San Diego Spotlight : Where the Arugula and the Smoked Buffalo Roam

The cowboys in the kitchen at Montanas, having spurred their ponies over the Rockies and ridden the ranges of the mountain states in search of regional cuisine, have managed to lasso quite a number of seafood recipes.

Montanas first fired its grill back in 1990, with the intent of living up to its name (which is, of course, the Spanish word for mountains ) by offering such local specialties as could be found along the spine of the Rocky Mountains. The realities of that region’s simple fare forced a shift westward to California cuisine, the new styles of the Pacific Northwest and even the adoption of a few ideas from the Pacific Rim school of cooking. To a fair degree, this means fish--although there is plenty of meat, notably an appetizer of smoked buffalo carpaccio with arugula, olive oil and aged Monterey Jack that does point to mountain cooking, if of the Apennines rather than the Rockies.

This high-style, ultra-contemporary Hillcrest restaurant by and large seems to have developed nicely in the year and a half it’s been open. The tables were jammed on a recent Friday, and the crowd looked happy. Montanas’ menu is an absolute pleasure to read, at least for anyone who has some degree of interest in innovative cooking, and, while the kitchen most definitely hits the skids with a few preparations, it does wonderfully well with many.

The restaurant subtitles itself an “American grill,” and almost anything that can be cooked over hardwood coals arrives branded with cross-hatched markings; smoking perhaps weighs in as the second most prevalent style of cooking. Montanas seems to have aligned itself in the direction cooking will take in the ‘90s. This will be the decade of the grill, unless science discovers that overindulgence in grilled food causes us to grow goat-like horns or develop other unwanted side effects.

Because it was a Friday, the day’s soup was the town’s favorite, New England clam chowder. Immediately past this, the menu grew immensely interesting, with such things as a pairing of smoked Idaho trout and Pacific steelhead. (The steelhead is farm-raised, however, and you start to notice the gamy flavor of free-ranging seafood after tasting pond-bred fish and shellfish, especially the abysmal shrimp many restaurants now serve). This is offered with a lemon-caper mayonnaise, while New Orleans-style remoulade--a lovely sauce--and marinated cucumbers join the appetizer of grilled prawns. Nice offerings kept from Montanas’ early days include the roasted garlic meant to be spread on toasted slivers of the excellent, baked-on-premises sourdough, and the grilled Anaheim chilies stuffed with a mixture of three cheeses.

Smoked duck cakes, an appetizer that may be unique to Montanas, take their inspiration from Maryland crab cakes and then wing it. Chopped scallions, celery and bell pepper are added to the mix, along with enough breading to make the cakes crisp when cooked. The roasted red bell pepper sauce, very light, incorporates a great deal of chopped chives--the mild spiciness in a way “seconds” the starring ingredient--and is ideal with these richly smoke-flavored patties.

The salad list reads well from start to finish, and all should be good because Montanas used absolutely top-notch materials in an enormously clever salade du jour that could take a place of honor on the standing menu. Deluxe baby greens, very lightly moistened with a mild mint vinaigrette, formed a background for crumbles of soft Sonoma goat cheese, sugar-glazed walnuts and plump blueberries of all things. As unlikely a combination as this may sound, it was terrific. Other salad choices include sliced tomatoes with goat milk mozzarella, which is certainly a novelty, and a toss of baby greens, smoked salmon and tarragon dressing.

The menu also lists five pastas, including angel hair with chopped tomatoes and basil; saffron-flavored angel hair with scallops, prawns and tomato sauce, and peppered fettuccine with smoked chicken, spinach and sun-dried tomatoes.

All entrees brown and sizzle on the hardwood grill, with varying results. Lamb chops with an excellent compote of fennel, pearl onions and shallots were beautifully charred and beautifully tender; the hefty slab of grilled yellow squash that garnished this and other plates was in the Montanas mood, and good enough if you like this bland vegetable.

A Montanas specialty is the daily mixed grill of three offerings, sometimes drawn from standing menu items and sometimes composed of daily specials. On Fridays, it consists of seafood, recently a teaming of the grilled Tomales Bay oysters in garlic-oregano butter mentioned on the appetizer list, with small portions of the day’s two fish, escolar and ahi. In each case, the seafood had been cooked to just the right stage, yet the grilling imparted so strong a smoke flavor that enjoyment of these became strictly a matter of taste; the flavor really was too intense. The sauces mentioned with both fish failed to arrive, perhaps not being included in the mixed grill, and they might have helped, ahi being a rather dull fish. Escolar, fairly new hereabouts, reminds somewhat of swordfish and is pleasantly savory.

A great mound of Montanas’ very own “Santa Fe rice” joined the mixed grill and is served with several other dishes. It was, in the short version, awful; in the long version, this gooey, bland, utterly unseasoned mess was a case of concept winning out over common sense and knowledgeable preparation. Pinto beans, corn kernels and chopped scallions stud this stuff but add no flavor. A white and wild rice mix garnished the lamb chops and was less objectionable but still pretty bad; perhaps because rice can’t be grilled, Montanas can’t handle it.

There are also New Mexico-style pork stew with jalapeno corn bread, a Porterhouse steak with oven-browned potatoes, as well as barbecued king salmon and ribs.

Montanas retains its potency in the dessert department, which stars the chocolate torte with caramel sauce (a better one would be hard to find in this town) and also offers sourdough bread pudding and an old-fashioned “black cow” made with genuine sarsaparilla. A daily special, a pear-blackberry cobbler, was crisp, melting, sweet and superb.

MONTANAS 1421 University Ave., Hillcrest 297-0722 Lunch Monday through Saturday, dinner nightly Entrees cost $8.95 to $17.95; dinner for two, including a glass of wine each, tax and tip, about $35 to $75 Credit cards accepted