VENTURA COUNTY WEEKEND : Serving Up a Full Menu of New Year’s Eve Cheer : Restaurants are getting ready to pull out all the stops to ring in 1996.

It’s a good thing dieting is a popular New Year’s resolution. It makes it easier to indulge over the holidays. And Ventura County restaurants are happy to oblige.

As was noted in a previous column, local chefs are going all out to to create elaborate, gourmet meals for Christmas. To no surprise, they are gearing up to do the same for New Year’s Eve.

Here’s a sampling--an hors d’oeuvre, if you will--of some tasty ways to ring in the new year at local establishments.

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Makis Mikelatos, one of the owners of The Greek at the Harbor restaurant in Ventura, classifies his upcoming New Year’s Eve event as more celebration than merely dinner.

It most definitely will be both, and on a very large scale.

Dinner will begin with a selection of 16 hot and cold appetizers, served with pita bread. Among the authentic Greek selections will be dolmades, hummus, taramosalata (red caviar dip), melitzanosalata (eggplant and garlic dip), skordalia (mashed potato and garlic dip), tzatziki (yogurt dip) and a salad.

For the main course, chef Nikos Xidarakos will present a choice of roast lamb, chicken kebab, moussaka (an eggplant and ground beef dish), and pastichio (a ground beef and noodle casserole). And for dessert, there should be plenty of baklava to go around.

As exciting as the dinner sounds, it will compete for attention with the entertainment planned for the evening. There will be belly dancing, Greek folk dancing, and a wine dance as performed by Jerome Dabour--a part owner of the restaurant. At midnight there will be a champagne toast and the breaking of plates.

Dinner will begin at 9 p.m. Cost is $50. Call 650-5350. The restaurant is located at 1583 Spinnaker Drive.

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If your taste buds lean more toward seafood, The Whale’s Tail in Oxnard may be a good bet on New Year’s Eve.

The evening’s fish-filled menu will open with a large selection of appetizers, including shrimp-crab cocktail, California rolls, smoked albacore and lobster taquitos. There will be an equally large choice of main courses, among them lobster tail, Atlantic salmon, fresh halibut, shrimp scampi, seafood au gratin, prime rib filet and baked sole with crab, spinach and shrimp.

Each meal will come with a trip to the salad bar, and a glass of champagne. Seatings are at 5, 7, 9 and 11 p.m. Entertainment hosted by a deejay will begin at 9 p.m. Cost ranges from about $17.95 to $34.95, depending on the main course. Call 985-2511.

The Whale’s Tail is located at 3950 Bluefin Circle.

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McCarthy’s Restaurant in Camarillo will have a New Year’s Eve setup similar to that of The Whale’s Tail.

Guests will be able to select from a long list of entrees, including prime rib, Norwegian salmon, leg of lamb, veal, pork loin, lobster tail, Alaskan king crab and seafood fettuccine. All dinners will come with soup or salad, fresh vegetable, potato or rice pilaf and a selection from the restaurant’s regular appetizer menu and dessert tray. Dinners will be served beginning at 5 p.m. and continue throughout the evening. The Jazzy Blues band will perform at 9 p.m. Cost is $16.95 to $31.95 depending on the entree. Call 388-5552.

McCarthy’s is located at 1101 Daily Drive.

Leo Smith is a regular contributor to Ventura County Weekend. Write to him at 93 S. Chestnut St., Ventura 93001, or send faxes to 653-7576.