Racquet Club Gets a Grilling

The first thing you should know about the newly renovated Rangoon Racquet Club is that the Scotch eggs are gone. So is the cheese toast . . . and the cold peanut soup . . . and the famous chili. But the glass jungle-scene mural remains--and it’s been freshly cleaned. The lattice work above the booths also survived--freshly painted.

Apparently, the new owner loved the look of the clubby restaurant he acquired--he just hated most of the food. Wandering from table to table last week he told customers that it was his goal to give Los Angeles a great bar-and-grill, like the sort of places you find in New York. (Or perhaps like Musso & Frank in Hollywood or the Grill right down the street?) The old Rangoon waiters looked like members of some lost colonial troop; the new Rangoon waiters look like, well, waiters.

Instead of Oysters Serangoon (oysters, spinach and curry), there are now Oysters Rockefeller (oysters and spinach). Instead of crab-and-shrimp lumpia, there are spicy sauteed shrimp, Clams Casino and cedar-plank smoked salmon. There are steaks and chops and classic salads. Vegetables are ordered a la carte (the creamed spinach is delicious). And there’s a lot of grilled food--peppered tuna, chicken with caramelized onions. A few items change daily--there’s a roast duck of the day, a vegetable dinner of the day and a soup of day (last week a terrific roasted potato soup).

Not everything is together here yet, but the place has potential--given time, the old Rangoon regulars may just stop looking for hard-boiled eggs and start enjoying the crab cakes.

* Rangoon Racquet Club, 9474 Santa Monica Blvd., Beverly Hills, (310) 274-8926. Dinner for two, food only, $48-$98.