After Resting on Its Laurels, Avanti Is Back to Crowning Achievements

La Jolla’s Avanti for some time seemed a victim of its almost instant success.

The offspring of a small, Phoenix-based family of Italian restaurants, the place had quite the cosmopolitan feel when it opened in 1984, as it still does today. The relatively grand menu was nicely executed, and the dressy bar, with its lively piano music, drew an enthusiastic horde of patrons night after night. But the upshot of all this was a surge of overconfidence that resulted, for a while, in shoddy service and indifferent cuisine.

Late reports have assumed their former glowing tones, however, and a recent visit confirmed them. Service is back up to par--which is to say that it is quite good--and the menu, now supplemented by a handsome list of daily specials, is prepared with flair.

Elegant Contrasts

If anything, the place now offers the eye even more diversion. A well-stocked and thoughtfully arranged antipasto table flanks the entrance to the dining room, a room that elegantly contrasts shadow and light thanks to the polished metal ceiling in which its inhabitants and furnishings are mirrored. A demonstration kitchen strung with garlands of garlic forms the focus of the room and is the scene of much appetizing activity, since it is here that the many pastas are prepared.

A basket of hot garlic bread and genuine grissini Torinese (the pencil-thin bread sticks that are the specialty of Turin) arrive with drinks. Both are good, especially the grissini , of which you can eat too many if you nibble inattentively.

The menu runs to some length and tends to be on the expensive side in the appetizer department, which offers a mussel preparation of the day, fried baby squid and marinated raw salmon in addition to such old standbys as shrimp cocktail and snails in garlic butter. The best choice here certainly would be the antipasto plate, arranged by the waiter from the selection on the display table. The serving is quite large and it could, albeit with some inconvenience, be shared by two guests.

Ambitious Italian restaurants always take pride in their antipasto tables, and Avanti served up quite a handsome plate, with marinated and pickled vegetables as its central theme. Among these were grilled and marinated peppers; similarly treated slices of zucchini and eggplant, both topped with thin sheets of Parmesan for a toothsome flavor contrast; spicy, sun-dried tomatoes arranged around a lump of fresh mozzarella cheese and a surprisingly savory chick pea salad. A wedge of provolone cheese, a few slices of salami and an unusually elegant boiled egg in mayonnaise contributed protein to the arrangement.

A half-portion of any of the pastas also makes an admirable starter, based on the several sampled, including a house combination of rigatoni in fresh tomato-basil sauce and fat tortellini in a rich cream sauce studded with minced walnuts. Richness entered the penne (a tubular macaroni) from quite a different direction, in the form of the eggplant tossed into the pasta along with tomato sauce and mozzarella; eggplant always adds a meaty tone.

The day’s special pasta, anelli di ricotta, also was sampled in an appetizer portion, which turned out to be wise because this confection of ricotta cheese and prosciutto ham rolled in freshly prepared crepes proved quite rich. Served in slices (hence the name anelli , which means rings ), this pasta arrived masked both with tomato sauce and an unusual, very flavorful pistachio cream.

Salad May Be Sufficient

A salad of well-selected greens, tossed with a vaguely creamy but nicely piquant dressing, was served between first course and entree. Be warned that Avanti serves large portions, and the salad may well prove a sufficient starter for the average appetite.

The standing entree list includes many of the basics, such as veal scallops in Marsala; chicken breast stuffed with cheese and ham; and ossobuco , the Milanese dish of braised veal shanks. It grows more interesting with steak tartare; beef filet in porcini mushroom sauce; and, oddly enough, paella, a Spanish seafood-and-rice stew for which the restaurant claims to have a special recipe.

However, it is the special menu that offers the most unusual and probably the most rewarding choices. The cooking seems a bit more imaginative and further afield, as in a serving of pan-gilded Norwegian salmon finished with a sweet, translucent sauce flavored with dill and julienned aromatic vegetables. Crowned luxuriously with a spoon of golden caviar, the dish seemed much more Scandinavian than Italian, but there is no reason for the kitchen not to venture into other cuisines, especially when it does them so well.

The mood turned international and contemporary with a thick, meaty veal chop, grilled rare and finished with a creamy sherry sauce and a heap of caramelized garlic. The flavors melted together quite beautifully.

A well-executed brodetto di Napoli brought the kitchen firmly back to its Italian roots. A seafood soup-stew built on the loose guidelines that govern these preparations around the rims of the Mediterranean and the Adriatic, this one looked like an octopus’ garden in its arrangement of ingredients. It included clams and mussels in the shell; small, pinkish squid; large shrimp and chunks of salmon, all of which reposed in a mild saffron sauce under a thicket of braised, julienned leek. This last gave a nicely pungent accent to what was essentially a very delicate dish.

Dessert sounded frankly uninteresting after so heavy a meal, but the waiter compromised by serving very thin slices of tirami su , a typical Italian dessert that is served in many ways and is interpreted by Avanti as slices of cake, layered with whipped mascarpone cheese and dusted with cocoa. A cup of excellent cappuccino helped wash it down.

AVANTI

875 Prospect St., La Jolla

454-4288

Dinner served nightly

Credit cards accepted

Dinner for two, with a moderate bottle of wine, tax and tip, $50 to $90.