FAMILY FARE : Art Deco Clashes With the Orient at Health Food-Oriented Hibachi

I imagine that, back in 1939, officers of the Ventura County Mutual Fire Insurance Co., going about their staid business, would have been shocked if they could have looked into the future and seen people happily eating meals of exotic origin right inside their room-sized vault.

I was surprised to find Hibachi restaurant in this location. Having eaten many times at Hibachi in Santa Barbara, I expected the newer Ventura version to be a similar vine-covered oasis where you order tropical cuisine at the counter and eat on a lush, breezy patio.

Instead the restaurant is in a historic Art Deco building with stately green awnings. It looks more like an old-fashioned supper club than a Hawaiian restaurant. Another surprise: Although the outside is classic ‘30s architecture, the inside is all Japanese wood, shoji screens and vivid Gauguin prints.

Despite the look of the restaurant, the food is priced to fit most family budgets. It suggests good health-food fare with an Asian spin. The menu has a little Chinese, a lot of Japanese, some Korean and some American influences. In fact, Hibachi is pretty typical of the kind of food you can find in a Hawaiian fast-food restaurant--except that it isn’t as greasy and doesn’t use as much pork.

Among the starters, bite-sized clams with fresh green onions had a nice, spicy kick to them. We tried a variety of dim sum , including mui pan --barbecued pork engulfed in a fist-sized sweet bun. It was like a muffin run amok.

I like my comfort foods less blatant, so I had the sui mai : bite-sized shrimp, chicken or pork wrapped in dough and steamed. They are dipped in a light, tangy soy-based sauce, which creates a perfect combination of sweet and salt, meat and dough.

My son loved the gyoza , which had a vegetable filling with a slight taste of cabbage. He ordered them for his appetizer and reordered them for his dinner.

The egg roll had a fine, crispy crust and a startlingly mushy filling. I was just trying to decide what to make of it, when my friend told me that no genuine food critic could possibly like it; he, however, liked it very much.

Hibachi gets pretty creative with its soups. Miso soup had tofu, finely grated carrots and sliced red and green onions. There was a nice, light broccoli soup and a delicious seafood chowder, filled with chunks of potato and fish; it had a slight, wonderful buttery flavor.

The simpler the dinner here, the better I liked it. Chicken, fish or steak was offered marinated in teriyaki and broiled. The chicken was the best--moist and crisp. I tried the mahi-mahi and remembered once I tasted it that I’m always disappointed by mahi-mahi. I think I get suckered because I like the sound of the name.

For bigger appetites--and I mean big--the stir fry and curry dishes were filled with fresh vegetables and generous amounts of fish or meat. The chewy, slightly sweet brown rice was much better than the white, and worth the extra 25 cents.

The workers at the old fire insurance company might be surprised to find Hibachi here--but I expect that they’d also be pleased.

* HIBACHI

Hibachi, 692 E. Main St., Ventura. (805) 653-5245. Open for lunch Monday through Friday, 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.; dinner Tuesday through Saturday, 5 to 9 p.m. Dinner for two, food only, $15-$30. Beer, wine and sake. Parking available. MasterCard and Visa accepted.