Using Your Noodle at Matrixx

At the new restaurant Matrixx, in the recently opened L.A. branch of the Hotel Nikko, you are presented with a menu that includes a sort of pasta board game. Laid out on a grid (or matrix--one x ), are several columns labeled at the top with different pasta choices (mushroom papparadelle and udon , for instance). You pick a pasta and match it with one of the listed toppings from another column, say, “oven-dried tomatoes with white beans, olive oil and marjoram.”

A few squares of the grid are marked with a box to indicate what the menu calls the “chef’s selection.” Cured fish with lobster broth goes well with soba , according to the system, but you’re taking your chances if you want your “root vegetables and horseradish with beef broth” on top of mee krob . Still, the waiter assures, you can order any combination you want.

Actually, if you follow the grid’s advice, soba noodles do work pretty well with “sauteed sweetbreads with pistachio-cilantro pesto.” (Weird as it sounds, the sharp tang of the cilantro complements the pistachio.) And the sauteed shrimp in a Thai red curry with lobster broth and coconut is good with mee krob .

Some of the dishes from other parts of the menu, however, could use some work. Carpaccio tastes frozen, though the accompanying “Caesar salad crepe” (the salad, croutons and all, fills a thin buckwheat pancake) is an interesting idea.

You aren’t going to find L.A.’s finest cuisine here, but unlike most hotel restaurants, Matrixx is far from boring.

Matrixx at the Hotel Nikko, 465 S. La Cienega Blvd., Los Angeles, (310) 247-0400. Entrees $8-$16.50.