Intimacy Is House Special

New restaurants often fancy themselves the theaters of the ‘90s, dramatic architectural spaces for super chefs to perform feats of magic and daring. That’s what makes a place such as Balboa Island’s Tete-a-Tete so unusual.

Tete-a-Tete, you see, is no grand den of theatricality or innovation, but rather a tiny, intimate space the likes of which have all but submerged from view, at least in the restaurant world.

The restaurant belongs to two brothers from Switzerland named Juerg and Christophe Boo. The Boo brothers (not to be confused with the Blues Brothers) also own and operate a restaurant called Mezzanine at the Towers, MacArthur Boulevard’s Brinderson Towers.

Tete-a-Tete (in French, an intimate conversation) can’t be more than 10 feet across, 20 or so feet long and less than eight feet high in this rough-hewn wooden cubicle that recalls the captain’s quarters in a Gregory Peck seafaring epic. The appointments aren’t much more up to date, either, unless you count the fresh orchids that grace every table.

The rear wall, for example, is dominated by an oil painting of a nude female supine on satin sheets. If this represents any ‘90s, it must be the 1890s. And seating is pretty much relegated to a low-slung banquette in a flower pattern left over from a place called Steinbeck’s, which occupied these premises a few years back. The banquette runs around the inner perimeter of the restaurant, faced off by wooden chairs on the opposite sides of the pint-sized tables.

The result is that diners invariably find themselves extraordinarily close to their neighbors. It’s a restaurant suitable for lovers, but no place to keep a secret and a distinctly odd choice for business people having a working lunch, something that occurs with unlikely frequency here. I appreciate the fact that the front door remains open at lunch, flooding the room with light and salty sea air. Maybe the business people do too.

Tete-a-Tete’s chef is another Swiss import, a twentysomething fellow named Daniel Kaeser. Kaeser’s a well-trained chef all right, but his lunch menu is a bit off the deep end. It is as quirky a take on Americana as his dinner menu is solidly European.

Start with a cup of his Louisiana-style seafood gumbo and you’ll get the idea. Kaeser’s gumbo is heavy on the roux and tasty enough, but it doesn’t remind you of anything called gumbo. It’s a murky brown soup brimming with chunks of sea bass and tuna. No shrimp, celery or rice in sight.

Then there is a salad he calls Bombay-style chicken that suggests California far more than it does India. Pieces of marinated white-meat chicken are rubbed with spices such as coriander and turmeric, then mixed with shredded white and red cabbage heavily infused with a black sesame soy dressing. It’s a good idea, and a seminal Pacific Rim dish if there ever was one.

His heady, muscular Caesar salad comes with spiced Cajun shrimp--the shrimp you wish had shown up in his gumbo. An ultralean beef burger comes on a crunchy sesame bun with Swiss cheese (you didn’t expect Velveeta, did you?) and crisp bacon. Dishes such as cheese tortellini and German-style bratwurst with grilled onions and potato salad are exceptional in being actual Old-Country fare, and are done with reasonable pizazz.

At dinner, the restaurant undergoes a metamorphosis. Flickering lights and a distinctly elegant menu attract a more subdued clientele inclined to linger over upscale Swiss hotel dishes such as roasted artichoke soup, ravioli stuffed with porcini and rack of lamb.

Kaeser’s soups are great. His subtly flavored cream of asparagus captures the very essence of that complex vegetable, when you are lucky enough to find it up on the specials blackboard. If not, then the menu’s rich, mildly smoky roasted artichoke soup will just have to do. Other starters include a somewhat overpowering hearts of romaine salad with anchovy garlic dressing and baby mixed greens dressed with a silly sweet raspberry vinaigrette. If they didn’t overstate their cases, they’d both be terrific.

Two of the appetizers would actually be better as light entrees. The crisp, full-flavored Canadian crab cakes are served over mixed garden greens with a robust garlic mayonnaise. Kaeser’s delicate porcini ravioli have an intense mushroom taste offset nicely by a buttery green herb sauce.

The intimate, almost claustrophobic ambience at Tete-a-Tete brings out my primal instincts, making me hungry for dishes such as filet mignon and rack of lamb. The rack is just great--baby lamb oven roasted with a savory mustard and herb crust, glazed with a deep brown sauce distilled from sweet garlic and shallot. The plate is studded with little roasted cloves of this garlic, possibly the most delicious thing that comes out of this kitchen.

I also love the exquisitely tender grilled filet, served atop an intense mushroom sauce made with morels and chanterelles. Kaeser is a top-notch sauce chef. His mushroom sauce makes a good steak into a great one.

There is no such greatness at dessert, but a few workmanlike sweets do tickle the palate. A straightforward creme brulee is probably the best bet; lemon cheesecake is imperfect (too sweet, a little mushy) but tasty.

But this is a great restaurant for a quiet, romantic dinner, the lack of space notwithstanding. Maitre d’ Marc Vende’s service never misses a beat, espressos are refilled promptly, and the outside world seems far, far away. Even if it is, in reality, no further than the tip of your shoe.

Tete-a-Tete is moderate at lunch, moderate to expensive at dinner. Dinner prices are as follows: Soups are $3.95 and $4; Salads and appetizers are $3.95 to $7.50; main dishes are $14.50 to $18.

TE TE-A-TE TE

217 Marine Ave., Balboa Island.

(714) 673-0570.

Lunch Monday through Friday, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Dinner Monday through Saturday, 6 to 10 p.m. Closed Sunday.

American Express, MasterCard and Visa.