RESTAURANT REVIEW : Time Trip to ‘50s Steakhouse Is the Past With No Blast

Want to travel through time without calling on Michael J. Fox? Drive to Chadney’s steak and seafood house in Burbank. Inside, when your eyes become accustomed to the red-tinged gloom, you will think you’ve landed sometime in the steakhouse era of the late ‘50s and early ‘60s.

The dim lighting, the hefty, carved dark wood, the burgundy banquettes, the menu (except for a couple of modern anachronisms) bespeak a time when ambience and alcohol, beef and lobster plus bar-maid-attentive service meant luxury.

These days, mostly studio personnel relax in the past over good, stiff drinks at lunch and dinner.

But if you think that joining the regulars in this trip back in time will also bring back some fabled era of good, old-fashioned cooking, you will most likely be disappointed. Except for a first-rate T-bone steak, my experiences at Chadney’s served mainly to increase my appreciation of the New American cooking that is all too easy to take for granted.

An appropriately thematic preamble to a meal here would be a Manhattan or better still an Old Fashioned. But it’s hard to stick to pure surf and turf when it comes to appetizers. Everything is in the right era, but, it would seem, the wrong restaurant. Egg flower soup--the usual beaten egg in chicken broth stuff--takes you to the chop suey houses of the ‘50s. Then suddenly, you’re whisked to Little Italy with a traditional Italian-American mozzarella marinara that comes with an OK onion-based sauce.

Split pea soup, the very smooth, slightly thickened sort, brings you safely back to steakhouse comfort. But the real blast from the steakhouse past comes with the asparagus appetizer: several large, white, soggy spears--fresh from the can--on some lettuce leaves. “Oh,” replied the cheery waitress to my astonishment, “you thought the asparagus would be fresh?” I did.

Of the entrees, only a superb, large T-bone steak (21 oz., $18.95) would lure me back to Chadney’s for more than just nostalgia. It’s loose-textured, fully flavored and tender--but not fall-apart buttery. Unfortunately, other entrees aren’t as good. Most of the steak cuts are fine but not wonderful.

Fish dishes can be slightly dry and painfully plain. Vegetables also. The odd token modern dish--angel hair pasta with tomato, basil and olive oil--isn’t bad but not really worth a second go-round.

Naturally, desserts are of the sweet, sweet variety.

My advice is to reprogram your time traveler to, let’s say, December, 1989. The present is a very good time for cooking here in Southern California.

Chadney’s, 3000 W. Olive Ave., Burbank. (818) 985-5622. Open 11:30 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. Mondays, 11:30 a.m. to 10:30 p.m. Tuesdays through Fridays, 5 to 10:30 p.m. Saturdays, 4:30 to 9:30 p.m. Sundays. Valet parking. Full bar. Major credit cards accepted. Dinner for two, food only, $20-$50.