HOTEL DINING

Forget what you think you know about hotel food. These recently reviewed hotel restaurants deliciously shatter the myths.

BERNARD’S (Biltmore Hotel, 515 S. Olive St., Los Angeles, (213) 612-1580). Bernard’s is a dark, sunken room of cushioned hush punctuated by gentle harp music. Service is old-fashioned--black-suited waiters bring your meal out on carts and fuss beside your table, warming the entrees over a burner and carefully arranging the food on your plate. Start with foie gras served on toasted walnut bread surrounded by pickled cucumber and pink ginger, or the pig’s foot stuffed with escargots. Then try the black fettuccine with olives served in a light cream and sweet pepper sauce with pleasingly plump scallops. Another high point is the 2-inch-thick beefsteak in a whole-seed mustard sauce that is tender with a sweet, rare beef flavor. Desserts include a wonderful chocolate pave in apricot puree; a good frozen raspberry souffle set on a base of thin layers of sponge cake; and a luscious fruit sabayon. There is also an after-dinner drink cart. Lunch Mon.-Fri., dinner Mon.-Sat. All major credit cards. Wine and after-dinner drinks. Valet parking. Dinner for two, food only. $70-$110.

CAFE MONDRIAN (Mondrian Hotel, 8440 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, (213) 650-8999). Cafe Mondrian’s quiet, light-filled room is a great place to have a real conversation, an assignation or a working lunch. The chilled melon soup is good and the endive salad couldn’t be fresher or more prettily served. The Chinese chicken salad is elegant, with thin slivers of crunchy carrots, scallions and pea pods. Try a generous portion of mahi-mahi, which is poached and enhanced by a marvelous sunrise-colored mango curry coulis. There is also broiled chicken suffused with ginger, lime and soy sauce, which is grilled crisp to a coppery sheen. Vegetables are beautifully presented and lightly cooked. End your meal with a cup of fine cappuccino . Breakfast, lunch and dinner daily. All major credit cards. Full bar. Valet parking. Dinner for two, food only, $32-$85. CALIFIA (Radisson Plaza Hotel, 1400 Park View Ave., Manhattan Beach, (213) 546-1668). Chef Roland Gibert, formerly of Bernard’s, is turning out elegant, pretty dishes in this elegant, brightly lit gray-and-pink dining room. An appetizer of smoked salmon and sturgeon comes on a bed of the world’s mildest and best-behaved sauerkraut, sprinkled lightly with blond caraway and accompanied by crisp, positively brittle toast points. Be adventurous and try the rich cream of sea urchin soup. The beef tenderloin in a Sauternes and cinnamon sauce is another interesting dish. There’s also an extraordinarily good rack of lamb on a bed of braised endive. At dinner, there is a five-course prix-fixe meal at $45 per person. All the regular desserts are quite good, but the star is the ice cream-like poppy-seed souffle served in a raspberry sauce. Lunch Mon.-Fri., dinner Tue.-Sat. All major credit cards. Full bar. Valet parking. Dinner for two, food only, $54-$80. COLETTE (Beverly Pavilion Hotel, 9360 Wilshire Blvd., Beverly Hills, (213) 273-1151). Service is calm and professional, and the two dining rooms are small and quietly lovely. In addition to the regular offerings, chef Christopher Blobaum offers a rustic special of the day, a low sodium and low-fat cuisine legere and a gala gastronomique of six courses at $55 a person. Each soup is better than the next. The lamb tart is a pretty dish with slices of lamb carefully arranged atop a large circle of vegetables, including a layer of buttery spinach, mushrooms and a very garlicky tomato coulis . The New York strip steak, well-grilled and served with candied shallots and red wine sauce is a treat, as is the ceviche of small sweet scallops with avocado, onions, peppers, lime and cilantro. The best dessert is the strawberry tart. Breakfast, lunch and dinner daily. All major credit cards. Full bar. Valet parking. Dinner for two, food only, $45-$80.

DOVER’S (The Doubletree Hotel, 100 The City Drive, Orange, (714) 634-4500). Dover’s is a huge, plush place filled with ceramic pieces and even a gem exhibit. The seafood sausage is a sensational appetizer-- boudin- like slices sit in a bed of smoothly sauced, al dente green and white linguine. The salmon, poached in jasmine tea and set into a sauce of fresh orange and scallop cream, is extraordinary. Steaks and chops are excellent, too. Dover’s also offers spa cuisine at lunch and dinner: dishes which are low in calories, fat and carbohydrates. Several nightly specials feature fresh fish. For dessert order ice cream; Dover’s makes its own. The restaurant is semi-dressy, and there is piano music in the evening. Lunch and dinner daily. All major credit cards. Full bar. Valet parking. Dinner for two, food only, $25-$85.