Chef Wally Back in the Game : Menu Touts Old Friends at New Bistro

Chef Ernest Wally finally has opened his own restaurant, Chef Wally’s Bistro, in the Sports Arena-area premises that formerly housed the likable Cafe Chanticleer.

The menu bills the place as serving “coastal cuisine,” a term at once expressive and vague. But, true to form, Wally has made room for some of his old friends, including alligator, wild boar and venison. This is reminiscent of the mid-1980’s, when he donned the chef’s tall toque at the now-defunct Judson’s in Loma Portal, where rattlesnakes slithered across his appetizer list, buffalo roamed among the entrees, and lions and bears (no tigers, though) prowled through the nightly specials.

Every chef dreams of having his own establishment, and, although Wally really belongs downtown (he also was chef for a time at the Ida Bailey dining room at the Horton Grand Hotel), he seems intent to do his best--which can be quite impressive--in this shopping center location. To find a menu and wine list of this scale in a neighborhood place is to find a luxury that San Diego could use more of. The tone taken by the cooking seems at odds with the rather kitschy decor that Wally inherited from Cafe Chanticleer, but time doubtless will bring a more contemporary look to the dining room.

Order Ahead by Fax

The restaurant unquestionably is up-to-date on one rather odd point. Patrons who wish to fax orders ahead may do so, a service that might become commonplace over time. The menu suggests an intriguing possibility by encouraging first-time diners to also fax an identification photo. “We will be able to recognize you when you arrive,” it reads. “That should impress your friends.”

Although he has trimmed down to a mere 265 pounds, the still bear-like Wally is not one to pussyfoot around the kitchen. There is a sophistication and subtlety to his cooking, but he definitely likes strong, direct flavors. For example, a potent red bell pepper puree laces the unctuous corn chowder, cayenne heats the “ sambal “ rice served with some entrees and poached pear garnishes are spiced--most exotically and most deliciously--with cardamom.

Wally’s insistence upon definite flavors extends to such details as the small dish of pesto that arrives with the sourdough bread and makes a good alternative to butter. This gesture is double-edged, though, because the intent here is not merely gustatory, but health-conscious; Wally, to a degree, watches his customers’ cholesterol counts for them, and even makes his hollandaise sauce with egg substitute. It is surprisingly good, by the way, and virtually indistinguishable from the genuine article based on the lavish use of egg yolks.

Some dishes twist classic recipes into new shapes, while others seem strictly Wally’s own. The appetizer list, in addition to sampler plates of grilled alligator, wild boar and venison, offers that old standby, stuffed mushrooms. These could be said to be new and improved, though, because Wally uses fragrant shiitake mushrooms, crams them with a sherry-spiked melange of shrimp, scallops and Dungeness crab, and tops them not with the usual grated cheese, but with hollandaise--which is altogether nicer.

Meals include the choice of salad or one of the soups of the day. The soups recently have included an unusual, creamed seafood gumbo that seemed a cross between a bisque and a chowder, and a deeply toned French onion. Salads consist of jumbles of luxury greens, such as radicchio, oak leaf and limestone lettuces, served with a trio of homemade dressings on the side. The walnut oil vinaigrette is nicely herbal and the hot bacon dressing is sweet-sour and richly indulgent, but the red Roquefort seems in flavor rather too close to bottled, commercial French dressing to be enjoyable.

Game, Other Entrees

Game, in larger portions of the dishes mentioned on the appetizer list, reappears among the entrees, where it gets a good deal of competition from a long list of fish and shellfish and some very handsomely done meat dishes. The lamb loin was especially impressive, the meat nicely crusted but also quite rosy, and the accompanying blackberry sauce based on brown sauce enriched with only a little fruit puree. The result was savory rather than sweet, which is exactly as it should have been.

A well-balanced mustard sauce moistened grilled pork tenderloin medallions, and was creamed just enough to suggest richness; the same remark applies to the particularly savory porcini mushroom sauce that lapped a mound of tender sweetbreads. Wally’s own hollandaise brought a unifying richness to the house version of veal Oscar, here called simply veal scaloppine, which teamed butter-crisped veal slices with lumps of fresh crab meat and tender-crisp asparagus spears.

A similar dish appears on the fish list, this time announced by name as swordfish Oscar. To make the preparation a tad unusual, Wally garnishes it with Peruvian blue potatoes. Rather further afield is grilled swordfish in a gingered garlic sauce, which sounds quite nice, and grilled sea scallops in a lovely, pungent cream sauce; these were garnished with cardamom-scented pears, a clever and beautiful addition to the plate. Both Norwegian salmon and Hawaiian ahi are served with black peppercorn sauces, which is unusual but well within the range of the possible, especially with the ahi, which Wally flash-chars so that it is quite rare in the center. Many people prefer ahi and other fish done this way, but the result, quite frankly, could only be called an acquired taste.

At present, desserts are catered from off premises by a well-known baker, but Wally said that his own pastries will appear on the cart as soon as he is able to install the proper ovens. In the meantime, his guests can content themselves with an excellent lemon tart and with sweet memories of an occasionally exotic but very well-handled cuisine.

CHEF WALLY’S BISTRO

3916 W. Point Loma Blvd., Suite E

226-7473

Lunch served Sunday through Friday, dinner nightly.

Credit cards accepted.

Dinner for two, with a glass of wine each, tax and tip, $35 to $60.