A Guide to the Best of Southern California’s Menus : DISHING

This is not a list of the great restaurants of Southern California. Because, if the truth be told, we don’t have very many of them. A restaurant, after all, is more than just somewhere to eat. A restaurant is a place where people go to prove their good taste, be pampered, be impressive, be impressed. A great restaurant requires great service--and you won’t find a lot of that in this part of the world. What you will find here, in abundance, is the best food in America. Over the past few years, Southern California has become a paradise for adventurous eaters who go out to eat simply because they are hungry. They know that we are living in a culinary cornucopia filled with great dishes from many cultures--and that you need not be rich to taste them. Choosing the Top 40 dishes in Southern California wasn’t easy; there were literally hundreds of candidates. After eating my way through dozens of menus, I narrowed the list to these favorites--in no particular order. And then, because I am almost always hungry, I added 10 more great places to eat. I’ve called them Quick Bites, you’ll find them in the margins of the magazine, and they are perfect for those times when you are feeling both hungry and hurried. I know I’ve left a lot of delicious dishes off the list. If I’ve missed something you really think is wonderful, I’d like to know about it.

PIZZA NAPOLETANA, Pazzia

The world’s best pizza is found at a place called The Blue Moon on the wrong side of the tracks in South Norwalk, Conn. You probably don’t agree, but then our tastes in pizza tend to be primitive; we spend our lives yearning for the first one we ever ate.

The next best pizza, in my opinion, is pizza Napoletana ($9) at Pazzia. It’s a thin-crusted creature, so the flavor of what’s on top comes shining through. And what’s on top is a bit of sauce, good cheese--and, for me, anchovies. The result is an amazing marriage of taste and texture: the perfect snack.

Before the perfect snack, you’ll want to have an antipasto plate and a glass of wine. Afterward, you’ll want a dish of the best gelato on this side of the Atlantic. By then, you’ll be glad that you’re on the right side of the tracks.

755 N. La Cienega Blvd., West Hollywood; (213) 657-9271.

STEAMED DUMPLINGS 369 Shanghai Restaurant

Most of the really good Chinese restaurants in California are Cantonese--be they noodle shops, seafood palaces or dim sum specialists. But this little storefront restaurant specializes in the food of Shanghai, and the cooks excel at lunchtime dishes such as dumplings and pickles.

The steamed dumplings ($3.25) come piping hot in their own metal container. Each is a neat little mouthful; you dip it into a mixture of soy, ginger and vinegar, then pop it into your mouth, where it explodes with a hot rush of steam and flavor.

Other dishes to try here: the extraordinary cucumber-and-chile pickles, pan-fried Chinese chive cakes (a sort of sandwich made of a thin chive pancake wrapped around a filling of ground pork and garlic), Shanghai-style fried dough (thick, fat, oval noodles sauteed with pork and vegetables) and pork ribs steamed with rice crumbs.

1277 E. Valley Blvd., Alhambra; (818) 281-9261.

EGGPLANT SOUP

Champagne

A few years ago, spa cuisine was all the rage, and we started seeing some pretty silly dishes as chef after chef tried to persuade us that he or she could work alchemy in the kitchen and create fabulous food with no calories.

This dish is different. There are no tricks, no sleight of hand. Chef Patrick Healy has concentrated the flavors of a few low-calorie foods and combined them into this simple soup ($5.50 at lunch; $6.50 at dinner). The result is 150 calories that really pack a punch. It’s no more than you’d expect from one of L.A.’s most dedicated young French chefs. Healy and his wife, Sophie, have invested Champagne with the charm of a good restaurant in the French countryside and one of the most varied menus in Los Angeles. Those not on a diet may want to try rustic specialties (great cassoulet ), haute cuisine (classic pate de foie gras ), modern French dishes (crispy salmon)--or simply a large and satisfying steak served with a mountain of rich mashed potatoes.

10506 Little Santa Monica Blvd., Los Angeles; (213) 470-8446.

RISOTTO

Valentino

Risotto has recently become so trendy that it is served at restaurants all over town. But it is not really a restaurant dish because it is tricky and demands constant attention; someone must stand and stir for 25 minutes so that the rice develops the proper consistency--slightly sticky on the outside while still resilient at the core. Once made, it won’t wait; it turns into just another leftover.

There is only one restaurant I know of that consistently turns out first-rate risotto: Valentino. In the fall, this is the place to go for the luxury of white truffles shaved over white risotto (about $30). At other times of the year, the kitchen does different things: I have had superb black risotto made with squid ink ($15), an amazing risotto that included corn ($13.50), a surprising radicchio version ($15)--and an absolutely classic risotto Milanese ($15), fragrant with saffron. All shared one quality: Each was so wonderful that you instantly understood why someone would be willing to stand over a hot stove to produce it.

3115 W. Pico Blvd., Santa Monica; (213) 829-4313.

SPINACH Maple Drive

Spinach is the most maligned vegetable on the face of the Earth. You’d think that something that took this much trouble would get more respect, but most cooks spend so much time agonizing over the washing of it that they get annoyed and take it out on the poor vegetable. They overcook it. They over-cream it. They fill it up with spices. By the time they’re finished, they have a dark and dreary mess.

Maple Drive is different; somebody in the kitchen must love spinach. It arrives at your table as silky leaves of emerald green, each buttery and delicate and absolutely delicious ($3). Add some of the restaurant’s terrific mashed potatoes, and you have a dish that even kids will eat.

What to eat with it? Meat loaf, of course: Maple Drive makes the best in town.

345 N. Maple Drive, Beverly Hills; (213) 274-9800.

SALMON PAINTED DESERT Saint Estephe

Long before the rest of the world discovered blue corn and started putting it into everything from madeleines to cherry pie, John Sedlar was thinking of ways to combine his Southwestern background and his classical-cuisine training.

When he first put dishes such as ravioli stuffed with carne adobada in a chevre sauce on his menu, most of his customers thought he was insane. Ten years later, his French-inflected Southwestern menu seems not only sane but downright sensible: Sedlar’s dishes are uniquely his own.

I like many of his dishes: tamales filled with mushroom duxelles , piquant lamb in chile sauce, blue-corn crepes with pumpkin ice cream--but I am particularly fond of this gorgeously simple slice of steamed salmon in three sauces that looks like a Navaho sand painting ($25). It’s one of the most beautiful plates of food you will ever see, too beautiful to eat. Almost.

2640 N. Sepulveda Blvd., Manhattan Beach; (213) 545-1334.

HOT-FUDGE SUNDAE

DC3

Hot-fudge sundaes are the quintessential American dessert: an aggressive contrast of salt and sweet, hot and cold, black and white.

Unfortunately, a good hot-fudge sundae is hard to find. The most famous sundae in Southern California has been, since 1906, the one served at C. C. Brown’s on Hollywood Boulevard. Unfortunately, its reputation has outstripped reality. The last time I had one, it was a sad shadow of the real thing.

Fortunately, DC3 has stepped into the breach. Its sundae ($6) is a faithful replica of the one formerly served at C. C. Brown’s: vanilla ice cream in an icy silver goblet topped with a modest mound of unsweetened whipped cream and a blizzard of chopped (not sliced) almonds. There is no cherry. The hot fudge, served in a pitcher on the side, is the kind that tastes like the world’s best chocolate bar, melted. It hardens ever so slightly when it hits the side of the cup.

2800 Donald Douglas Loop North, Santa Monica; (213) 399-2323.

PEKING DUCK

The Mandarin

Peking duck is one of those flashy dishes that tastes best to me when served with fanfare in elegant restaurants. I think The Mandarin does it right.

For one thing, the restaurant has the proper oven in which to cook it--a bird emerges every 15 minutes. When it arrives at your table, the skin has been lacquered to a fine mahogany hue. The great brown bird ($35) is triumphantly presented, and then, with much ado, the skin is sliced and wrapped around pieces of meat, which are tied into elegant packages with slivers of scallion. When you bite in, there is a great crackling of skin before your mouth is flooded with the rich flavor of the duck.

Beforehand, you might have an assortment of little dishes from the restaurant’s extensive choice of dumplings; afterward, you will want something simple, such as silver noodles with spinach.

430 N. Camden Drive, Beverly Hills; (213) 272-0267.

CAESAR SALAD

The Grill

Caesar may have been invented in Mexico, but it’s become the all-American salad, and every restaurant tries to make its own version.

Some turn the salad into a show, mixing and tossing right at your table. Others torque up the garlic until you can’t taste anything else. Some serve it with whole anchovies, others serve it with whole leaves of lettuce. There are those who dress up the croutons and those who throw in so much cheese that what should be a salad turns into a protein-filled meal.

The Grill does none of these things. This dish--like everything else here--is understated. Its salad is a powerful plate of romaine lettuce so delicious that you instantly understand why people all over America are crazy about Caesar ($11.50).

If you start the meal with a shrimp cocktail (The Grill’s is great) and end it with rice pudding, you will have eaten a small, simple meal that gives American food a good name.

9560 Dayton Way, Beverly Hills; (213) 276-0615.

MOUHAMMARA

Caroussel

Considering that we are a nation that loves dips, it’s hard to understand the anonymity of this dish. In the wonderful world of dipping foods--guacamole, hummous , baba ghannouj , taramasalata , bagna cauda , onion soup with sour cream-- mouhammara stands out.

This deep-pink puree of smashed red peppers and walnuts has a flavor unlike anything you’ve ever tasted. With the first bite, you can pick out cumin, peppers and the elegant overtone of walnuts. With the next, the flavors begin to reverberate in your mouth, creating new and unique tones. This mouhammara ($4) has enough pizazz to make cardboard taste appealing; eaten with vegetables or fresh pita, it is devastatingly delicious.

At Caroussel, a small, friendly Armenian restaurant, you will want to eat enormous amounts of mouhammara , followed by stuffed grape leaves, shish kebab and rice.

5112 Hollywood Blvd., Los Angeles; (213) 660-8060.

BEANS AND TORTILLAS

La Super-Rica

You walk in the door to the music of patting hands--slap, slap, slap--and the sizzle of meat hitting the grill. In the air is a pleasantly pungent aroma edged by the sharp sting of chiles. It is instantly clear that this is food made from scratch--from tacos to salsa--and that it is very, very good.

There are taco stands all over Southern California, but La Super-Rica is the queen of them all.

The menu here is enormous, and everything is good. But it is in the very simplest dishes that you get a true sense of the quality of the food. The beans are especially good: While they are creamy, each bean is distinct. When you take one of the warm, hand-patted tortillas, roll some beans up into it and slather salsa across the top, you have, in my opinion, the very best Mexican food in the state--for $1.25.

622 N. Milpas St., Santa Barbara; (805) 963-4940.

BIGOLETTI WITH THREE BEANS

Locanda Veneta

This rustic plate of pasta topped with lentils, chick peas and red beans ($8.95) is about as far from spaghetti and meatballs as it is possible to get and still be eating Italian food.

The beans--cooked separately--come together into an intensely tasty sauce whose earthiness is emphasized by whispers of herbs and garlic. This is a simple and satisfying sort of food that was impossible to find in America until the recent Italian restaurant revolution.

Before the pasta: slices of marinated artichokes mixed with shavings of cheese. After: chicken, grilled under a brick, which arrives at the table as a flat, crisp disk. Then, as you drink tiny cups of espresso, look around at this warm, crowded and cozy room, and be grateful that in Southern California, Italian restaurants now serve real Italian food.

8638 W. 3rd St., Los Angeles; (213) 274-1893.

RIBS

Mom’s Barbecue

Some people judge their barbecue by the sauce; I think that’s a mistake. As far as I’m concerned, so long as the sauce is hot, it’s the meat that matters.

And Mom’s has great meat. You can smell the smoke blocks before you arrive at this little rib shack, and when you put the ribs in your car the air gets so thick you think you’re in a cabin in the country. The ribs themselves are smoked down to the bone so that you get the good flavor of true barbecue with every mouthful. And the meat has bite: Unlike a lot of other barbecue, this is meat you need teeth to eat. It actually sticks to the ribs.

I like the links at Mother’s too--they are grainy and spicy and when you’re finished eating, you are left with lips that sting.

The food here comes with the usual accompaniments: potato salad, coleslaw, beans--none particularly spectacular. As for the ambience--that’s not very spectacular either. But there aren’t many rib joints with seats worth sitting in: Barbecue tastes best outdoors. 1050 W. Imperial Highway, Los Angeles; (213) 756-8405.

GUATEMALAN TAMALES

Border Grill

Tamale is a wonderful word that generally masks a terrible dish. At their best, most tamales are leaden and sticky; at their worst, they are a complete bore. I never understood why tamales were appealing--until I had the ones at Border Grill.

When you unfold the banana leaves, you discover a cornmeal pastry of amazing delicacy. This is all the more remarkable because it gives off the unmistakably earthy aroma of lard, the heaviest substance known to cooks. Somehow, the chefs have managed a kind of alchemy: mixing cornmeal and lard, they have created lightness. (The secret, they say, is whipping air into the mixture until it floats.) Inside this incredible crust is a mixture of shredded chicken, raisins and olives held together with a sauce of peppers and achiote. The flavor is simultaneously familiar and exotic, and it makes you realize how extraordinary Latin American food can be when it is made with care and attention. Guatemalan tamales are served as an appetizer for lunch ($6) and as an entree on the dinner menu ($9).

1445 4th St., Santa Monica; (213) 451-1655.

HOR MOK

Talesai

When gefilte fish dreams of being elegant, it imagines that it is a quenelle on a Limoges plate in a restaurant overlooking the Seine. But when a fish dumpling dreams of something more exotic, it wants to be hor mok .

Hor mok are irresistible little fish balls concocted from shrimp and squid and steamed in a sauce of lemon grass, basil, coconut and chiles so that their flavor is alternatingly sharp, sweet and hot ($9.50). They come in their own absurd-looking steamer--a ceramic contraption with indentations topped with pointed caps.

All the food at this cool Thai restaurant is filled with fresh, clean flavors. Try the pad Thai , the marinated ginger duck and perhaps the naked shrimp in all their clear simplicity. 9043 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood; (213) 275-9724.

ROAST CHICKEN

Versailles

Roast chicken is, as any cook will tell you, the acid test. It seems simple, but it is hard to roast a chicken crisp on the outside while leaving it juicy within. Versailles passes with flying colors. The chicken here is not only brown, crisp and juicy, it is also served in citrus-scented sauce with lots of garlic that makes the rice irresistible. Add the creamy black beans and then alternate with bites of soft, golden pillows of sweet, fried plantains. A flawless combination of flavors, and only $6.45.

The restaurant serves other dishes. But for me--and the hundreds of people who line up with me at Versailles’ two humble outposts-- they might as well not exist. Versailles and roast chicken are synonymous.

10319 Venice Blvd., Culver City; (213) 558-3168. Also 1415 S. La Cienega Blvd., Los Angeles; (213) 289-0392.

DIM SUM

Ocean Seafood

The women who ply the carts at Ocean Seafood, an enormous, airy Chinatown restaurant, wear a proprietary air. Each seems intent on making certain that you try her wares. “Giant clam,” says one, holding up translucent slices and waiting for your nod before she plunges them in boiling water. They are delicious. “Har gau,” says another, lifting the lid on a little metal steamer of the shrimp dumplings ($2.60) and proffering it for you to inspect. Take it: These are the best har gau on this side of the Pacific.

All the dim sum at Ocean Seafood are superb, from the spare-ribs in black bean sauce ($1.50). But the seafood varieties are especially impressive, and the chow fun--large, soft sheets of rice noodles wrapped around freshly sliced shrimp ($2.60)--are the best I’ve ever had.

747 N. Broadway, Los Angeles; (213) 687-3088.

PLANTAINS, BLACK BEANS AND CAVIAR

Trumps

Michael Roberts seems to spend his time conjuring up mixtures that nobody else would even consider.

The menu at Trumps has, over the years, been filled with examples: duck with black beans and pumpkin chutney, fried catfish with grapefruit, quesadillas with Brie and green grapes, guacamole made with frozen peas. Then there is Roberts’ combination of goat cheese with potato pancakes, which has been so successful it’s been copied all over the country. But none of his dishes work quite so well as this $12 quintessential culture clash.

The plantains, fried, become a sort of cracker, and the mashed black beans become the perfect intermediaries for the sharp, salty fish eggs. A little dollop of sour cream is the final touch.

You might want to eat this in the trendy bar; liquor is taken seriously at Trumps, and a margarita--or even a daiquiri--is just right with this dish.

8764 Melrose Ave., West Hollywood; (213) 855-1480.

SEA BASS

Pascal

Pascal Olhats is in love with Chilean sea bass. Long before other chefs had discovered the sweet, soft flesh of this fish, Olhats was wrapping it up in a crust of fresh thyme and bread crumbs and serving it in a puddle of sauce. Or simply sauteing it crisply in butter and plunking it onto a bed of pasta. Or serving it in a tomato coulis . . . or in a sauce made of Champagne. Since then other cooks have discovered the wonders of this seductive fish, but nobody cooks it so well as Pascal.

Sea bass ($11.95 at lunch; $18.95 for the dinner version) is always on the menu here, in one form or another. After the fish, you might want to try a selection of cheeses; this cheerful, informal shopping-center restaurant is one of the few in Southern California that takes the trouble to buy unpasteurized cheese directly from France. After the cheese, end your meal with the impressively astringent lemon tart.

1000 N. Bristol St., Newport Beach; (714) 752-0107.

FRENCH-DIP SANDWICH

Philippe the Original

Sometimes someone invents a dish that is such a perfect combination of ingredients that it becomes an instant classic.

Legend has it that, in a desperate moment around 1918, Philippe Mathieu dipped the top of a roll into some stray meat juices, piled on the beef and handed it across the counter to a customer.

The customer discovered that there is something quite magical about the combination of gravy-soaked bread, crisp crust and thin, slightly fatty slices of meat. It is now served all over the world, but the French dip ($3.40) never tastes better than it does in this dim room filled with the well-aged perfume of sawdust, pickles and beer. Have some coleslaw with your sandwich, wash it down with beer--and finish your meal with a homemade doughnut and the last 10-cent cup of coffee in town.

1001 N. Alameda St., Los Angeles; (213) 628-3781.

PHO DAC BIET

Pho 79

To watch people eat in this Vietnamese restaurant is to understand one of the fundamental truths of Southeast Asian dining: It is a participatory art. The chef starts the dish, but you must finish it.

Pho , which falls somewhere in the middle ground between soup and salad, arrives as a big bowl of broth containing whatever you have ordered. Pho dac biet , my favorite ($3.75), comes with slices of brisket that you plunge into the broth, thereby completing the cooking process. It also comes, as does all pho , with a heap of bean sprouts, leafy herbs, sliced chiles and quartered limes. On top of that, the table is cluttered with various hot sauces. Using these ingredients, you create your own private combination, eating thoughtfully and slowly, adding a bit more lime juice, some more chiles, perhaps a few leaves of basil as you go.

It’s sort of like cooking at the table--and it is utterly delicious.

727 N. Broadway, Los Angeles; (213) 625-7026.

CHOPPED SALAD

Spago

Chopped salad has always struck me as something invented by Americans who hated vegetables but thought they should eat them. To disguise the taste of the dreaded rabbit food, they gussy it up with all manner of meat. Then, just to give it a little cachet, they tack somebody’s name on as a title. The end product is a pseudo-salad: It looks like an appetizer, tastes like an entree and is served in restaurants all over town.

But Spago has restored the dignity of the chopped salad. The version here contains no stray bits of bacon or salami, no forlorn chick peas, no toasted bits of bread. This salad gets its crunch and its flavor from the freshness of the vegetables--celery, carrots, artichokes, corn, avocado, tomatoes, radicchio--and it is guaranteed to make a salad lover out of the most confirmed carnivore.

I like almost everything else on the menu at Spago, but I always start with the chopped salad ($11.50). Afterward, I might order some sauteed oysters with salsa, go on to spectacular baby lamb and then, if I’m feeling really indulgent, a whole array of desserts.

1114 Horn Ave., West Hollywood; (213) 652-4025.

CHUTNEYS

Bombay Cafe

There is a terrible sameness to L.A.’s Indian food; judging by most of what we can get, you’d think everybody in that vast country existed on the same 15 dishes.

But then there is Bombay Cafe, which presents a different palette of flavors. On any given day, there are likely to be eight or 10 chutneys ($1 each): pumpkin-tomato-garlic, mint, coconut, tamarind, walnut, fresh fruit, sweet tomato--the list goes on and on. One is better than the next, and each is different from any other chutney you have ever eaten. They make the rest of the already wonderful food served in this small shopping-mall restaurant taste even better. I especially like the street dishes, such as the lamb Frankie, a sort of Indian sandwich that would make any fire-eater ecstatic.

12113 Santa Monica Blvd., West Los Angeles; (213) 820-2070.

SCRAMBLED EGGS WITH CAVIAR

L’Orangerie

The best prescription for a bad day: Walk into L’Orangerie--a flower-filled oasis of golden light and hushed tones--and order a glass of Champagne and some scrambled eggs and caviar ($26.50).

The presentation alone is enough to cheer you. The waiter arrives with a plate bearing two plain porcelain egg cups. In each cup is a single pristine egg topped with a scoop of black caviar that glistens in the candlelight. When you dig through the shining roe, you find the richest, softest scrambled eggs imaginable.

Three things make this dish great. One is the simplicity of the concept: What could make more sense than pairing eggs with eggs? One is the visual beauty of the presentation--the stark contrast of black with white. And one is the skill of the execution: The eggs are perfectly cooked, and the caviar is served with a generous hand.

If you want to spend the money, you can then go on to L.A.’s best bouillabaisse and a fresh date tart. Or you can simply ask for the bill, knowing that you have treated yourself to the city’s most luxurious dish.

903 N. La Cienega Blvd., Los Angeles; (213) 652-9770.

SQUID PASTA WITH ASPARAGUS GARLIC SAUCE

Matsuhisa

It looks exactly like shells of pasta, but when you put one in your mouth, there is a decidedly fishy flavor. This is not pasta at all--it’s squid, scored and cut to fool you ($10).

Nobu Matsuhisa excels at trompe l’oeil surprises such as this; what you take to be a fat filet of steak turns out to be tuna. He has a playful touch with sushi that is totally untraditional, and the result is that sushi becomes far more exciting than it has ever been. If you are of the opinion that sushi isn’t really cuisine, this is the restaurant that will change your mind. Matsuhisa is an endlessly fascinating place to eat; if you have the time to wait and the money to spend, opt to sit at the sushi bar instead of the tables, and watch the chefs for hours.

129 N. La Cienega Blvd., Beverly Hills; (213) 659-9639.

GRILLED PRIME RIB

Campanile

L.A.’s best piece of red meat is not found at The Palm, Pacific Dining Car or Ruth’s Chris Steak House. It is here, in this chichi bastion of rustic Italian food.

It’s not called a steak because chef Mark Peel uses a different cut of meat. He takes thick pieces of prime, cuts off the rib and grills the meat like a steak. The result is flavorful, tender, marbled with fat--and it costs $27.

This great piece of meat comes with soft, sweet white beans and wonderfully bitter sauteed greens, each an impeccable counterpoint to the meat. And, like all of the entrees here, it is served with a plate of the most delicious vegetables you’ve ever eaten.

To begin the meal, I’d have the antipasto plate or the warm, poached mozzarella. And to end it, I’d have any dish on the amazing dessert list: Nancy Silverton’s desserts are, quite simply, the best in America.

624 S. La Brea Ave., Los Angeles; (213) 938-1447.

PASTRAMI SANDWICH

Langer’s Delicatessen

There is a common misconception that a great pastrami sandwich is defined by the quality of the meat. This is wrong: While a great pastrami sandwich requires great meat, many purveyors provide that. The difference between a great pastrami sandwich and one that is merely good is the way the meat is handled.

Order a pastrami sandwich ($6.50) at Langer’s, and watch the counterman construct it. First, he removes a large loaf of rye from the bread bin and shears off a couple of slices. Then he slathers them with yellow mustard, and picks up a fork, opens the steamer and pokes at the hunks of meat therein, looking for the one with just the right texture. He spears it, lays it on the butcher block, picks up a knife and deftly starts to slice. The slabs of meat are nearly uniform, thicker than those that are sliced on a machine and very pleasing to the teeth.

Bite in: This is an orgy of contrasting textures. With the best of intentions, it is almost impossible not to devour the sandwich instantly.

704 S. Alvarado St., Los Angeles; (213) 483-8050.

GRILLED MUSHROOMS

Fresco

When you travel in Italy in the spring or the fall, you find grilled mushrooms on almost every menu. Cut as thick as steaks, they are brushed with olive oil, dotted with garlic and thrown onto a wood fire. The resulting dish is simple, satisfying--and impossible to duplicate without good mushrooms.

Lots of American restaurants have tried. When they use porcini mushrooms, the result is wonderful--but enormously expensive. When they use other types of mushrooms, the result is either not very flavorful (plain brown mushrooms) or too limp ( shiitake ) .

But now Fresco has cornered the market on a strange and wonderful new mushroom that was clearly grown to be grilled. Although it doesn’t have the flavor of real porcini , this white coral mushroom has an amazingly crunchy texture that is unique in the world of fungi. A $10 appetizer, these mushrooms bite back when you bite into them; eating them is as satisfying as eating meat.

What would I have after this? I’d sit in this cozy restaurant and let myself be pampered with a plate of pasta, a salad--and perhaps some homemade ice cream.

I might even be able to fool myself that I was eating in Italy.

514 S. Brand Blvd., Glendale; (818) 247-5541.

BLACK-PEPPER-ROASTED TUNA

Patina

Why choose this particular dish at Patina? Because it seems to be the one perennial dish on the ever-changing menu at the best serious restaurant in Southern California.

The tuna is rolled in pepper, quickly seared and then served with a small mountain of crisp Asian vegetables in a sauce that has just enough soy to make the vegetables interesting. The whole thing arrives under a heap of frizzled Chinese pasta (it costs $15 at lunch and $23.50 at dinner).

Beforehand, you’ll want to have one of the extraordinary potato appetizers. At one time, there was a wonderfully inventive “ creme brulee “ made of mashed potatoes, fried potatoes and oysters. There is often scallop roll, a playful egg-roll imposter made of scallops and spinach wrapped in an amazingly thin layer of fried potato.

Potatoes are featured in “lasagna” as well--sometimes they are layered with mushrooms, sometimes with fish--but they always stand in for the pasta. And, of course, there are potatoes in the Santa Barbara shrimp with mashed potatoes.

Desserts here are memorable, too. In fact, there’s hardly a dish on Patina’s menu that I didn’t consider for this list.

5955 Melrose Ave., Los Angeles; (213) 467-1108.

FOIE GRAS WITH PINEAPPLE

Chinois on Main

This is, without any doubt, the silliest-sounding dish on the list. If you haven’t had it before, you are undoubtedly dubious. What sane person would believe that sauteed foie gras could possibly taste good served on a slice of pineapple with a cinnamon-scented sauce?

In fact, the combination transcends mere goodness: This is a great dish, each element improved by the presence of the others. Somehow, the rich smoothness of the foie gras , played against the sweet chewiness of the fruit and the biting pungency of the spice, creates a whole new range of flavors, more than the sum of its parts ($18.50).

This is not the only powerful dish on the menu: The food at Wolfgang Puck’s Chinois is constantly revealing new facets of ingredients you once thought familiar. Eating here is an exercise in surprise: Spinach is fried into crisp, translucent leaves; lobster is cooked with coconut. This is the ideal restaurant for the jaded palate.

2709 Main St., Santa Monica; (213) 392-9025.

CRUNCHY NAPOLEON

Citrus

Take the world’s best creme brulee, sandwich it between thin sheets of crisp pastry, stack it all up in layers, and serve it on a small caramel pond.

Preface this with a potato sandwich made of butter-rich mashed potatoes enclosed by crisp potato chips, or shrimp wrapped up in thin strips of filo, fried and served on a bright pink bed of pureed coleslaw, and you understand why people are so eager to eat Michel Richard’s food.

Choosing one dish off this menu wasn’t easy: Richard is an extraordinarily inventive chef who has real fun in the kitchen. I almost chose the tuna burger--a wonderful conceit in which toasted brioche stands in for the bun and chopped tuna replaces the chopped steak. I considered the foie gras wrapped in shiitake mushrooms, too. But in the end, I chose this dish because at Citrus, where I almost never eat an entree twice, I almost always end my meals with this homage to cream and crunch ($7).

6703 Melrose Ave., Los Angeles; (213) 857-0034.

CRAB SOUFFLE

Rockenwagner

Souffles are simple chemistry made magic. Unfortunately, they are usually wasted on dessert, when you are too full to really appreciate them. Even more unfortunate, most souffles are overcooked.

Hans Rockenwagner solved those problems with his signature dish. His savory souffle ($8) is served at the beginning of the meal; the fact that there’s a hungry wait before it arrives only makes it better. (There’s good brioche to stave off immediate starvation.) And when the souffle does come, it is both gorgeous and incredibly delicious.

Pairing crab souffle with a fan of papaya is just one of Rockenwagner’s interesting conceits; he has other tricks up his sleeve, such as topping a salad with tomato sorbet. And right about now, when asparagus is in season, there’s not a more interesting meal than his all-asparagus dinner.

1023 Abbot Kinney Blvd., Venice; (213) 399-6504.

VEGETARIAN PLATTER

City Restaurant

When it comes to cooking, subtle is often a euphemism for too little taste. It is one that the chefs at City never need to use. Not of the less-is-more school, they use a palette of flavors that is startlingly aggressive. It is why their vegetarian plate is the best in town.

Where other restaurants might serve a pallid plate of steamed greens, City’s vegetables really strut their stuff. What the plate holds changes with the seasons, but it is always Indian-accented and remarkably delicious ($13.75 at lunch; $17.75 at dinner).

There will certainly be basmati rice and some sort of beans. There will probably be a wonderful mush of squash and a deep-purple heap of beets that this beet-hater finds particularly appealing. There may be asparagus, carrots, potatoes and, if you’re lucky, curried tomatoes.

If you’re good and eat all your vegetables, you can choose something from the huge array of mostly American desserts to end your meal. A chocolate cupcake, perhaps, or a piece of pie. 180 S. La Brea Ave., Los Angeles; (213) 938-2155.

LOBSTER WITH FAVA BEANS, ROE AND CHILE

Yujean Kang’s

You can have lobster Thermidor. As far as I’m concerned, you can keep lobster bisque. Until this dish came along, I was a lobster snob who believed that there were only two ways to eat lobster: grilled and boiled.

But Yujean Kang changed all that with this delicious dish ($28). He takes a small lobster, removes it from the shell and sautes the meat with its own roe, mushrooms, fava beans and chile oil. The result is lobster in a powerful new role: It can stand up to spices and win.

Kang is equally inventive with everything he cooks. In his new Pasadena restaurant, he is boldly reinventing Chinese food, combining the Cantonese fascination with texture, the Sichuan obsession with spice and the California insistence upon freshness. The result is very forward food that is consistently seductive. With the lobster, try his take on tea-smoked duck, his amazing Chinese polenta--and his totally original cheesecake.

67 N. Raymond Ave., Pasadena; (818) 585-0855.

PIG’S TROTTERS STUFFED WITH SNAILS

Tulipe

This isn’t what you think it is, not a huge bony hoof on a plate. Instead, it’s a sedate, $9 brown bundle sitting in a puddle of sauce--a crisp little package that delivers more flavor and texture per bite than any other dish in L.A.

The flavorful meat has been stripped from the foot, mixed with small chewy snails (and a bit of brains and sweetbreads for the contrasting softness of texture), then wrapped in caul fat and fried. The taste is delicate rather than strong, but each bite does a little dance in your mouth as the varying textures step forward.

This is just one of the dishes that proves that, despite the upscale airs of the room, Tulipe is L.A.’s best bistro. If you start with the pig’s trotter, go on to the satisfyingly rustic cote de boeuf and end with the powerfully flavorful apple tart in Calvados cream, you will have had a meal that anybody in France would be thrilled to eat.

8360 Melrose Ave., Los Angeles; (213) 655-7400.

ROSTI WITH CAVIAR

La Toque

When owner-chef Ken Frank says rosti , he really means potato pancakes, particularly crisp, golden disks that crackle when you bite into them. And when he says caviar, he means a spoonful of shiny dark grains, each one firm enough to pop against your teeth. Put the two together--with just a little bit of sour cream in between--and you have one of the world’s great food combinations. (The rosti come with various kinds of caviar; I like the sevruga, $24, best.)

You don’t need too much more after this rich and expensive dish: I’d settle for a plate of pasta, a small salad and one of the cheeses from Frank’s exemplary tray. Unless, of course, it happened to be truffle time, when I would find it impossible to resist Frank’s remarkable truffle ice cream.

8171 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood; (213) 656-7515.

HAMBURGER

West Beach Cafe

The best hamburger in Southern California is served here in this bastion of beautiful people who look as if they have never eaten anything more substantial than salad and the occasional piece of fish.

The hamburger is a thick, fat disk of perfectly marbled meat that comes cooked exactly as you order it. Medium rare here means pink out to the edges. The bun it is served on is slightly crusty and has exactly the same diameter as the hamburger patty. The bun is soft enough to collect the juice from the meat but hardy enough to hold together as long as the hamburger does. The burger comes with a fat slice of tomato, a thin slice of red onion, one lettuce leaf and an array of mustards and ketchups. It also comes with excellent French fries-- thick, golden lengths of potato with the unusual but unmistakable tang of nonvegetable fat ($8 with fries).

Worth a trip from anywhere.

60 N. Venice Blvd., Venice; (213) 823-5396.

BLACK GOAT, CHILE, PARSLEY AND GARLIC SOUP

Mi Ho

Funky, rustic and elegant all at the same time, this is a soup to reckon with. Deep rust in color, it is raucous with wild flavors: The meaty tang of goat is edged with the herbal taste of shiso seed, chrysanthemum and parsley, rounded by the sweetness of garlic and tamed by the fire of chile. Ladle some of the homemade chile sauce into the bowl, and you end up with a flavor that is unlike that of any other dish served in Southern California.

This clean, tiny restaurant serves what one Korean friend characterizes as “the sort of food we eat at home.” It is a far cry from the usual barbecue fare of Korean restaurants. Even timid eaters will be seduced by the fluffy homemade noodles in anchovy broth and the plump little oyster and scallion patties. (The “special beef-foot dish,” however, is recommended only for the most adventurous eaters.) But the goat soup ($9.30) is for everybody who loves good food; if you’ve never much cared for Korean food, this could change your mind.

9735 Garden Grove Blvd., Garden Grove; (714) 539-5064.

HERRING SAMPLER

Gustaf Anders

The best herring in the world is served at the Oyster Bar in New York every May at the Herring Festival. But if you don’t feel like flying across the country, the herring at Gustaf Anders runs a very close second.

The restaurant pickles its own in three different flavors; my favorite is the clean, astringent lemon-onion brine, although I also like the slight sweetness of herring cured in carrots and mustard seeds and the clear, herbal sting of the fish pickled in juniper berries (sampler cost: $11). What I like best, though, is to sit at the bar, alternating bites of each herring with new potatoes and Vasterbotten cheese.

There are other wonders in this cool, dark, friendly restaurant: great sandwiches made of smoked salmon and caviar on the restaurant’s own wonderful bread. Silky gravad lax. Smoked sturgeon and creamed eggs with toast. Steamed shrimp that you peel yourself and dip into a trio of sauces. Gustaf Anders is a paradise for seafood lovers; at night, there’s even good jazz.

3810 S. Plaza Drive, South Coast Plaza Village, Santa Ana; (714) 668-1737.

VEAL CHOP WITH MASHED POTATOES AND LEEKS

Bice

When Bice opened a year and a half ago, it was a beautiful restaurant with a namby-pamby menu offering second-string Italian dishes. Then the management brought in chef Patrick Clark from New York, and everything changed.

The food got bigger, better--and different from anything else served in Southern California. This giant veal chop ($23) is an excellent example.

There’s nothing extraordinary about the chop--other than its size and quality. But paired with an enormous mound of soft, buttery mashed potatoes, a heap of softly roasted onions and crisp little ribbons of fried leeks, it becomes a dish of perfect simplicity. Days later, you find yourself thinking about the chop, wishing you could eat it again. This isn’t fancy or complicated cooking--it is just food that tastes very fine indeed.

301 N. Canon Drive, Beverly Hills; (213) 272-2423.