OC LIVE : RESTAURANT : Marriott Has a Steak in Meal Well Done at Phil’s Angus Grille

California’s Marriott hotels take their restaurants seriously, asshown by the fine JW restaurants in both the Anaheim and Century City Marriotts. So we should pay attention when the Long Beach Marriott, adjacent to Long Beach Airport, opens a steakhouse, Phil’s Angus Grille. Remember that name. There may be more of them soon.

In case you haven’t noticed, beef is apparently coming back in a big way, despite the current medical wisdom that red meat does not promote good health. A case in point: A downtown Long Beach steakhouse named 555 East recently went back to beef after an unhappy stint as an Italian restaurant. Marriott test-marketed the Phil’s Angus Grille restaurant concept under the name Black Angus in Wichita, Kan.; it is a roaring success there. (Marriott has declined to use the name Black Angus here in the Southland. Stuart Anderson, you can relax.)

Phil’s Angus Grille has the proper clubby, steakhouse feel, but at the same time one is aware of being in a hotel. Where else but a hotel restaurant would you sit directly under an artificial floor-to-ceiling cactus?

The best and most private tables here are the Leatherette booths set along a rear wall. Other appointments include a snazzy marble floor between the front door and the dining area, cream-colored sconces and a soft pastel carpet. It’s a quiet, comfy room, and the design muffles noise well.

Steak is the star here, but there are several judicious ways to work up to one. The Dungeness crab cakes--two golden, crunchy cakes speckled with bits of celery and red bell pepper--are just fine, even without the dilled Zinfandel cream sauce they rest on.

The onion soup is a bit hokey, served as it is in a hollowed-out onion. But lo and behold, it’s an elegant, beefy soup with lots of class, even if the top layer of the onion has a clumsy tendency to come off when you try to pull off a hunk of the cheese that’s baked onto the whole thing.

There are some mediocre appetizers, though. The spinach salad makes a good read on the menu: spinach, Gorgonzola, mushrooms and an apple-almond dressing. What you can’t tell from that description is that the dressing is almond-flavored applesauce. And pass on the drab beefsteak tomato and bufala mozzarella plate.

Now, to that steak we were waiting for. Phil’s Angus Grille uses only certified Angus beef, and the product is truly a cut above, beautifully marbled and richly flavored. For my money, the best cut is the magnificent 20-ounce prime rib steak, topped with mushrooms sauteed in a rich brandy demi-glace. (By the way, these mushrooms are also available as an appetizer, and you could make a meal of them with nothing else but an order of the house cheese bread.)

The filet mignon--at 10 ounces, the smallest steak you can order here--is also great. Mine came, as requested, charred medium rare; well, it was a bit too black on the outside, perhaps, but perfectly tender through and through. Phil’s porterhouse is a monstrous 18-ounce cut, bone in, not nearly as tender as some porterhouses I’ve tasted and perhaps the least flavorful of any steak I tasted here. The Kansas City strip is tastier and can’t be beat when it comes to bang for the buck, but it certainly has the most gristle of any cut the restaurant serves.

You also have a prime rib roast option. There are two cuts to choose from: heartland (12 ounces) or English (an 8-ounce portion in three small slices). Like the various steaks, these come with either baked potato or a pile of rather dry garlic mashed potatoes.

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The best non-beef entree is the pork chops--two large, smoky ones, nicely glazed with a pineapple chili salsa and topped with a pair of crisp fried onion rings. Be warned: The kitchen, which does so well on steak, tends to overcook fish, pasta and chicken. The grilled swordfish would be fine were it not woefully overdone; the accompaniments are kind of nice--avocado salsa, jicama, chayote squash and cilantro relish. The Southwestern chicken pasta is also way past the al dente stage.

The desserts here clearly come to the table directly from a refrigerator, fine for, say, a margarita cheesecake, but less so for the apple torte. And when I asked for the ice-cold apple dessert to be warmed, it came back gummy from a visit with Mr. Microwave. So the moral of the story is, basically: Stick to steak.

Incidentally, the hotel offers a killer package on Friday and Saturday nights. It’s called Steak and Stay, and it’s dinner for two including appetizers, wine, entree and dessert, plus a room at the hotel, all for $125, gratuity and tax excluded.

Phil’s Angus Grille is moderate to expensive. Appetizers are $4.95 to $6.96. Entrees are $10.95 to $23.95. Desserts are $3.50 to $5.50.

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PHIL’S ANGUS GRILLE

* 4700 Airport Drive, Long Beach.

* (310) 425-5210.

* Dinner 5 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 5 to 11 p.m. Friday and Saturday. Closed Sunday.

* All major cards.