French-Style Cafe With View of Cove : La Terrace in La Jolla Takes Diners a Step Up

Among the many dictums and apothegms accepted as incontrovertible truth by American restaurateurs is the saying, “Nobody will dine above or below street level.”

I’ve never entirely believed this, but it does seem fairly true that diners--especially American diners--adamantly resist efforts to lure them to climb or descend stairs. You have only to take a brief inventory of local restaurants to conclude that, in San Diego, we do tend to dine at a pedestrian level.

Restaurateurs from out of town cannot be expected to understand all the local quirks, however, and thus it has come to pass that La Jolla’s new La Terrace is tucked somewhat inconveniently on the second floor of a fairly attractive building on Prospect Street. The door is at the side of the building, off what must, no matter how polite one’s intentions, be called an alley.

This upstairs restaurant, which offers decent views of La Jolla Cove from the broad balcony and cozy dining within the triangular main room, is the joint effort of manager Dominique LeFevre and chef Michael Million.

LeFevre, who was born in Paris, has been maitre d’ at New York’s ultra-trendy Regine’s and belongs to the family that owns that city’s La Cote Basque. Million was born in Ethiopia, where Italian cooking is much better known than French among foreign cuisines, but he learned his way around the French kitchen in Tel Aviv.

Like French Cafe

It seems a touch odd to call a menu low-key, but this one is, in the sense that it is a bit quiet and quaint; the effort seems to be to replicate a simple French cafe menu. There are pates and snails for starters, and such classic cafe desserts as profiteroles to finish, with simple entrees from la cuisine bourgeoise (solid home cooking) in between. A meal can be a bargain, if one eats lightly and orders just salad (not included in the price of dinner) and entree, but appetizers and desserts are relatively expensive and bring the tab up quickly to the level of grander establishments.

There have been a few efforts at cafe-style places in San Diego in recent years, and a few have enjoyed some success. La Terrace is nicer than most, since it is attractive and does take a relatively formal view of service and atmosphere. If the menu is conservative, it also offers likable dishes prepared with a good degree of competence.

One of the typical French touches is the side of smoked salmon displayed on a sideboard, which the maitre d’ will shave into thin slices and present with minced onion, capers and toast points. Just as typical (and also extravagant) is the offering of pate de foie gras , which is taken from a can and is perfectly respectable, but by no means the equal of the fresh article, an item that can be found these days if one looks hard enough. Million does make a strongly flavored, coarsely textured house pate that he dishes up lavishly and garnishes with a tart and pleasing Cumberland sauce. In keeping with the theory that pate maison is made of odds and ends and the chef’s own witty additions, this one includes lamb--not commonly used in pate--among its several meats.

The only starter that shows originality is the moules a la Pompadour , or mussels in cream sauce enriched with lobster butter. This is very much in the classic French mood, but a nice variant on the eternal mussels steamed in garlic-scented white wine.

Soup Selections

Mussels return on the soup list, prepared in a broth seasoned with saffron and julienned vegetables. The soup selection also includes the inevitable onion au gratin and vichyssoise, as well as a soupe du jour that, on one occasion, most startlingly, was a cream of snow pea. This was passed by, with some reluctance, in favor of a different starter, but, on a separate visit, the cream of tomato was sampled and found to be, in fact, a classic restaurant cream of tomato. The reason that cream of tomato makes frequent appearances as the day’s soup at so many eateries is that tomato, when added to a puree of other soups, completely dominates, and disguises the fact that previous personalities are involved. This seemed to be the case here, especially since the texture was remarkably thick and pasty.

Caesar salad finally, and for better or (often) worse, has become standard on new menus hereabouts. La Terrace makes a good one as long as one really likes anchovies. The salade mimosa is a much milder choice, a really tender and refreshing pile of lightly dressed greenery garnished with fresh herbs and minced egg.

The entree list takes note of prevalent dietary restrictions and current tastes by offering a selection of cuisine minceur (low in calories, fat and sodium) dishes, such as the day’s fish prepared in the simplest manner, fresh noodles tossed with a sauce of mushrooms and sun-dried tomatoes, and a steamed vegetable plate. None of these sound particularly exciting, but at least the option is there if a member of the party needs to watch his diet.

On the richer French side are such preparations as scallops and shrimp in a creamy Pernod sauce; poached salmon in champagne sauce; sauteed filet of sole finished with lobster sauce and noodles dressed with shellfish and cream.

Weird peppercorns, such as pink and green (a lot of people do like them, but, perhaps because cooks only use them when they can use them extravagantly, their flavors are sometimes annoying) show up prominently on the meat list. Veal scallops are dressed with shrimp, mushrooms, spinach and pink peppercorn sauce, and that old reliable standby of French cooking, the New York steak in pepper, here is finished with pink and green as well as black peppercorns.

Much more savory are such preparations as the tournedos Rossini, the classic grilled filet garnished with foie gras and a lovely Madeira sauce, and the half chicken with mushrooms, which the chef usually prepares with a Calvados (fine apple brandy) sauce. A guest requested champagne sauce instead, and was pleased by its tart and somewhat bubbling nature. Another classic was the roast duck in cherry sauce; savory rather than sweet, the sauce emphasized the succulence of the well-roasted bird.

Recipes that specify baking food in clay, salt and even earthen wrappings have been around for millenia, but are rarely seen in the West these days. La Terrace offers a filet of beef, cut for two, au corselet de sel , or wrapped first in herbs and grape leaves and then completely encased in sea salt. Baked to a medium-rare stage, the meat took on a fine tenderness, retained its juices and featured a certain concentration of flavor, accented by a strong rosemary note. Stray bits of salt clung to the meat and added occasional explosions of saltiness, but otherwise, the meat could not have been said to be salty. If one likes beef, this is a good dish to try.

The dessert list offers a cheese plate, which is all to the good, although the kitchen’s cheese hoard seems rather sparse and the selection offered was unappealing. In a different mood but also much nicer is the fresh Grand Marnier souffle, which the kitchen prepares garnished with orange segments and raspberry and custard sauces. The profiterole , or cream puff filled with vanilla ice cream and topped with chocolate sauce, was good, but seemed rather miserly in portion when weighed against its $3.50 price tag.

DAVID NELSON

ON RESTAURANTS

LA TERRACE

1295 Prospect St., La Jolla

456-2661

Lunch and dinner daily.

Credit cards accepted.

Dinner for two, including a glass of house wine each, tax and tip, $35 to $75.