RESTAURANTS : German Food With Heart at Loreley

German food has never been terribly popular in Southern California, particularly given the kind of weather we get around Oktoberfest time. But October is just a couple of months away, so an early visit to the Loreley seemed a clever idea.

Not many of my friends had even heard about Anaheim’s Phoenix Club, the massive German American social complex that is the Loreley’s home. The Loreley was built there three years ago, apparently intended to be cross between a Bavarian hunting lodge and a golf club dining room that happens to have a crossbeamed ceiling. The ultra-spacious look is enhanced by teal carpet, a floor-to-ceiling stone fireplace, tapestry chairs, roomy upholstered booths and a wooden hutch well stocked with German, Austrian and Swiss wines.

German cuisine stubbornly validates all the stereotypes about it, maintaining a perennial affection for meat, potatoes, dumplings and cabbage. It ain’t light.

There is a handsome bierstube adjacent to the Loreley, where you can get steak tartare, bratwurst, smoked pork chops and a variety of imported beers. But those who seek the hearty, rustic specialties of Central Europe--schnitzels, rouladen , potato dumplings and gravies thick enough to stand a spoon in--should let themselves be tempted by the Loreley.

The restaurant is named for the mythical siren of the Rhine (Lorelei) who lured fishermen to their doom. Eat a few too many of the restaurant’s delicious German fried potatoes and you could find a modern truth to the legend.

A good summer start would be one of the menu’s kalte speisen , or cold dishes. Sulze is translated as head cheese, but the word really refers to a jellied meatloaf. The Loreley’s sulze is refreshing and clean-tasting, though unapologetically heavy with irregular-sized chunks of pork.

There is also fine Westphalian ham (a drier, smokier cousin of prosciutto, served with German brown bread) and the famous Black Forest ham, both jazzed up by sides of German potato salad. The schlacht plate gives you sulze and both kinds of ham plus assorted cheeses. Other possibilities are Bismarck herring, Matjes herring or the rolled, heavily picked herring known as rollmops , all salty north German foods that will make you cry out for an ice-cold Bitburger.

The entrees are mostly German specialties with a bit of Continental thrown in. I’m quite fond of the German stuffed steak, rouladen . The chefs make it by rolling round steak with sweet onions, bacon, pickles and a flour-based roux. The steak comes blanketed in a delicious dark gravy.

*

For big eaters, there’s the Phoenix kombination , a massive plate of Polish sausage, veal bratwurst and leberkase (here a somewhat bland veal loaf, rather than anything close to liver pa^te). Ungarischer gulasch is worth a try to get at the homemade spaetzle, buttery little dumplings that soak up gravy like so many paper towels. By Hungarian standards, though, the goulash needs more paprika. As it is, it’s just a hearty beef stew.

Naturally there is wienerschnitzel , a veal cutlet fried in crunchy breading. It can be wonderfully delicate when the meat is pounded thin and sauteed crisp, but this one is a bit on the thick side. I wish I had tried the schnitzel a la Holstein, though; someone at the next table had his schnitzel this way, topped with capers, anchovy and a fried egg, and raved about it.

Sauerbraten , usually my favorite German dish, was a disappointment. This version marinates tender brisket in buttermilk, rather than the usual vinegar, making for something that’s practically a sweetbraten .

Jagerschnitzel is fried pork steak served in a mushroom cream sauce. I prefer the Austro-Hungarian variant, called schweine -filet on Loreley’s menu. It’s the same meat as the jagerschnitzel , but sauteed in a paprika sauce with fresh vegetables and spaetzle. Kassler rippchen is smoked pork loin, and a good value at only $7.50.

In fact, all the side dishes here are quite tasty, if long on the starch. A few of the entrees come with soft, disc-shaped potato dumplings, and the kitchen rinses the sauerkraut to reduce its sourness, making it surprisingly light and delicious. Rotkohl is heavily stewed red cabbage, fragrant with cloves, and the mashed potatoes are as real as anything scooped at a Southern truck stop.

It may be a little hard to think about dessert after a parade of dishes such as these, but for those who refuse to throw in the towel at this point, the restaurant makes its own apple strudel, Black Forest cake and cheesecake.

Pass on the Black Forest cake; stabilizers in the whipped cream topping give the whole thing an artificial flavor. Better is the classic strudel, a half-dome-shaped slice of warm apples, raisins and chopped walnut, on a pool of warm, creamy vanilla sauce.

Cheesecake is the meister -stroke. It’s light and frothy, with an ephemeral bottom crust and a thin layer of sour cream on top. We know better, but the dessert almost convinces you that you’ve just eaten light.

The Loreley is moderately priced. Kalte speisen and appetizers are $1.95 to $7.95. Main courses are $6.50 to $16.95.

* THE LORELEY

* 1340 S. Sanderson Ave., Anaheim.

* (714) 563-4164.

* Lunch 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday through Friday; dinner 5 to 9 p.m. Sunday through Tuesday, 5 to 10 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday.

* American Express, MasterCard and Visa.