Bombay Duck Takes Flight in Laguna

Bombay Duck, Geeta and Praveen Bansal’s colorful second restaurant (the first is Clay Oven in Irvine), is now open in Laguna Beach, serving lunch and dinner daily. At Bombay Duck, plates come prettily arranged with complete dinners: entree, vegetable, rice and tandoor-baked bread. An entree of salmon with spinach (wrapped in foil and cooked with tomato, onion and spices in the clay tandoor) is accompanied by fragrant basmati rice and puffy naan. A lunch specialty, India’s answer to the burrito, is the Bombay roll: naan bread wrapped around tandoori lamb, chicken, swordfish or eggplant, together with lettuce, tomato and onion. Lunches range from $4 to $8; complete dinners, $10 to $12. Bombay Duck is open daily 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. at 231 Ocean Ave.; (714) 497-7307.

Tutto Mare will celebrate La Vendemmia , the traditional festivities culminating the yearly grape harvest in Italy, on Tuesday. General manager Claudio Arena has chosen five Tuscan wines to enhance chef Corrado Gianotti’s six-course menu. Highlights: thin slices of salmon served on a rainbow of vegetables with balsamic vinegar dressing, fresh gnocchi with porcini mushroom sauce, and braised rack of veal marinated in Brunello wine with wild berries and juniper berry sauce. The cost is $62, excluding tax and gratuity. The address is 545 Newport Center Drive, at Fashion Island, Newport Beach; (714) 640-6333.

Russ O’Hare, representing Far Niente, a Napa Valley wine estate, will introduce both a 1989 and 1990 Chardonnay and also 1989 and 1986 Cabernets at a dinner on Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. at Gustaf Anders. The menu will include steamed lettuce-wrapped salmon with light ginger sauce, and crispy sweetbreads with black truffle sauce. The cost is $59 per person, not including tax and gratuity. The restaurant is in South Coast Plaza Village, 1651 Sunflower Ave., Santa Ana; (714) 668-1737.

El Torito’s new lunch and dinner menus are now available in Braille in all 70 of the chain’s California restaurants. The chain has received letters from blind patrons praising the descriptions of the food and who like being able to peruse the menu themselves rather than having a sighted companion read it to them. El Torito will expand the Braille menus to franchises nationwide this fall.

Piccola cenetta, Italian for “little supper,” translates as a three-course dinner for $21.95 at Antonello Ristorante in South Coast Plaza Village. This special new menu, available Monday through Saturday from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m., features a choice of salads and a main course of halibut calabrese, cappellini with vegetables or boneless breast of chicken with fresh herbs. Dessert is gelato with fresh berries. The regular a la carte menu is also available. The restaurant is open for lunch Monday through Friday from 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m., for dinner Monday through Thursday from 5:45 p.m. to 10 p.m. and Friday and Saturday till 11 p.m. The restaurant is at 1611 Sunflower Ave., Santa Ana; (714) 751-7153.

Lucky Teachanarong has closed Bangkok 3 on Balboa Peninsula. But Bangkok 4 in the Crystal Court, Costa Mesa, is still open for Thai specialties.

Gone too is the Velvet Turtle on El Toro Road in Lake Forest. Its replacement: Spoons Grill & Bar, with Tex-Mex specialties.

Five Crowns restaurant will pair the wines of Caymus Vineyards with chef Brian Roth’s cooking for a special evening Oct. 2. The highlight will be a 1987 Caymus Cabernet, which is No. 3 on the Wine Spectator’s list of the top 100 wines. Dinner follows a reception beginning at 6:30 p.m. The cost: $65 per person, including tax and gratuity. The address is 3801 E. Coast Highway, Corona del Mar; (714) 760-0331.