RESTAURANT REVIEW : An Ongoing Identity Crisis at El Chaya

El Chaya, the third designation of the Chaya restaurant space on the Sunset Strip, represents one more phase of what seems to be a continuing identity crisis.

Some years back, the Chaya company, respected purveyors of clever Asian-French cuisine (Chaya Brasserie, the now-defunct Le Petite Chaya), opened Flags, a restaurant with trendy good looks on the bottom floor of a Sunset Strip office building. Flags, however, never really flew and two years ago the restaurant changed its name and reopened as the Chaya Diner, hoping to capitalize on the good Chaya name.

Although it was obvious that the kitchen had some imagination and verve--its Book Soup, a clear broth with shrimp and won tons was named for the bookstore next door--the food itself was only intermittently delicious.

Recently, by hanging pinatas from the rafters and sombreros on the white walls, and by adopting a Mexican menu with quite moderate prices, Chaya Diner turned itself into El Chaya. Silverware and napkins now come in serve-yourself baskets on the table and each new customer is greeted with chips and salsa and smiles from one of the abundantly cheerful, good-looking servers.

Customers to El Chaya in its first days found nachos, quesadillas and guacamole on the menu, although a few eclectic and/or popular Chaya Diner items were listed on the menu and on the board listing specials.

Depending on how you ordered, you might have found yourself eating a perfectly forgettable albondigas (Mexican meatball) soup or a good Caesar salad, sprightly the way it should be. You might have tried El Chaya’s rich and delicious shrimp enchiladas or had an austerely simple Japanese-style meal with a basket full of steamed vegetables and mahi mahi for which the only seasoning was soy sauce. Once more, the kitchen proved that it could be both adept and ordinary by turns.

If the new slant was designed to attract a new clientele, it may have been partially successful: Out on the patio one night there was a small but noisy office party, fueled by an amazing rainbow of margaritas and other blender drinks. Otherwise, the dining room and patio had the same interesting mix as before, although in sparser numbers.

El Chaya’s attempt at being a trendy, commercial Mexican restaurant was not, perhaps, a brilliant move, but it did make me realize that there were things about Chaya Diner I liked and missed. Apparently, I was not alone, for a few weeks after my first visit to El Chaya, there was a new menu that, while still offering primarily Mexican cooking, had cut back on the number of Mexican dishes so the Chaya Diner standbys were more obvious.

“What happened?” we asked our cheerful waiter.

“I guess people weren’t happy about the food we were serving . . . and just when I memorized the last menu.”

With this newer, even more equivocal menu, El Chaya seems to be melding its Mexican identity to its more familiar, old-line eclecticism. It’s an attempt to please its old customers as well as reach out to a new clientele. But I get the impression that instead of doing what it does well, El Chaya is too busy trying to second-guess the public. And so, as ever, some of the food is quite good, some terribly ordinary.

Curried clam chowder is delicious, while tortilla soup is a bland stew of tiny white cannellini beans spiked with some of those red, black and neutral crispy shredded tortillas. Our waiter swore by the shrimp tostada, which was dreadfully dull; he later confessed it was the first and only kind of tostada he’d ever tasted. Spaghetti with smoked chicken and assorted mushrooms is a clever and compelling example of how an Italian dish can be graced with Japanese overtones. Grilled chicken breast is good too, though the accompanying rice and tomatillo sauce is decidedly uninspired. Seafood paella--with saffron, clams, black mussels, shrimp and calamari--is dominated by the flavor of the mussels but is a satisfying plate of food.

In this new version of the new El Chaya, one does not sense a new restaurant at all, but rather another chapter in this property’s continuing and frustrating odyssey toward its own elusive identity.

El Chaya, 8800 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, (310) 657-2083. Lunch and dinner Monday through Saturday. Full bar. Validated parking. American Express, MasterCard and Visa. Dinner for two, food only, $19 to $44.