A Downscale House in an Upscale Neighborhood, La Jolla Seas Takes Middle Road

Shopping center food courts are not a peculiarly local phenomenon, although the dining zone in the Golden Triangle’s new Costa Verde Center may be unique in one rather amusing aspect: Smack in the middle of the collection of full-scale eateries, sandwich shops and frozen yogurt parlors is a Jenny Craig Weight Loss Centre.

If the Craig outlet’s presence fails to give dinner-bound visitors pause, it may at least give them food for thought.

Anyone who has followed the remarkably rapid development of the Golden Triangle with condominium and apartment complexes may note that the one truly full-service restaurant in the Costa Verde collection, a new place called La Jolla Seas, was carefully crafted to suit its surroundings. If the area can be called an instant neighborhood, La Jolla Seas can be called an instant neighborhood restaurant.

In a press release, proprietor Shige Hashimoto makes the observation that “The Golden Triangle does not need another expensive restaurant.” Hashimoto took an intelligent line when he chose to open a downscale house in an upscale neighborhood, although, as with any sort of restaurant, an inexpensive one is only worth the trouble when it’s good. La Jolla Seas makes the grade some of the time.

The restaurant’s single strongest point may be its service, which on both of two recent visits was thoroughly professional and pleasant. The atmosphere suits La Jolla Seas’ overall approach and might be described as comfortable but modest. The banquettes are reasonably deep, but as a small and very noticeable economy, sheets of glass cover the tablecloths to save on laundry expenses. Lithographed studies of palm trees and birds of paradise line the walls and seem oddly appropriate to the location, since Costa Verde is planted with impressive stands of palms.

Hashimoto also owns two restaurants in Salt Lake City, which may explain why the menu might most accurately be described as “Middle-American melting pot.” Chef Terry Miyake oversees a list that, according to Hashimoto, is written “in a health-conscious manner,” a point of view that here translates into low-sodium cooking free of preservatives and animal fats.

But “health-consciousness,” real or claimed, does not necessarily provide a gastronomic focus, and the menu seems mostly an amalgam of styles. There are the blunt Americanisms of oysters Rockefeller, shrimp and crab cocktails, the “turkey club croissant” sandwich (the croissant may be French, but this sort of sandwich is as resolutely American as chop suey and clam chowder. Pasta--fettuccine, to be precise--appears both on its own in several guises and as a garnish, and usually seems more all-purpose than specifically Italian. The menu makes much of seafood and finishes it with Japanese, Italian, French, Mexican and American sauces or garnishes.

Sometimes the culinary mix leads to confusion, as it did at lunch when the pepper steak sandwich sounded like a very good bet. The dish the diner visualized was a thin, cracked pepper-coated steak, sauteed in the French style and tucked into a roll; the reality was Philadelphia-style layers of grilled, paper-thin beef dressed with sauteed green peppers and onions. For all that, it was perfectly tasty and satisfying, but nonetheless a good illustration of the point that it pays to ask questions. The lunch menu, by the way, basically is a lower-priced repeat of the dinner list.

When the kitchen succeeds, it succeeds handily. The appetizer list includes an offering called “house special chicken,” which, although it is not identified as such, is simply a smaller-scale serving of the entree called “Newport chicken.” The boned breast is given a light batter coating, carefully deep-fried to a fine finish, brushed with a nicely sweet teriyaki glaze and topped with sauteed snow peas and mushrooms. The dish comes together well, as do soups; chef Miyake turns out a light-bodied clam chowder of fine flavor and, on occasion, a cream of mushroom of some depth.

The entree named “seafood confetti” also seemed a fairly well-put-together dish, although the guest who ordered it found that salt was needed to develop the flavors.

Based on the success of the chicken appetizer, the entrees with Oriental influences may be the best. These are primarily in the seafood category and include mahi-mahi with pineapple glaze, ahi in the restaurant’s own teriyaki sauce, orange roughy in a gingered orange sauce and a shrimp-and-vegetable tempura combination. Dishes with sauces from other cuisines include swordfish with pesto; salmon with sauce maltese (properly a hollandaise flavored with bitter blood oranges, which are hard to find in this country); red snapper Vera Cruz topped with fresh salsa and veal scallops served in the Oscar (French) and piccata (Italian) styles.

* LA JOLLA SEAS

Costa Verde Center, 8650 Genesee Ave.

458-4225

Lunch and dinner served Monday through Saturday; closed Sunday.

Credit cards accepted.

Dinner for two, including a glass of wine each, tax and tip, $30 to $60.