Classy Jasmine Isn’t Your Garden-Variety Chinese

Jasmine is the latest high-rent Chinese restaurant to occupy the space of the old Emperor’s Fortune (which later called itself just plain Fortune). The current resident may be the most appealing restaurant in the space so far, but no one is ready to change the name to Good Fortune. Not just yet.

The problem, it seems, is that Chinese restaurants do best when they are inexpensive, which Jasmine is not. It’s still early, and Jasmine is still somewhat green around the chopsticks (no kidding--there are bizarre lime-green plastic chopsticks on every table), but indications are that the crowds are going elsewhere.

Don’t blame the location--the upscale South Coast Plaza Village on Sunflower Avenue in Santa Ana. Planet Hollywood, right next door, is less than two weeks old and just look at the lines there.

Surely Jasmine’s kitchen is not to blame, either. They don’t make any bold statements in there, but they do center themselves on an intrepid variety of Chinese dishes--everything from frog leg Sichuan to vegetarian Peking duck. And you certainly can’t fault the waiters, a troupe of smartly dressed young men and women who bend over backward to be accommodating. The service is deft and professional--more than I can say about the majority of Chinese restaurants in this county.

So what’s the problem? Perhaps that people are reluctant to pay dinner-house prices for Chinese cuisine, which for years has been synonymous with cheap eating in this country. Maybe Jasmine can have a hand in changing that. One look around this place should persuade you that the owners have spent their money.

The restaurant’s sky-blue deconstructionist ceiling, complete with the exposed ducts that became fashionable during the late ‘80s, didn’t come cheap, nor did the restaurant’s gold-streaked pink marble floor. Tables are set with magnificently glazed service plates, beautifully decorated in Chinese floral designs. (I should mention that these plates are used only as place covers, not for food. The glaze contains lead, which you don’t want as a dinner companion.)

At the same time, much of the fancy Oriental art that (Emperor’s) Fortune displayed has been removed, giving the restaurant a simpler, more casual look. And prices have been scaled down, even though most dishes during dinner service still hover just above $10. These prices are not unreasonable: Compare them with those at nearby Antonello and Gustaf Anders and you’ll pronounce them highly competitive. But compare them with the prices at your local mom-and-pop Chinese takeout, and naturally they pale.

Then again, few of Jasmine’s starters show up at your local takeout. One surprise is prawns in peppercorn sauce, fresh prawns lightly sauteed in the shell and drizzled with a piquant brown stock. It’s almost Japanese in character. Another is Chinese veggie antipasto, perfect for light appetites. It’s a small plate crowded with sweet pickled cabbage, mock ham (made from tofu) and crisped walnuts, a delightful combination.

Crispy chicken roll is deep fried, yet manages to be light (imagine a jelly roll; now substitute, in your mind, a sheet of minced chicken breast for the cake layer and a simple egg roll skin for the jelly). The honey-glazed barbecued spareribs merit a giant goose egg, though. They are far too sweet and sticky, and pretty fatty as well. (You do, however, get a tiny black porcelain finger bowl on the side. Told ya this place had class.)

After an intermezzo of the restaurant’s tasty light soups (try hot and sour, which manages to be delicate and intense), you should be ready to dig into one of the unusual entrees.

The best may be the vegetarian Peking duck, which happens to be one of the least expensive. It’s made just like the real article, a light pancake smeared with plum sauce and stuffed with scallion, but for duck skin the kitchen substitutes fried sheets of anise-perfumed tofu skin. The texture really fools you, and the taste is terrific.

If you want the real thing, that’s available too: Beijing duck double delight (as far as this menu is concerned, the vegetarian dish is “Peking duck” and the real duck is “Beijing duck”). It’s a gorgeous whole duck served in two courses. After the bird is grandly carved at the table, the skin will be served in the pancakes, followed by the meat sauteed with Chinese vegetables. It’s a hefty $32.50, but expertly done and altogether impressive.

Stuffed eggplant is vividly purple baby Japanese eggplants, six or so of them, stuffed with a mixture of minced chicken, shrimp and water chestnut, then blanketed with a thick black bean sauce. Shrimp Sichuan could use more chili and garlic to live up to the name; it is otherwise decently prepared in a competent pepper sauce.

Such vegetable dishes as dried sauteed string beans and Shanghai rice pasta have a distinctly Shanghai flair. The first dish is cooked with the hot bean paste so popular in that port city; the second is a fried melange of pork and bean sprouts acting as a foil for oval Chinese gnocchi fashioned of sticky rice.

There are dozens of other dishes you’ll want to try here: frog legs, for example, or an appetizer called yo-lin crispy quail, or braised abalone or Hunan lamb. But because the menu is extensive and the restaurant is off to a slow start, these dishes are not always available.

The restaurant expects a beer and wine license soon, and management is planning to serve desserts such as sesame apples and fried bananas as soon as the crowds start to arrive. I’d have them look in a fortune cookie for a clue as to when that will be, but wouldn’t you know it? They don’t serve them.

Jasmine is high-end moderate. Starters are $5.50 to $12. Soups are $3 to $4.50. Main dishes are $7.75 to $32.50.

Three weeks ago I wrote incorrectly that Ararad is the only Armenian restaurant in Orange County. I was wrong, and I will review Armenian Garden in Garden Grove in the near future.

* JASMINE

South Coast Plaza Village, 1621 Sunflower Ave., Santa Ana.

(714) 966-8332.

Lunch Mondays through Fridays from 11:30 a.m. to 3 p.m.; dinner Sundays through Thursdays from 3 to 10 p.m., Fridays and Saturdays to 10:30 p.m.

All major cards accepted.