RESTAURANT REVIEW : Santa Monica’s Penguin Serves Old-Fashioned Diner Fare

Of the opening of diners there is no end. Not these days, anyway. But while it seems like a good idea to revive the diner tradition, in practice the food is likely to be even drabber than anything the old-time diners have ever served, only you have to put up with a winking, patronizing nostalgia that gets everything wrong.

At last I’ve found one place that is actually comfortable about being a diner. And how about this: The food at the resurrected Penguin is pretty good.

Of course, it happens to be a genuine ‘50s diner, whose giant penguin sign has been a beacon in the Santa Monica night for 30-odd years. It may have been remodeled as part of the Great Diner Revival by the people who own Rose City in Pasadena, but somehow the people who eat there are just . . . eating there, as if it weren’t a nostalgia trip.

And where nostalgia does run riot--for instance, the black waitress uniforms with those silly rudimentary white caps at the back of the head--at least there’s a sense of fun. I saw one waitress wearing a snood, that fishnet bag women used to stick their hair into in the ‘40s, and acting as if she were having a grand time.

To begin with, the essentials: The “chili sundae” is full of kidney beans and chunks of steak, which work because of the richness of the chili sauce. The burgers have the sweet taste of freshly ground beef (for once, a diner burger I never even thought of putting mustard or ketchup on).

The Penguin also serves a tribute to the East’s White Castle chain called a slider hamburger--three conjoined mini-buns containing mini-burgers with no lettuce, tomato or sauce, nothing but fried onions and pickles. There’s an appealing classicism to them, and they come with excellent, well-browned fries. I’m not so sure, however, that Easterners will be convinced by the egg cream, which is nowhere near fizzy enough.

Turkey is a specialty, moist and thick-sliced and served with a mild chicken gravy (though there’s a stronger brown gravy on the stuffing). It’s the same brown gravy that comes on the Penguin’s mashed potatoes, by the way, brazenly lumpy fresh mashed potatoes that include the skins.

There is a short list of pastas, such as corkscrew pasta baked with mozzarella and a rather sharp fresh marinara sauce. (By the way, you get soup or salad with it, but the salad is likely to be corkscrew pasta salad, so think carefully when ordering.) The list of deli sandwiches is longer and the sandwiches seem perfectly sound. Breakfast, which is served all day, includes a good corned beef hash. There’s also a special breakfast menu served only until 11 a.m. that includes blueberry pancakes, heavy on the blueberries.

The soda fountain prides itself on having no truck with soft-serve ice cream. The foamy-style malts, the sundaes with red sprinkles and the other fountain items are appealingly old-fashioned. The fresh pies have plain, old-fashioned sugar-sprinkled crust, and the German chocolate cake has a louder chocolate flavor than many a celebrated chocolate-excess dessert.

Furthermore: The orange and grapefruit juices are squeezed to order (you get ice cubes with them because they’re served at room temperature), the vegetables are not overdone, and baked goods such as the cinnamon roll are always fresh, baked right there on the premises.

All that’s wrong, so far as I can see, is that the Penguin hasn’t worked out some kink in its service, because some dishes arrive barely warm. Oh, yeah, and that insipid chicken pot pie is something I’d cross the street to avoid. While I’m at it, I must say I suspect the jukebox doesn’t play anybody’s actual selections. Furthermore, compared with the penguin cartoons that used to grace the walls, the new ones really bite the mackerel.

But you take your pleasures where you can. The Penguin gets my vote for the best diner around.

Penguin Restaurant, 1670 Lincoln Blvd., Santa Monica; (213) 399-9900. Open 24 hours. No alcoholic beverages. Parking lot. No credit cards accepted. Dinner for two, food only, $9-$30.