RESTAURANT REVIEW : Papashon: Same Old, Same Old in Pasadena

Saturday night at Papashon looks remarkably like Saturday night used to look like at Tra Fiori and Cafe Jacoulet, the two Euro-Asian restaurants that preceded this one here on the corner of Raymond and Holly in Pasadena. Despite a remodel that opened up the dining room and the kitchen, despite new art, new owner, and a new chef, the place has the same genteel, swank, halogen gleam, the same sort of culturally confused menu and the same crowd--a sedate, older slice of moneyed Pasadena.

Papashon has a peculiarly Pasadena pedigree: Owner Ramon Papa formerly ran the dining room at the Ritz-Carlton and co-owned Stony Point. Chef Sean Sheridan served as the executive chef at Pasadena’s Bistro 45 and chef at Fleur de Vin. Their loyal clientele has clearly followed them.

This is a trusting crowd, considering the menu is worded in such an odd, non-specific way, it’s impossible to visualize with any accuracy what, exactly, you’ve ordered. Even with the waiters’ input, I was invariably surprised by what came to me--and not always pleasantly. The cuisine is a muddling of French and various Asian ingredients; it feels like an exercise in imagination that hasn’t quite translated into real food on real plates.

At lunch I order “Papashon shrimp bowl with Java rice (seafood fried rice)” and receive two dishes: a large plate of tasty seafood fried rice and a bowl of thick, baffling tomato soup with chunks of fish and shrimp in it. At dinner, roasted leg of lamb with fennel compote and Chinese beans seems straightforward enough, but the lamb is in fact an odd tenderloin cut; the fennel compote is a strong, pickled concoction; Chinese beans are white wax and long green beans, and all of this is served on saffron mashed potatoes!

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There is also no way to guard against accidental repetition. The roasted vegetable soup we order at lunch turns out to be a curried soup--and we’d ordered chicken curry as an entree! Tuna tempura with wasabi salad and soy beurre is a fried tempura-battered tuna roll stuffed with enoki mushrooms, sliced and served on the same dinner salad we’d just eaten--only with a hint of wasabi in the dressing.

It’s possible, of course, to wind up with a winner. At lunch, an assortment of tasty steamed fish and sausage dumplings on good greens is excellent. And a simple seared salmon is beautifully cooked, nicely presented. At dinner, grilled, gingery Hong Kong spare ribs burst with juice as you bite into them. Crispy duck with dried cherries, pickled turnips and chive mashed potatoes yield some balanced, intriguing bites.

Balance is missing in other dishes: I needed more soba noodles to counter very pungent spicy eggplant in one pasta appetizer. Poisson cru a la Japon is described by the waitress as tuna and halibut sashimi; she neglects to say it’s liberally sprinkled with strong salmon roe, which becomes its predominant flavor.

And don’t order the grilled Maine lobster: Although the dish looks impressive as it sails past--a whole lobster, split--I’ve never seen such a tiny tail in my life! It was the size of two average scampi! The waiter cheerfully explained that at $19, the kitchen was already losing money on the dish--but not enough money, I think, or it’d be taken off the menu!

Desserts are lavish little productions. Rectangles of lemon mousse are striped with colorful pureed fruits, sprinkled with berries. The baked apple comes in a charming pastry cage with an admirably restrained cardamom ice cream. The same ice cream comes with a very tasty pear tart.

The service staff at Papashon ranges from barely competent to graceful. Their pace is generally leisurely and even the kindliest, most professional waiter can vanish for mysterious periods of time. One night a waitress kept us waiting repeatedly while she chatted with a table of her friends. Ramon Papa cruises the dining room, greeting his friends and supporters, but seems oblivious to the drunk kids belching in the corner or customers trying to flag down a waiter. But it’s Saturday night, the place is full, food is flying out of the kitchen like clockwork, two more Infinitis have pulled up to the valet stand--what’s to worry?

* Papashon, 91 N. Raymond Ave., Pasadena . (818) 792-0948. Open for lunch Monday through Friday, open for dinner 7 days. Full bar. Major credit cards accepted. Dinner for two, food only, $36-$68 .