Fabulous Breakfasts, Splendid Lunches : Lost in the Afternoon

At dinner, unless you take the last reservation on the book, someone is inevitably waiting for your table and anxiously charting the course of your meal. Finished dessert yet? Asked for the bill? Time’s up. And time, it seems, gets in the way of savoring the experience. The waiter is in a rush. The cooks are working double-time, yet the food is slow coming from the kitchen. You would like to linger over the wine, but it’s already late, and it’s a long drive home.

That’s why, when I really want a wonderful meal, I’ll often opt for lunch. And when I do, I have certain restaurants in mind, places where I can easily lose all sense of time, where the menus offer a plenitude of enticing possibilities. On these rare occasions, my goal is not a quick lunch but an entire afternoon lost in good conversation and the pleasures of the table. It’s even more of a luxury to put yourself in the hands of the chef and ask him or her to orchestrate the menu and the wines. Indulgent? Yes. Every once in a while, we all need some time out.

VALENTINO

When I find myself missing Italy, the very best antidote is lunch at Valentino. It’s a Fridays-only event, attended by wine buffs, Italophiles and outright sensualists who settle in for a long, splendid lunch at this outstanding restaurant. Owner Piero Selvaggio greets each guest at the door; behind the scenes, chef Angelo Auriana, who hails from Bergamo, waits at the stoves. To get the very best from the experience, ask Selvaggio to make a special menu. He’ll inquire whether you prefer just three small dishes or want to keep them coming. Say yes to the latter; you won’t find more authentic Italian cooking anywhere outside Italy. And what comes from the kitchen-- bruschetta with sea urchin, for example, or a single scallop and a fan of porcini mushroom slices, garganelle and house-made sausage in a tomato sauce--is the very taste of Italy, pure in its freshness and simplicity.

Of course, you’ll drink Italian. You can spend a long time studying the superlative, fairly priced wine list, but you’re better off enlisting Selvaggio’s advice. He can suggest not only the renowned labels but also wines from small, hard-to-find Italian producers. One afternoon, it was 5 when we finally headed for the door. We were not the last by any means--a fact that makes Valentino feel even more like Italy. That’s why it’s such a shock when you find not the hills of Tuscany or Umbria, but Pico Boulevard outside the door. 3115 Pico Blvd., Santa Monica; (310) 829-4313. Lunch served Fridays only. All major credit cards accepted.

CITRUS

Whenever possible, I take a table with a view of a restaurant’s kitchen. At Citrus, the show alone is worth the price of admission, especially for the interplay between Michel Richard and chef de cuisine Alain Giraud.

If the peripatetic Richard happens to be in town, leave the menu to him. He won’t necessarily play it safe, but he seems to do some of his best cooking when he’s let loose in the kitchen to experiment. Most dishes turn out brilliantly; occasionally, one or two will miss the mark. I’ll take the chance because Richard’s food is rarely boring or predictable. He may start one day with poached eggs perched on a bed of braised leeks with an aromatic red wine and mushroom sauce. To drink? Pinot Noir, bien sur ! Next he might ply you with an earthy soup of spinach and peas studded with sweet, meaty scallops and follow that with a gratin of potato with plump, juicy mussels tucked under a blanket of mashed potato. Then perhaps a saute of rognons and foie gras with fingerling potatoes. As for dessert, well, that’s the true love of this former patissier. Settled in the ample green wicker armchairs, one can happily linger over the array of sweets. 6703 Melrose Ave., Los Angeles; (213) 857-0034. Lunch served Monday through Friday. All major credit cards accepted .

DRAI’S

Friday afternoon at Drai’s, the famous and the mostly not-so-famous slip into this trendy West Hollywood restaurant for a sociable lunch. The people-watching is first-rate (where else would a courtly older gentleman actually kiss a lady’s hand?). Inside the cool, softly lit dining rooms, the art of conversation seems to be making a definite revival. The menu features ponytailed French chef Claude Segal’s elegant composed salads, including a lovely one of lobster with bright ribbons of vegetables and a perky citrus dressing. His variations on a tart theme adorn fragile disks of puff pastry with artichokes, sweet peppers and goat cheese or sweet basil and organic tomatoes perfumed with balsamic vinegar. The French fries are flawless. Grilled swordfish is moist; the filet of beef perfectly cooked, the chicken napped in a fragrant rosemary sauce. All in all, a very civilized lunch. The ideal ending? Adjourn to a super-soft sofa in the lounge for dessert and a demitasse of coffee. 730 N. La Cienega Blvd., West Hollywood; (310) 358-8585. Lunch served Fridays only. All major credit cards accepted.

YUJEAN KANG

Like a jazz saxophonist riffing a familiar tune, owner-chef Yujean Kang snatches bits of flavors and techniques from China and the West and puts them together in an entirely fresh way. It’s the exotic play of flavors and the chance of discovering a new dish that makes an excursion to this red-walled restaurant so much fun.

With a few friends in tow, I can spend a couple of hours over lunch. We’ll often start with a German Spatlese from Kang’s varied and interesting list. It’s a wine that plays to the opulent flavors of old favorites--lobster with caviar and fava beans, pork loin with mustard greens and chiles and Chilean sea bass in an updated sweet-and-sour passion-fruit sauce with shreds of kumquat--and a new dish of fresh Louisiana shrimp with custardy deep-fried polenta in a green sauce of scallions and cilantro. You can order from either the lunch or the dinner menus or ask Kang to make a menu and choose the wines. No other Chinese restaurant in the country offers the chance to combine Chinese food with such serious wines. For dessert, there’s no contest: the mandarin orange cheesecake. 67 N. Raymond Ave., Pasadena; (818) 585-0855. Lunch served daily. All major credit cards accepted.

REGENT BEVERLY WILSHIRE

From the moment your car rolls into the regal courtyard at this luxurious Beverly Hills hotel, the world outside falls away. In the dining room, a well-turned-out fantasy of parquetry floors, demure velvet sofas and leather armchairs, tables are arranged on two levels. The city outside the pale Austrian shades could be London or Vienna as easily as Beverly Hills.

The watchful maitre d’ is right there when you are ready, taking your order and pouring your wine. A fortune for lunch? Mais non --not if you order prudently. The prix fixe business luncheon is $23 for three courses. (If you’re not in a hurry, ask them to slow down the promised 45-minute pace.) It might begin as it did one recent afternoon, with a delicious pea-and-fava-bean soup garnished with chanterelles, followed by a quite respectable pepper-encrusted filet of beef, dessert and coffee. Or you could toss caution to the wind and splurge on Champagne, half a dozen oysters and the cold poached salmon with a graceful green mayonnaise. My choice for dessert? The Beverly Hills cheesecake, an individual round enriched with mascarpone and crowned with fresh berries, accompanied by a soupcon of whipped cream. 9500 Wilshire Blvd., Beverly Hills; (310) 275-5200. Lunch served daily. All major credit cards accepted.

GUSTAF ANDERS

The six-table, wrought-iron patio at Gustaf Anders is ideal for a languid, Nordic-style lunch. This is California’s only first-rate Scandinavian restaurant, an austere, gallery-type space where chef Ulf Strandberg prepares wonderful herrings, cured-salmon dishes and open-face sandwiches.

Sit outside, sipping on the iced firewater known as aquavit, and an afternoon can disappear as easily as an Arctic sunset in winter. First you’ll be offered a selection of house breads: dense Swedish limpa, chewy onion rolls, homemade Swedish crispbread studded with caraway. Then choose from a parade of delicacies like the remarkable house-pickled herring with Vasterbotten cheese, smoked salmon and black caviar on pumpernickel or grilled gravad lax with dill mustard sauce. At the finish, try the Swedish liqueur called punsch and one or two dromma , ethereal sugar cookies that dissolve on the palate like lightly packed snow.--M.J. South Coast Plaza Village, 1651 Sunflower St., Santa Ana; (714) 668-1737. Lunch served Monday through Saturday. All major credit cards accepted.

PINOT BISTRO

Joachim Splichal’s Pinot is the Valley’s best restaurant any time of the day, but this rustic, elegant room is especially pleasant on a spring afternoon, when sunlight penetrates the skylight and dances off the wood-beamed ceiling. The fare is upscale bistro, though chef Octavio Becerra occasionally throws a bit of haute into the mix. It’s possible to have simple dishes like calf’s liver with fried onions or roast farm chicken with French fries, even grandmotherly food like braised beef pot roast, the latter served with a casserole dish of the kitchen’s creamy, crusty potato gratin.

But some like to take the high road, riding on appetizers like farinette --a bread-and-cheese griddle cake with roasted shallots--and savories such as crispy seafood cakes with brown butter or imaginative Pacific Rim-style main dishes like seared Pacific sea bass a la “Chinoise,” flaky and fragrant with ginger essence, pickled shallots and shiitake mushrooms.--M.J. 12969 Ventura Blvd., Studio City; (818) 990-0500. Lunch served Monday through Friday. All major credit cards accepted.

THE STONEHOUSE RESTAURANT

If you happen to live in the Santa Barbara area and are looking for the perfect place for a long, lazy lunch, I can think of no better venue than the Stonehouse Restaurant at the San Ysidro Ranch. If you happen to live far from Santa Barbara, well, it’s worth the drive. The ranch itself, a rustically posh resort in the hills of Montecito, has a positively bucolic feel to it, with acres of grounds framed with rustling eucalyptus trees. The handsome old stone-faced building that houses the dining room and exquisite terrace is part farmhouse, part country villa. The food is alternately homey and sophisticated, but always forthright, even bold. Pan-fried salmon cakes with lobster aioli are fish cakes apotheosized, creamy and vivid. Tortilla soup, though a bit overloaded with chicken, avocado and cheddar, is deep and rich in flavor. There are lightly fried calamari, a satisfyingly plump burger--and pine-nut-crust mascarpone cheesecake or a root-beer float (among other things) for dessert.--C.A. 900 San Ysidro Lane, Montecito; (805) 969-4100. Lunch served Monday through Saturday; Sunday brunch. All major credit cards accepted.

GRANITA

Two good things about Granita are its location in Malibu and its decor--elegantly wacky and plenty of fun. An even better thing is that the food is simply terrific--one bright, delicious dish after another.

The Caesar salad, tasting little of anchovies but fully of excellent olive oil, is crisp and well coated, and accentuated perfectly by little wedges of “ bruschetta “ (really more a thin-crust pizza) topped with fresh goat cheese and chopped tomatoes. The signature chopped Chino vegetable salad (using top-notch produce from the legendary Chino Ranch in Rancho Santa Fe)-- haricots verts , carrots, peas, celery, tomato, radicchio, various lettuces and more--is an edible jewelbox of colors and flavors. Sandwiches are superlative: for instance, a club transfigured with meltingly tender lobster and crunchy, smoky bacon on pecan toast. You can smell the savory pastas, with pesto or wild mushrooms, say, from across the table; the fish glistens with freshness; the pizza devastates cliche. This is a place you want to stay all afternoon, not lingering but eating. --C.A. Malibu Colony Plaza, 23725 W. Malibu Rd., Malibu; (310) 456-0488. Lunch served Wednesday through Friday. MasterCard and Visa accepted.

L’ORANGERIE

There can be few places in the heart of the city that feel less like L.A. than the garden, interior court and garden-like dining room of this unfailingly refined, and genuinely French, restaurant. Sit in the inside court and order a glass of Champagne or Loire rose.

Ignore the ambitiously blond starlet type in the red leather mini and the office trio discussing their pyschiatric awakenings, and pretend you are in France. The food will certainly help. It is food arranged, taken trouble with, often ornate almost to the edge of preciousness--and it tastes wonderful. The Provencal-style petit farcis , little vegetables stuffed with meat and herbs, are perhaps a bit too polite (this is a rustic dish, after all), but they taste fine; and the plate, displaying wisps of herbs around the edges, is as pretty as a poster. Leek lovers will swoon over the gateau de poireaux : great, upright leeks atop a bit of pastry, with a wiry tangle of fried leeks on top. The John Dory poached in milk and the potato-slice-crusted chicken-and-mushroom pie are as right as they are unusual. And for dessert, here in this French garden, what else but a fresh fruit tart on a buttery firm crust?--C.A. 903 N. La Cienega Blvd., Los Angeles; (310) 652-9770. Lunch served Tuesday through Friday. All major credit cards accepted.

REX IL RISTORANTE

The food at Rex is, of course, Italian--sometimes recognizably so, as with fettuccine alla trapanese (with pesto trapanese , tomatoes and slivered almonds) or a recent special of pumpkin-filled ravioli tossed in browned butter. In other cases, the food is so contemporary that it’s hard to say just where its inspirations lie--as with a delicate, tiny salad of sliced pigeon breast with thin bits of pumpkin, raisins and “cornfield lettuce” (i.e., mache) or a sort of torta of potato slices and sea bass dressed with thyme-flavored olive oil. It all seems decadently luxurious--partly because of the quality of the ingredients and the obvious care taken with the preparation, and partly because (in the European mode) prices are the same at lunchtime as they are for dinner--and dinner isn’t cheap. C.A. 617 S. Olive St., Los Angeles; (213) 627-2300. Lunch served Thursday and Friday. Major credit cards accepted.

SONG LONG

The lyrically named Song Long is basic and cheerful, a Vietnamese-French cafe and bakery. Enjoy a quick meal here, then spend the rest of the afternoon exploring the herb shops, markets and bookstores of Westminster’s amazing Little Saigon.

Song Long’s menu is the neighborhood’s most eclectic. Try an Asian-inspired take on lobster Thermidor, a classic beef Burgundy or pate chaud , a meat pie filled with pork, liver and onion wrapped by a distinctly French pastry crust. The best Vietnamese dishes include rice cooked in a clay pot with pork ribs and chao tom , shrimp-wrapped sugar cane. When you order coffee, a metal contraption that takes forever to drip is placed directly on top of your cup. The coffee, though, is heavenly.--M.J. 9361 Bolsa Ave., Westminster; (714) 775-3724. Lunch served Tuesday through Sunday. Cash only.