Sea Fare Has a Flair for French

French cooking has gone through so many evolutions and permutations in the last decade or so that we tend to forget that its preparation is not the province of madmen but of quiet souls who toil in the name of balance and good taste.

Sea Fare, a tiny gem of a place in a Rancho Bernardo shopping center, by and large maintains steady allegiance to the traditional themes of French cooking. It offers careful sautes and grills finished with light, savory sauces. There are moments when the restaurant wavers and threatens to fall by the wayside of over-creativity--as with a coulis (a strained sauce) of strawberries and kiwi offered with oven-broiled king salmon--but these moments are few.

If the cooking, by and large, opts for formality, the service is rather more contemporary and easygoing. (However, addressing patrons as “you guys” is a style of speech that needs to be checked at the front door.)

The restaurant occupies a small storefront in one of those anonymous, look-alike “convenience centers” that have become standard features of the Southern California landscape. Yet, the gracious mood and decor display a distinct personality, and the lace curtains, white linens and fresh carnations hint at a location somewhere in the countryside.

Seafood dominates the menu, which is written daily and recently kicked off with such starters as an unusual cream of tomato and mussel soup and a dish of green lip mussels moistened with a garlicky Provencale butter.

Among the nine entrees were sauteed sea bass with an orange-rosemary-flavored hollandaise (quite a nice idea); jumbo shrimp and linguine topped with a fresh tomato-basil sauce of French rather than Italian inspiration, and squid finished with capers and browned butter.

The day’s menu also offered rack of lamb with its own roasting juices seasoned with orange and mint; cracked pepper-coated filet mignon sauced with Port, and veal sweetbreads in a cream sauce sharpened with green peppercorns.

Among the dishes sampled was a well-conceived (if a bit pricey at $5) Caesar salad. Garlic, which can be introduced to the Romaine lettuce in any of three ways (infused in olive oil or simply rubbed on the bowl are two of them) made its appearance via the homemade croutons, which planted garlic’s pungent kiss on every leaf in the salad.

Both entrees were prepared with flair. A quintet of giant scallops had been shaken in flour and crisped in butter, prefatory to a final bath in a smooth Champagne-based cream sauce flecked with fresh dill; this dish was smooth, savory and sophisticated. A charbroiled swordfish steak was cut thick to emphasize the meatiness of this fish and was cooked to just the point of doneness. The sauce seemed summery and cheerful and took a Mediterranean theme in both its name-- nicoise --and its ingredients, which included chopped black and green olives, mixed green herbs, garlic and tomato. Coarsely ground pepper added underlying bursts of heat and brought up the flavor nicely.

The too-brief wine list seems barely serviceable, although on most occasions, a glass of the house Chardonnay should serve well with any of the seafood dishes.

The dessert list offers several pleasantries, including a light but wonderfully rich chocolate cake confected without the aid of flour, and a delicious, Hungarian nut torte to which raspberry jam and coconut give a decidedly old-fashioned taste.

SEA FARE

15721 Bernardo Heights Parkway, Rancho Bernardo

Calls: 451-2026

Hours: Lunch served Monday through Friday, dinner Monday through Saturday.

Cost: Dinner for two, with a glass of wine each, tax and tip, $45 to $65. Credit cards accepted.