Rothschild Banks on Old-World Food and Classic Charm

My friends looked vaguely downcast as we pulled in front of Rothschild, an intimate Corona del Mar hide-out that is about two generations removed from hip. I had invited them out to celebrate their son’s college graduation, and I’m sure they had their hearts set on a fashionable new hot spot.

But dining at Rothschild is rather like trying on your own graduation outfit when you stumble across it in the attic. As my friends were happy to discover, old clothes can be quite a comfort, even when we think we have outgrown them.

Don’t even think about finding any ‘90s pretensions here. The restaurant gets by on classic ambience, attentive service and solid, old-world cooking. The only surprise radiating from this kitchen is the fact that a whole lot of this stuff still tastes good. Imagine dining on dishes like toasted artichoke hearts and tournedos Rossini nowadays, and enjoying them!

Even the most fashion-conscious among us would have to be pretty callow to ignore all this charm. The restaurant is softly lit and full of gorgeous plants and gilt-framed 19th-Century oil paintings, the kind that are ideal for concealing a wall safe. We sat on the short end of the L-shaped dining room at a round table, hidden from general view behind a ceiling-high wine rack.

People who have been eating at this restaurant for years probably know that many of chef Roger Guerrero’s recipes were originated by Andreino de Santis, the self-styled fettuccine king who was once the restaurant’s chef. (You can also experience Andreino’s recipes at his eponymous San Clemente restaurant.) Guerrero’s menu is in fact crowded with saucy pasta dishes, but it is by no means dominated by them. There are many good things to eat from his menu, a potpourri of French, Italian and Continental.

You’ll probably want to start with those toasted artichoke hearts--almost everyone does. What you get are five or six slightly mushy globes, baked in the oven on a sizzling plate and then smeared with bread crumbs and the all-purpose garlic butter that seems to crop up in a lot of Guerrero’s dishes.

Order escargots Rothschild, in which the little creatures have been extracted from their shells and placed atop toasted French bread, and you’ll undoubtedly experience the same threshold of tastes. The one advantage, as in the Lite Beer commercials, is that the escargots are somehow less filling, but both dishes taste great.

The chef puts more garlic butter into a third appetizer, a dish called shrimp de Joghne (they must mean shrimp de Jonghe). I liked the fresh-tasting large prawns in this dish, and I guess I’m crazy about the way this man uses garlic. But the house tomato sauce baked on top tends to obscure the natural essences.

That problem will surface again should you decide to have pasta for your entree. A lot of pastas here are bound together by this sauce, a thick, tart, muscular puree that’s not for everybody.

Linguine pescatore is the one that survives best, because of the strong flavors that balance it. Guerrero makes this dish with baby clams, fragrant shrimp and tiny calamari, and then smothers it with mushrooms and wine. The tomato sauce’s chief victim is capellini marinara-- delicate angel hair pasta that is just not up to the onslaught.

You can solve the sauce problem simply by ordering fettuccine Andreino (“a family recipe for over 75 years”), which is a platter of egg noodles with cream, butter, grated Parmesan and black pepper. A fellow named Alfredo elsewhere put his name on this dish; for the record, Andreino claims to be a relative of that original Alfredo.

Meat-based entrees are pretty consistent here, although not a single one is apt to make anyone accuse the kitchen of abusing creative license. After you’ve tasted Marsala wine in a few of these meat sauces, along with the faint traces of garlic, you realize that every dish on the menu is sauced with either wine, garlic or tomato. So nobody’s perfect.

My favorite meat dish would have to be the tournedos Rossini: fork-tender medallions of filet mignon sauteed in Marsala and mushrooms, then smeared with pieces of pate. It’s the sort of dish you expect in Las Vegas gourmet rooms, and it makes an ideal match for one of the big-ticket Bordeaux that fill the rack next to your table.

The high-quality veal piccate is pounded thin (for once) and fully flavored with lemon. The only dish I’d bypass would be breast of chicken Fassero, a sort of saltimbocca substituting boneless breast of chicken for the customary veal. The surfeit of lifeless cheese covering the prosciutto has to be scraped off, and the dish is overpoweringly salty.

There are good desserts to make up for any of these transgressions. I like the one they call tiramisu, especially because it isn’t a tiramisu at all. It’s really a chocolate shell filled with a coffee-flavored whipped cream, both light and complex.

The crusty Linzer Torte comes from nearby C’Est Si Bon, and there’s a good Viennese cheesecake as well. But Rothschild’s own Oreo cookie ice cream pie, drenched in chocolate-almond sauce, is the one I really like to put my teeth on. Just don’t ask me to try to fit into my cap and gown later.

Rothschild is moderately expensive. Appetizers are $1.95 to $9.95. Salads are $2.95 to $5.95. Pastas are $10.95 to $14.95. Entrees are $14.95 to $17.95.

* ROTHSCHILD

* 2407 E. Coast Highway, Corona Del Mar.

* (714) 673-3750.

* Lunch, 11:30 a.m. through 2:30 p.m. Monday through Friday; dinner, 5 through 10 p.m. *nightly.

* All major cards accepted.