Appearances, Food Matter at Bikini

We’ve gotten so sensible in our restaurants lately. Everywhere we eat--in trattorias and cafes and bars & grills--we get what restaurateurs call accessible food at reasonable prices. It’s the bistroization of Los Angeles.

But John Sedlar, the chef who introduced the blue-corn tortilla to expense-account America at St. Estephe in Manhattan Beach, has just opened a restaurant that is not very sensible at all.

Set in a dramatic two-level space that is reminiscent of the avant-garde public designs by Phillipe Stark, Sedlar’s new place is full of things to look at: Glowing purple orbs that light the curvy booths upstairs; wavy panels of burnished wood; small, projection-booth-size windows that reveal glimpses of the restaurant’s kitchen; a sculpture of cascading water by artist Eric Orr; and on the tables, big, colorful plates that were specially designed for Bikini.

Sedlar is a chef for whom appearances matter. Consider his nacatamal appetizer, described on the menu as a “tropical TV dinner.” Sedlar’s version, an evocation of the out-sized tamales of Nicaragua, arrives in a jade-colored banana leaf, which the waiter opens to reveal four jewel-like piles of food: A pretty shrimp-filled seafood sausage, a mound of rice, a tidy pile of cilantro-spiked beans, and plantains, which are often served whole alongside nacatamals , mashed and beautifully presented on the leaf.

At Bikini, Sedlar takes elements of the cuisines of several countries: China, Japan, Italy, Mexico, Greece, Thailand. But, Sedlar’s cuisine is informed by strict French technique. And so his exotic, ginger-flecked “Egg Foo Yong Double Happiness”--made with duck eggs and confit --is closer to the creamy truffle or caviar things served in elegant French restaurants than to the Number Two special served in a Chinese diner.

Is this sensible? Maybe not, but it is delicious.

Bikini, 1413 Fifth St., Santa Monica, (310) 395-8611. Entrees $16-$26.