MOGUL SPLENDOR : <i> Simple Food, Fine Service, Famous Faces: Chasen’s Is </i> the <i> Old-Hollywood Hangout </i>

When I told people I was going to dinner at Chasen’s,” said my friend Mr. Movie, settling into a booth, “I got three reactions. ‘Is it still open?’ was the first. ‘The only thing to eat there is the cracked crab,’ was the second. And the third was outright laughter.”

As he said this, Secret Service agents were circling the restaurant. Three booths down, George Burns was stopping to chat with Ron and Nancy Reagan; across the aisle, Pete Rozelle was regaling a large party. Baby moguls may laugh, but old moguls still go to Chasen’s; if any restaurant characterizes the difference between old and new Los Angeles, this is it.

Chasen’s, established in 1936, is so old it could become fashionable again. In a city where service is now defined as the waiter’s being friendly, and good service as not being made to wait too long for your table, Chasen’s is a pleasant anachronism. The professional waiters are attentive, solicitous and slightly distant, understanding that the whole point of good service is to make the customer feel pampered.

Like every power place, Chasen’s has a good room and a better room--but unlike the new hot spots, it isn’t obvious here. A novice wouldn’t know the good room from the better but for the fact that all the famous faces are seated in the other: the green room in front that actually looks less impressive than the clubby, cozy, womblike red room to the rear. Both have the lived-in look of old money. Wherever you sit, you will find yourself surrounded by perfectly coiffed women wearing astonishing amounts of real jewelry and solid-looking men who seem as if they have spent their lives in these booths.

No matter where you are seated--and these days even the hoi polloi have a chance at a table in the front room--drinks arrive almost before you have a chance to blink. Chasen’s deliciously old-fashioned cheese toast arrives with the drinks, snuggled beneath a warm napkin. You’ll see the toast listed on the menu--and your check--at $1.75 an order, but nobody actually orders it. The stuff just comes--endlessly, if you like.

You might find other surprises on your check as well. Should your captain casually ask, “Wouldn’t you like a little shellfish first?” you’ll discover that the mountain of shrimp-crab-and-lobster-covered ice has cost $19.50 per person.

If ice is one specialty at Chasen’s, fire is the other. The best dishes are dramatically prepared over raging mini-fires or actually served in flames. The single best dish at Chasen’s is the hobo steak--which is not on the menu but is always available. It’s a good, thick piece of filet, baked in salt, sliced tableside and dramatically sauteed in butter. The show costs $59; the meat feeds two people, generously.

Everything is generous at Chasen’s. Shrimp curry may be mild and old-fashioned, and it may arrive accompanied by diced fresh pineapple, diced tomato, diced onion, sliced almonds, toasted coconut, raisins and Major Grey’s chutney, but it is a huge serving of shrimp. Order Dover sole, and you get the whole fish, cooked any way you like. I am unable to resist the deviled beef bones--big, meaty bones from the prime rib, swathed in mustard, cloaked in crumbs and so generously portioned that the leftovers make a full meal the following night. Potatoes are big here--O’Brien, hash browns, au gratin--you name ‘em, they cook ‘em. For a price: $5.50. Vegetables are also served as expensive little side dishes: the creamed spinach is good, zucchini Florentine delicious, but the peas are just peas, and the carrots Vichy overcooked carrots with parsley on top.

Chasen’s famous desserts are the boring banana shortcake (bananas, sponge cake, whipped cream) and the even more boring coupe snowball (guess). I think the proper way to end a Chasen’s meal is with something sweet and fiery: cherries jubilee, crepes suzette, baked Alaska or Bananas Foster, all served flaming. The menu tells you that an order of any one of these feeds two, but they’ll each serve four easily, making a wonderfully decadent tribute to a time when people didn’t count cholesterol or calories.

But for all its ancient splendor, there is something new at Chasen’s; in October, the restaurant started serving lunch for the first time--and at extremely reasonable prices. While lunch service is very good, you won’t have a captain and a waiter dancing attendance on you. Skip the soups--they have a tendency to all taste the same--and start with salad. Maude’s Salad--shredded lettuce with blue cheese, chopped egg and chives--is a fine example of a true American mix. Equally American is the perfectly ripe half-avocado, sliced and served with hearts of romaine and three big wedges of grapefruit; this is a salad that other restaurants also should consider resurrecting.

The best of the entrees are the simplest: the steak sandwich (not a sandwich, really, but a nice little steak served with French fries, tomatoes and watercress), the lamb chops, the lamb stew. The entree salads are a bit disappointing--the lobster salad, for example, is rather shy on lobster. The chicken curry fills the room with a high, spicy perfume, but it’s as tame as the curry served at night.

There’s one truly awful dish: Chasen’s Chili Mac, squishy spaghetti mixed with squishy chili, topped with yellow cheese and then baked. It tastes like something you might have hated in your high school cafeteria. Far better is Dave’s Famous Chili, the one that Elizabeth Taylor reportedly had sent halfway around the world to woo Richard Burton. It isn’t on the menu, of course; it never has been. But it’s available--and it makes a pleasantly innocuous lunch. There is something thrilling about sitting in the darkened elegance of this wonderful room, being served chili by a very proper waiter.

Chasen’s is one of the last remaining icons of a great Hollywood past. Let others laugh; I’ll take this over Le Dome any day.

Chasen’s, 9039 Beverly Blvd., West Hollywood; (213) 271-2168. Open for dinner Tuesday through Sunday, for lunch Tuesday through Friday . Full bar. Valet parking. American Express, Visa and MasterCard accepted. Dinner for two, food only, $65-$130; lunch for two, food only, $35-$50.