Building a Better Bistro

Patina’s Joachim and Christine Splichal have held nothing back with their new bistro, Pinot, on the site of the old La Serre restaurant in Studio City. First they had Cheryl Brantner--she designed Patina and Bikini--clear out La Serre’s infamous gazebo, and let her create a fantastic bistro space full of mirrors, grainy black-and-white photos, antique light fixtures, plenty of wood, a fireplace and a giant, old clock face. Magritte, let’s eat.

Then Joachim Splichal and executive chef Octavio Becerra came up with a menu full of delicious, if occasionally oddball, things. This is one San Fernando Valley place that makes no concessions to perceived middlebrow taste. There is, for instance, a wonderful plate of beef tongue, brined, poached, topped with a caper and Madeira sauce and served with buttered fettuccine, also veal kidney served with garlic cream and mustard sauce, fried halibut in a napkin, and something called “salmon unilateral.”

Much of the menu is traditional French bistro stuff: rich pates served with a crock of pickled cornichons and baby onions; a charcuterie plate (called, on the menu, “Everything From the Pork in Sausage Form”); steak frites (the thin, crisp French fries are garnished with a few fried parsley stems); onion soup; escargots; a classic salad of frisee, poached egg and bacon; garlicky lamb chops.

One of the best dishes is based on a Nicoise standby rarely seen in this country: Socca , a chickpea-flour pancake, here topped with chicken and grilled onions, is so good that even nice people become stingy when asked to share.

* Pinot, 12969 Ventura Blvd., Studio City, (818) 990-0500. Pasta and entrees $15.50 to $19.95.