IS THERE A NEW FIN IN YOUR FUTURE? BREAM ON

Ten years ago, hard though it might be for the fish lovers among you to believe, practically nobody in America had ever heard of (much less eaten) that ugly but delicious denizen of the deep called monkfish or lotte-- and the idea of a diner addressing a slab of charbroiled shark would have sounded like a joke.

Five years ago, orange roughy was all but unknown--as were such fun-to-pronounce Hawaiian species as opu, ahi and wahoo. Today, of course, such fish are so common in our restaurants as to have become almost cliches. We’ve come a long way from the familiar waters of salmon, swordfish and sole.

But, like they say, there are a lot of fish in the sea--and as American demand for fresh seafood grows and grows, it’s a pretty safe bet that we’ll be expanding our underwater horizons still further, learning to know and love still more new piscatorial pleasures. Like what, for instance?

Well, according to the authoritative fish-biz trade magazine Seafood Leader, these are the best bets for finned stardom in the near future:

1--Sea breams, including the gilt-head bream ( daurade in French, orata in Italian, and one of the Mediterranean’s most delicious creatures in any language) and the dentex (which is widely eaten in Italy under the name dentice ).

2--Tilipia, a mild, white-fleshed fish, a bit like sea bass, which is said to have spectacular breeding capacity and thus to be a good option for future fish-farming operations.

3--Skate or ray, which is already showing up on both traditional and contemporary French menus around town (almost always, in the former case, in black butter with capers).

4--Cobia (also known as ling, lemon fish and Chinese catfish, among other things), which apparently tastes a bit like yellowtail or mahi-mahi.

5--Hoki, which Seafood Leader suggests will soon be “the name on everyone’s lips” in the New Zealand fishing industry now that orange roughy prices have skyrocketed.

6--Croaker, a name loosely applied to numerous fish from the family Sciaenidae, ranging from small and pan-fryable to quite large in size.

7--Sablefish (sometimes labeled as black cod, though in fact it isn’t cod at all), an oily but very tasty fish that I first encountered at the hands of Seattle restaurateur Robert Rossellini and which is, along with the gilt-head bream, the fish of this bunch whose imminent popularity I most hungrily await.

ON THE FRONT BURNER: More new restaurants--surprise, surprise--are in the works in the L.A. area. Without a doubt, the most unusual of the bunch will be the Hollywood Savoy, to be opened in February by Ernie Criezis, owner of the Great Greek in Sherman Oaks. Criezis is a food-service veteran, having owned and operated, at various times, a dozen different restaurants in Houston (among them a 350-seat “18th-Century opera house of a place,” called the Great Caruso), as well as the original Hollywood Savoy in Paris. The new one, which will occupy an as-yet-undisclosed site on the Sunset Strip, will feature Criezis’ personal collection of Art Deco architectural artifacts, live 1940s-style music and food that the restaurateur describes as “American regional and international regional; American, Greek, some Turkish--the kind of food I like to eat.”

On a rather more modest scale, a second Yum Cha Dim Sum Cafe (the first being on Ocean Park Boulevard in Santa Monica) will open in June in Woodland Hills, and a third Johnny Rocket’s, following the original on Melrose and a second to open later this year in Beverly Hills, is being plotted for Sherman Oaks.

And a new establishment, which will apparently be Italian in nature, is under construction on the ground floor of an 18-story high-rise at the corner of Wilshire Boulevard and Bundy Drive in West Los Angeles. The 5,700-square-foot restaurant, to be called Sostanza (Italian for substance , as in matter or gist ), has been designed by Akar Inc. of Santa Monica.

A LA CARTE: Green corn tamale fanatics will be pleased to learn that El Cholo, on Western Avenue, will begin selling the things for the season on June 1. Of course, if you’re really a fanatic you already knew that, because the corn is green at El Cholo on June 1 every year. . . . The Imperial Gardens on the Sunset Strip, which has been dispensing Japanese fare since 1952, has installed a new sushi bar. . . . Anil Kapor (ex-general manager of Akbar in Marina del Rey), Vinay Lall (ex-general manager of the Royal Khyber in Newport Beach) and Bhag Singh (ex-head chef at Curry Cuisine, also in Marina del Rey) have taken over Aashiana Cuisine of India on Wilshire in West Los Angeles. In addition to a simplified menu of Indian specialties, the team has introduced a $6.95 all-you-can-eat-and-drink brunch on Saturday and a $9.95 one on Sunday, plus a $5.95 all-you-can-eat buffet lunch on weekdays. . . . The Bistro Patissier in Glendale offers a prime rib dinner for $9.95 or a 10% discount from the regular dinner menu plus a free glass of wine, daily from 5 to 6:30 p.m. . . . Yanks in Beverly Hills now serves Sunday brunch, with live piano music in the background. . . . Hymie’s Fish Market and Seafood Restaurant of West Los Angeles now has an Encino branch. . . . And the Ritz-Carlton Hotel Club Grill and Bar in Laguna Niguel presents the first in a series of wine makers’ dinners on Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. Wines and wine makers from the Rodney Strong, Newton and David Bruce wineries will be present.