‘New’ Cuisine Is in Capable Hands at the Trend-Setting Pacifica Grill

On balance, it seems well that Pacifica Grill executive chef Neil Stuart is a restless soul.

Thanks to Stuart, this ever trendy, always stylish downtown restaurant changes its culinary course about as often as Zsa Zsa Gabor changes spouses, which is to say with some regularity. Over the years it has delved into the depths and shallows of California cuisine, promoted the short-lived (and locally abortive) “grazing” fad and introduced Southwestern nouvelle, and now has inaugurated a style of its own invention, Pacific Southwestern.

Pacific Southwestern cuisine probably is one of those things that had to happen sooner or later, and it has come to life in competent hands. The menu defines this style as “blending the traditions and flavors of Mexico with the bounty and flair of California,” which is a reasonably accurate if somewhat full-blown way of saying that Pacifica Grill has devised a varied menu of updated Mexican classics and seafood preparations with Mexican flavor.

The cooking falls into the nouvelle category, and because the appetizers are inventive and served in portions that discourage an entree follow-up, the menu certainly seems suited to grazing. (This term means making a meal of several small plates and is so out of favor as to cause shudders among at least some of the restaurateurs who once took credit for inventing the idea.)

Tortillas, chilies, the succulent herb called epazote , salsa (at least as a concept) and other familiar ingredients all play major roles in the restaurant’s new style, but in a liberated fashion that often leads in intriguing new directions. A rather comprehensive example would be the entree of tortilla-crusted chicken with Mexican beer salsa, which translates into a crispy-crunchy bird with a flavor that suggests chicken breaded with crushed corn flakes. The salsa is pleasant but has rather a milquetoast character compared to some of the kitchen’s notably hot creations.

Perhaps the best item in the hot category is the reasonably volcanic appetizer described as “burnt cheese,” a molten amalgam of buffalo-milk mozzarella, onions and smoked chilies. Glazed under the broiler until the cheese acquires a bubbling, brown crust, this variation on the classic Mexican queso fundido features a heat that makes a sneak attack on the taste buds but leaves them gratified by the experience. It is served with tortillas, meant as chewy wrappers to be rolled around the gooey fondue and shared around the table. (Pacifica Grill recognizes and helps along the contemporary practice of sharing bites by stocking tables with piles of small dishes.)

The appetizers seem uniformly attractive and intelligently designed. A longstanding house creation, the chili-crusted lamb ribs with burnt orange dipping sauce, remains a savory masterpiece of tender, potently seasoned meat set off by a dip of unusual pungency. The fajita of duck, sour cherries and Maui onions makes a novel luxury of an increasingly common dish, a comment that applies with equal force to the machaca of shrimp--a thick, savory stew of deep flavors that, like the burnt cheese, is served with flour tortillas for optional rolling. As with the cheese, the tortillas make the dish so filling as to render a following entree somewhat pointless; many appetites might be just as happy succeeding the more substantial starters with a salad or a bowl of soup.

In a lighter vein are such things as New Zealand mussels with tomatoes and herbs; a Mexican blue crab “hand roll” (a sushi impersonator in south-of-the-border garb) with tomatillo salsa; a pleasing, puree-like black bean soup brightened with epazote , and an engaging carpaccio of smoked ahi with goat cheese and fried capers. This last takes the concept of carpaccio rather far, but it is a well-made dish of tender, meaty fish, colorfully sprinkled with a fine dice of bell peppers, and given a savory accent by the caper-cheese garnish. Fried won ton skins add a welcome crunch to the plate.

The entree list looks primarily to the sea and offers a swordfish steak asada with tequila and sun-dried tomato salsa (we are definitely in the realm of the wildly nouvelle here, but this unsampled offering sounds pretty good); grilled sea bass with roasted yellow tomato salsa; mahi mahi steamed in a banana leaf, and a remarkably delicious filet of king salmon barbecued in the style of Yucatan. The flavors were deep and resonant, not particularly spicy but well suited to the salmon, which was cooked not one moment more or less than necessary.

The kitchen also barbecues long-cooked duck and sets it in a pool of corn adobada , or crisp kernels stewed in a spicy sauce flavored with a good bit of cumin. The bird itself is cooked to the falling-off-the-bones stage, which works in this instance, and is spread with a highly seasoned, paste-like sauce whose faint but noticeable bitterness implies the presence of bitter chocolate, the ingredient that characterizes Mexico’s famous mole sauce.

A newly introduced section of the menu titled “ sabores mexicanos “ (“tastes of Mexico”) offers a monthly three-course menu of traditional regional Mexican dishes. These can be ordered individually or as a $19 fixed-price meal, but frankly, this particular offering seems one of the menu’s weak spots. The mushroom empanada appetizer featured a fine, flaky crust, but the cultivated mushrooms in the filling could not stand up to the strong accents of garlic, chilies and epazote . The entree of spicy shrimp stew, or camaron en chile rojo , was indifferent in flavor, and the rock-type shrimp were cooked to a rather mushy texture that was less than pleasing. The dessert, a crisp rice flan ( dulce de arroz ) won on all points and would more worthily follow any of the other entrees.

This is a restaurant that makes much of desserts and turns out an excellent, mousse-like cinnamon-chocolate torte and a grand burnt cream, the smooth creme brulee that the Pacifica restaurants popularized locally and make better than just about any place else.

DAVID NELSON ON RESTAURANTS

PACIFICA GRILL, 1202 Kettner Blvd., San Diego. 696-9226. Lunch weekdays, dinner nightly. Credit cards accepted. Dinner for two with a glass of wine each, tax and tip, $50 to $80.