RESTAURANTS / Max Jacobson : Tuttomare Is Planning to Change Its Menu Often--and That’s Welcome News

Spectrum Foods may not be a household name, but chances are that one of its many upscale restaurants is: Prego, MacArthur Park and Chianti are just three on Spectrum’s growing list of successful ventures. That’s why it’s puzzling that Tuttomare, the company’s newest restaurant, should be so rough around the edges.

It’s not for lack of trying. Many of Spectrum’s innovations (e.g., hanging pastas, the Grissini bread sticks on every table) are missing, but the usual staff espirit de corps is apparent in everyone from the bus boy to the general manager. Enzo de Muro, a Spectrum veteran, is running the dining room with style. I heard the waiter at the next table say that he had come down from San Francisco just because de Muro would be his boss.

The restaurant is in the building that formerly housed Savannah Grill, and all the beautiful character of that dining room has been retained: deeply hued wooden columns, elaborate French windows, a long and luxuriously crafted bar and a stunning inlaid marble floor.

Add touches like wonderful Art Deco-style posters, blue lights and an open kitchen with a tile tangle of bas-relief crustaceans above it, and the result is richly appealing. No wonder the restaurant has been standing room only on weekends since the first week it opened.

The name Tuttomare means “everything from the sea.” I’d say this was an odd choice. Apart from the inclusion of whole baked fish and an extra seafood salad or two, the restaurant’s menu resembles almost any current palaccio of “la nuova cucina.” But as our solicitous waiter pointed out, “we plan to change the menu quite often.”

I hope they change it soon; only a few dishes made a strong impression on me. One that did was the wonderful, yeasty focaccia bread that is brought as soon as you are seated. Tiny cruets of pale green olive oil and pungent balsamic vinegar sit on the tables, and you may find yourself eating far too much bread, using the oil and vinegar as dipping sauces.

An excellent insalata di mare , a simple seafood salad with olive oil and lemon, provided a fine foil for the bread. The salad is composed of raw scallop, baby octopus, fresh prawn, cold steamed mussels and sliced green olive.

Pomodoro e mozzarella al pesto-- bufala mozzarella with sliced tomato-- was a disappointment. The tomatoes and subtle pesto were delightful, but the dish was ruined by dry, tasteless cheese. I’ve had this same dish at Prego and loved it, so perhaps the cheese just had a bad night. I hold little hope, however, for the Belgian endive, radicchio and arugula salad--a plain bowl of cut vegetables with absolutely no embellishment. Without dressing, garnish or presentation, it looked like lunch for a Park Avenue pet rabbit.

The kitchen gets fancier when it comes to pastas, but that doesn’t necessarily mean better. Sea bass gnocchi were all flour and, despite a wonderful tomato sauce with clams, too gummy to finish. Ravioli filled with spinach and ricotta were annoyingly grainy, and orecchiette alla Barese , advertised as ear-shaped pasta with wild broccoli, were utterly flavorless.

Triangoli di pesce , black and white triangles filled with fish in a garlic and tomato sauce, were better, delicate and savory with a sweet aftertaste. And paglia e fieno (literally straw and hay ), green and white noodles in a butter, cream and Parmesan sauce, was pleasing, although the pasta was too sticky.

Secondi , or main dishes, are mostly quite good. The whole sea bass was baked in the restaurant’s wood oven so that it had sweet, smoky overtones and crisply charred skin. Spedini di gamberi , grilled skewered prawns, were even better, so skillfully grilled on mesquite that it was easy to overlook the watery, unappetizing cannellini beans underneath them. Best of all was lombata di vitello , a fat veal chop with prosciutto and Fontina cheese, a trencherman’s version of saltimbocca. Sausage with polenta was forgettable: The polenta tasted like Cream of Wheat a la griglia .

The vegetables were particularly annoying. All the main dishes come with a huge pile of roughly cut boiled squash and broccoli without butter or seasoning. To have to pay for something like this is a major irritation.

Soothe yourself, as we did, with the good desserts. Vanilla bean ice cream with sliced berries was terrific, as was crostata al limone , a racy lemon tart with frothy, sweet meringue atop it. Tirami su --that ubiquitous dessert of ladyfingers with espresso, mascarpone cheese, Marsala wine and powdered cocoa--was not so distinguished; the ladyfingers were stale.

And that’s the problem with Tuttomare: the basic ingredients are fine, but occasionally the food seems a little tired.

Tuttomare is high-end moderate. Antipasti are $4.50 to $7.95. Soups and pastas are $3.50 to $10.50. Secondi are $9.75 to $19.50 (for whole fish). Desserts are $3.75 to $4.95.

TUTTOMARE

545 Newport Center Drive, Newport Beach

(714) 640-6333.

Open Monday through Thursday 11 a.m. to 11 p.m.; Friday 11 a.m. to midnight; Saturday 11:30 a.m. to midnight; Sunday 5 to 10 p.m.