a festive, exotic meal with friends, and works best if you call ahead to discuss the menu with owner Michel Ohayon. First, he’ll bring out a plate of assorted Moroccan salads: carrots, beets and cucumbers seasoned with various combinations of cumin, garlic and lemon. Then comes his mother’s blisteringly hot bestila , a savory filo-dough pastry piled high with shredded, gently spiced chicken, eggs and almonds, followed by a casserole of sea bass and sun-dried peppers or chicken with preserved lemons and olives, a tagine of lamb shank simmered with artichokes and, finally, a couscous of some sort. At the end, there is, of course, sweet mint tea, served in little glasses, and an assortment of homemade Moroccan sweets.

2116 Westwood Blvd., West Los Angeles, (310) 475-0729; entrees, $12.50 to $19.50.

Cafe Bizou

Someone from out of town recently called me in a panic: his favorite restaurant, Cafe Katsu on Sawtelle, was no longer listed in the phone directory. I was happy to tell him the longtime chef and maitre d’, Neil Rogers and Philippe Gris, had gone over the hill to Sherman Oaks to open their own place, Cafe Bizou, with basically the same menu, the same cooking and even lower prices. The room isn’t much, the decor nonexistent, but Neil Rogers is back there cooking his heart out for a full house every night. The place has taken off so quickly, he hasn’t had time to catch his breath. For now, the menu is short, the specials few and far between. But people keep coming back for his wonderful rare duck breast salad on spinach and wild rice, gutsy steak au poivre in peppered veal sauce, roast pork tenderloin, sesame-coated salmon, and the spectacularly good whole Maine lobster on black linguine tossed with oyster mushrooms, tomatoes and basil for an astonishing $16.95. And no matter how crowded it gets, the service is warm and considerate. What more do you want?

14418 Ventura Blvd., Sherman Oaks, (818) 788-3536; entrees, $9.95 to $16.95.

Ocean Star

There may be no finer way to cook whole fish than steaming it with ginger and scallions as the Cantonese do. At either of the two Cantonese Ocean Star seafood restaurants in Monterey Park, the waiter plucks live black cod or sheepshead from aquariums along the wall and brings them, flapping in a net, to your table for approval before sending them back to the kitchen. I come for the steamed live shrimp too, so bursting with roe that three or four per person is quite a feast. It’s delicious, absorbing work, breaking off the head and peeling the shells to get at the sweet, tender meat. Spicy salt-and-pepper squid stir-fried with bright slivers of crimson chile, and the vibrant green pea shoots and live lobsters roasted in the shell with lots of ginger and green scallions are excellent too. The Atlantic Boulevard restaurant is enormous. The Chandler Avenue place is smaller and more informal; weekdays it stays open till 3 a.m.--till 4 a.m. on weekends.

112 N. Chandler Ave., (818) 300-8446, and 145 N. Atlantic Blvd., (818) 308-2128, both in Monterey Park; dinner for two, food only, from $50.

Xiomara

Owner Xiomara Ardolina has teamed up with chef Patrick Healy to create a solidly charming French bistro in Pasadena. At Xiomara, Healy concentrates on soul-satisfying country dishes such as cassoulet laden with sausages, ribs and duck confit. His veal shank is braised for hours until the rich, gelatinous meat practically falls off the bone. He marinates three cuts of lamb in red wine and then gently stews them in a cast-iron casserole sealed with dough to hold in all the daube’s fragrance. Sometimes there’s a grandmotherly poule au pot , chicken-in-the-pot served with artichokes and root vegetables, or rustic handmade veal and sweetbread sausages with Healy’s fabulous mashed potatoes. Hardly anybody does this kind of restaurant cooking anymore. It’s nice to know that someone, at least, is giving the great old classics their due. The restaurant’s warmth and soul show up too in the cool, soothing room, the comfortable armchairs, the rustic terrines and pates served at the table from big porcelain terrines.

69 N. Raymond Ave., Pasadena, (818) 796-2520; entrees, $18 to $23.

Alto Palato

Do we really need another casual, moderately priced Italian restaurant? The answer is yes. Because there aren’t that many that are really good--or even much of a bargain, given the quality. Mauro Vincenti and Danilo Terribili’s Alto Palato is the big exception. Alto Palato’s wood-fired oven turns out thin-crusted Roman pizzas with fresh, simple toppings that are very true to Italian taste. The pasta is terrific, made with imported Latini dried pasta. The lamb chops taste like lamb. And specials such as a Jewish-Roman soup of skate wings, tomatoes and broken spaghetti, or deep-fried Roman-style salt cod with artichokes take the menu to another level. Gino Rindone makes the best cappuccino in L.A. And he’s also responsible for the superb gelato : My favorites are the rich pistachio and the nocciola , made from a paste of fragrant Piedmontese hazelnuts. Also to try: the affogato , vaniglia gelato with a tiny cup of espresso poured over.

755 N. La Cienega Blvd., Los Angeles, (310) 657-9271; pizzas, $7 to $11; pasta, $6.50 to $12.95; entrees, $12.50 to $19.95.

Aubergine

Orange County’s most appealing new restaurant is Aubergine, a French country auberge set in a sweet little yellow house on the Balboa Peninsula. Its young owners, Tim and Lisa Goodell, are both chefs and they do almost everything themselves, including baking all the breads and pastries. There’s a generosity of spirit and real love of food that come across in dishes such as French lentil soup laced with vegetables and smoky lardons, or a beautiful bowl of steamed mussels and clams. They smoke their own salmon and pair it with fresh corn waffles. The rough-textured fennel-lamb sausages are homemade too, served with rare lamb loin and rosemary-spiked white beans. Some people come by just for dessert, they’re so remarkably good. Think pain d’epices (spice cake) with pan-roasted apples and cinnamon ice cream, or a fabulous, fudgy chocolate souffle topped with cream.

508 29th St., Newport Beach, (714) 723-4150; entrees, $11 to $17.50, six-course tasting menu, $48.

Hamilton’s, A Wine Bar

This new wine bar adjoining the Wine Merchant in Beverly Hills feels like an exclusive clubhouse for wine lovers and cigar aficionados. It’s named for the actor George Hamilton, who is a partner--and the decorator. He’s moved in comfy sofas and paisley armchairs, English antiques and paintings of hunting dogs. It all works somehow, even the oversized tongue-in-cheek portrait of the actor as a would-be Heathcliff. The bar offers more than 50 serious wines by the glass and Michel Blanchet, l’Ermitage’s longtime chef, provides the famous l’Ermitage smoked salmon and a few other simple appetizers. I like the smoked trout with horseradish sauce and the silky chicken liver mousse in an individual crock. There’s also a plate of French cheeses from the Beverly Hills Cheese Shop. The music is good (Dinah Washington, Billie Holiday, Gloria Estefan singing soulful boleros). Upstairs is a cigar shop; after hours, you can buy cigars at the bar. Next door is the nonsmoking room, with tables fit in among the bottles.

9701 Santa Monica Blvd., Beverly Hills, (310) 278-7322; appetizers, $7.50 to $12.50, caviar, $27 to $55 per ounce.

Cafe Pinot

When Joachim Splichal opened Patinette, his savvy little lunchroom next to MOCA, it was a welcome addition to the downtown lunch scene. Now that he’s opened Cafe Pinot next to the Central Library, lunch Downtown looks even more appealing. On warm days, you can sit at tables set outside in the adjoining Maguire Gardens. And after work, you can stop for a glass of Sauvignon and enjoy a dozen Fanny Bay or Hog Island oysters without breaking the bank. Like any self-respecting Paris bistro, Cafe Pinot lists a plat du jour for every day of the week. Tuesday’s roti leg of lamb with ratatouille and Friday’s suckling pig with cracklings are both worth rearranging your schedule for. I’m planning on slowly working my way through the week. My picks from the rest of the menu: eggy brioche heaped with fat, wine-drenched escargots , the dreamy polenta with rock shrimp, pancetta and asparagus and the barley risotto with braised oxtail.

700 W. 5th St., Los Angeles, (213) 239-6500; entrees, $11.95 to $19.95.

Valentino

Valentino has become my special occasion restaurant, where I go to celebrate a birthday or anniversary, a friend’s first visit to Los Angeles or any other excuse I can muster up. There’s a reason why Valentino turns up on every list of L.A.’s top restaurants, and that’s because it keeps a high standard year in, year out--a remarkable feat. Chef Angelo Auriana’s food is austerely elegant, so extraordinarily pure in its flavors that it’s always a pleasure to sit down to the table here. Doubly so, if you care at all about wines. Owner Piero Selvaggio has put together a phenomenal wine list, especially of Italian wines, at remarkably fair prices for a restaurant at this level. I’m convinced the best way to experience Valentino is to put yourself in the chef’s hands and ask him to prepare a series of small courses (the regular menu, although good, won’t wow you.) Auriana might send out a single sweet shrimp on a pile of wilted chicory, a scallop with a fan of musky porcini mushrooms, a small portion of opulent risotto blanketed with white truffles from Piedmont, buttery fettucine tossed with rabbit, or roast veal napped in a delicate Gorgonzola sauce. For my money, it’s the best Italian restaurant this side of the Atlantic.

Valentino, 3115 Pico Blvd., Santa Monica, (310) 829-4313; entrees, $18 to $25.