RESTAURANT REVIEW : Affluence and Excess in Encino : Delmonico’s Seafood Grille, another clone of a Westside eatery, offers a long menu, large portions, overdone food.

Just look at all the Porsches and Jaguars pulling up to the valet parking stand at the new Delmonico’s Seafood Grille. This plush, handsome restaurant, an Encino clone of the Delmonico’s in the Fairfax District, has been overflowing with affluence since the minute it opened.

This does not come as a major surprise. Once again a popular L.A. restaurant has come tramping over to our side of the hill, cutting our drive time and reinforcing the notion that Valley people no longer want to rely on the Westside for dining out.

But I wonder how many of these clone places would get people to travel the opposite direction--from the Westside to the Valley--as they do for, say, Studio City’s Pinot, which serves food they can’t get anywhere else. Forgive me for saying so, but I can’t imagine the number breaking into double digits.

I know, that’s cold. Especially when Delmonico’s Seafood Grille has so many things going for it: an extensive and creative menu, lush fin-de-siecle decor, the ambience of an old-time San Francisco oyster house. But a room rich with mahogany and mirrors and shiny brass--even when it has a major-length menu--is just not enough to make this place really worth a detour. Much of what you eat here suffers from excess: too much oil, too much salt, too much time on the stove.

Of course, one excess no one seems to mind is the restaurant’s trademark enormous portions. Prices are on the high side, averaging about $16 an entree, but no one looking at these plates would dare to say they aren’t fair value. And the service is outstanding--knock a glass over and a team of busboys races out to change the entire table setting.

I’m impressed by the mood here, too. This crowd is definitely upbeat, providing a noise level that is exuberant without being overbearing.

You can’t go wrong with cold appetizers such as the oysters on the half-shell or the cracked crab.The most diverting cold appetizer might be salmon tartare-- minced raw salmon with capers and dry mustard mixed in. It is satisfying with buttery slices of toasted brioche.

Whoever prepared ours must have a sense of humor, because a Star of David was stenciled in mustard sauce on top of the tartare. “Our chef is Jewish,” explained our waitress, shrugging. No argument, but just for the record, the menu gives the chef’s name as Tony De La Cruz.

Among hot starters, there are reliably crisp calamari, an oil-rich saute known as mushrooms Delmonico and a bland shrimp cake (beautifully crisped, though, fried to a golden brown on all sides). Soups range from the serviceable minestrone (mine had one lone bean at the bottom of the bowl) to a coral-pink Maine lobster bisque, heady and richly flavored.

Main course salads are consistently good. The Caesar is crisp and generous with the Parmesan, the Cobb is classic, the meat in the warm Maine lobster salad tastes as if it was pulled from the shell seconds before it reached the table.

The menu’s myriad seafood entrees come either grilled or sauteed. Most are prepared with imaginative sauces such as crab relish, grilled corn or lime-chive.

We’re back in excess territory here. A nice chunk of Pacific swordfish, for instance, is glazed with rum, placed atop doughy crab pancakes and ringed with spiced apples, producing a flavor like some tropical men’s cologne. Delicate petrale sole is sauteed and then thrown in the ring with a thick mustard sauce that is too strong for it. For monkfish formaggio , this lobster-like fish is blanketed with cheese and then doused with a loud chipotle pepper sauce.

I vote for the Mississippi catfish in a simple cornmeal crust. This catfish is light and flaky, and the tartar sauce accompaniment sounds a harmonious note.

These dishes only scratch the surface of this huge menu. Meat entrees include steaks, osso buco , veal Parmigiana , roast duck with brandied peaches. There’s Sicilian herb chicken, cooked on a rotisserie and served in a light tomato sauce with a delicious “pie” of scalloped, fried potatoes and garlic. The long dessert list is notable for a white chocolate mousse tort, a dense bourbon pecan pie with caramel sauce and a silken creme brulee.

Near the bottom of the menu, you may notice the disclaimer, “due to the diversity of our menu we are unable to make substitutions.” The kitchen is happy, however, to leave almost any extra ingredient off. Don’t call that notion austerity, call it a good start.

And, oh, don’t forget to reserve your table well in advance.

WHERE AND WHEN

Location: Delmonico’s Seafood Grille, 16358 Ventura Blvd., Encino.

Suggested Dishes: salmon tartare, $5.95; half cracked crab, $12.95; potato and garlic pie, $3.95; Mississippi catfish, $13.95; Sicilian chicken, $14.95.

Hours: 11:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday to Friday; dinner 5:30 to 10 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.

Price: Dinner for two, $30 to $58. Full bar. Valet parking. All major cards.

Call: (818) 986-0777.