Modada Is an Otherworldly Experience

You have to cruise very slowly along Melrose just west of Crescent Heights to spot the avenue’s newest restaurant. There’s still no sign out front, only a placard proclaiming complimentary valet parking. The former Andrea’s scumbled yellow facade is now faced in narrow wood planks. And ghostly fish and seaweed sprawl across the windows.

Once inside, I immediately wanted to go home and change into something more suitably baroque. Chandeliers and wall sconces fitted with burning tapers give the room an otherworldly air. Booths and chairs are covered in African mud cloth, and waiters sport what look like uniforms from some long-disbanded republic’s army. Welcome to the world of Modada.

At the next table, mussels with a flurry of frizzled leeks are served in a miniature silver watering can. A “pillar” of crab and artichoke confit has yellow and green pole beans poking out, like an edible instrument of torture. And a quartet of dim sum comes with three thimbles of sauce.

Main courses hail from Air, Land or Sea. Can I picture ordering Erotic Chicken (Air)--”a roasted whole boneless baby chicken stuffed with forest mushrooms on a flower of purple endives with a rose petal sauce”? Sure thing. The menu also asks me to “envision a braised lamb leg, a grilled lamb chop and a lamb loin wrapped in feuille de brick, all seen in ‘The Lamb in 3D,’ ” served with Moroccan mint oil (Land). Surely, chef Sam Marvin, even though he did cook at the once terminally trendy Monkey Bar, can’t mean leaves of brick? More likely Tunisian brik. But you never know.

* Modada, 8115 Melrose Ave., Los Angeles. (213) 653-4612. Open Tuesdays through Saturdays for dinner; lunch starting mid-December. Valet parking. Appetizers $4.50-$8; entrees $13-$19.