The Gossiping Gourmet: An old-style Italian eatery

Ti Amo has been around for as long as we can remember, so they must be doing something right.

In this era of sleek modern box-shaped bistros, all steel and glass, done in tones of beige and brown, it’s kind of nice to occasionally slip back in time to an old-fashioned Italian restaurant decorated like a Mediterranean villa from some Hollywood movie.

In fact, it bears an eerie resemblance to the haunted house in Disneyland with dusty deep red drapery, dried flowers, dripping candelabras and pseudo-frescoed walls.

Celebrities such as Mick Jagger, Natalie Cole, Kiefer Sutherland, Joe Montana and George Bush have supped here in one of their five cozy dining rooms.

The cuisine is free-ranging Mediterranean, roaming as far as Asian-fusion. But mostly it’s Italian with some dishes from Spain and California.

As we traveled the menu, some excellent crisp house-baked three-seeded flatbread arrived that we quickly devoured along with their creamy tapenade that had been whipped to a strange light blue-gray color “¦ odd-looking but very tasty.

However, keeping it company, instead of the delicious dense focaccia that we had on our last visit, they brought the disappointing soft, cottony kind.

“Most of our customers like this kind better,” our waiter said.

Ti Amo’s nod to the recession is their “lobster/steak stimulus package” This consists of a 7-ounce Brazilian lobster tail, a 5-ounce filet, mashed potatoes and veggies for $24.95. It’s a really good price for what you get.

The warm summer night suggested salad as an appetizer. From their interesting selection we chose insalata con calamari fritti and mozzarella.

We were expecting a salad with some calamari but what we got was fried calamari with a salad garnish. We were not unhappy with what turned out to be more of a appetizer because the calamari was really crunchy and tender and the spicy plum dressing (really just a gastrique) was a creative touch that provided both sweetness and spice.

This “salad” came with sticks of deep fried mozzarella cheese, which were delicious with the little slivers of tart green apple that were tossed with the token greens.

Dungeness crab cakes with honey chipotle aioli certainly can’t be found in Italy; neither can tuna tartar with mango sorbet and wasabi caviar. This is California cuisine. Very Italian, however, is carpaccio di manzo, thinly sliced raw beef with shaved Parmesan, capers and lemon. We like the French inspired puff pastry Napoleon with mushrooms.

We chose a simple pasta with vegetables for our second course. The linguine Fiorentina had fresh artichoke hearts, mushrooms, sun-dried tomatoes, roasted garlic and the tiniest bit of spinach “” strange to name a pasta “Fiorentina” (which generally refers to a spinach dish) that has so little of that ingredient.

Also in short supply was the advertised feta cheese and pesto sauce. The pasta was nicely al dente but lacked salt. A bit more feta might have solved that problem. We settled for the salt shaker but we also missed the basil-garlic flavors of pesto. We did, however, appreciate the fresh mushrooms and marinated artichoke hearts.

Our favorite pasta here is the linguine ai frutti di mare. This enormous portion is chock full of shrimp, mussels, clams, calamari and fresh fish in a light tomato broth flavored with all the delicious juices from the seafood.

The fish of the day was Chilean sea bass prepared with a port wine reduction and served with mashed potatoes and vegetables. One of the other specials came with butternut squash puree, which we requested instead of the potatoes.

The sea bass, (which has recently made a reappearance on menus, now that it is off the endangered list) was a large baseball cut. It was perfectly cooked and very moist but somehow did not have its usual distinctive flavor and the sauce was not the right choice for this fish: too heavy, too thick and too sweet.

Luckily, there was help on the table because we still had the creamy tapenade, which enhanced the fish nicely with bold accents of garlic and saltiness.

Spain makes a culinary appearance with its national dish, paella a la Valenciana. Spedini di Ti Amo is their take on global fusion in the form of hoisin lemon marinated seafood served over saffron rice with papaya and almonds.

We were simply too full for dessert and so had to pass up the “milk and cookies,” a pecan almond sandwich stuffed with orange butter cream and served with ice cold milk or the more grown up “coffee and doughnuts,” cappuccino semi-freddo mousse with hot cinnamon doughnut holes.

The house favorite is banana bread pudding topped with bananas Foster whiskey sauce.

To sweeten the bill, our waiter served us a complimentary espresso-sized amaretto-flavored coffee drink topped with a mound of real whipped cream.

This funky old house has a certain romantic charm and the different dining areas provide a variety of ambience to suit your mood, while the pan-Mediterranean menu provides a wide variety of dishes to suit your taste.

If You Go

WHAT: Ti Amo

(949) 499-5350

tiamolagunabeach.com

WHERE: 31717 S. Coast Hwy.

WHEN: Monday through Saturday: 5:30 to 10 p.m.

Sunday: 5 to 10 p.m.

PRICES:

Appetizers: $7.95 to $14.95

Entrées: $18.95 to $27.95

Desserts: $6.50 to $8

WINE:

Bottles: $22 to $575

Half bottles: $16 to $110

By the glass: $6.50 to $12

Corkage Fee: $20

ELLE HARROW and TERRY MARKOWITZ owned a la Carte for 20 years and can be reached at [email protected].