2117 an Oasis of Calm on the Westside

It’s a Sunday night at 2117, the small, spare restaurant replacing Cafe Katsu in a mini-mall on Sawtelle. The place is full: There’s a long table of extended family, assorted couples and foursomes, and five of us. Clearly the rush is unexpected; only one waitress moves among the tables, but that’s OK. Restaurant 2117’s chef, Hideyo Mitsuno, formerly the executive chef at Malibu Country Club, comes out on the floor to help her take orders, deliver food, bus tables. He is, in fact, our waiter. Oh, and he’s also doing all the cooking.

Given the situation, I would normally expect chaos: I’ve been in fully staffed restaurants that have fallen apart in lesser rushes. But here, curiously, everything is going smoothly. There are no long waits. Nothing is forgotten. No whiff of panic in the air. We’ve ordered half the dishes on the menu, no overlaps, and they parade before us, the presentation often meticulous and lovely.

In short, 2117 is Mitsuno’s one-man show and, capable as he is, he has given himself a difficult task: Cafe Katsu was critically acclaimed for its moderately priced, imaginative French-California cooking, quite popular, and therefore, a hard act to follow.

2117’s decor endorses the former occupant’s minimal aesthetic: The handsome, if naked, space has stark white walls, a few abstract prints, a concrete slab floor. Tables are faux-marble, undraped. The patio faces the parking lot. Any sense of coziness comes from the friendly wait staff. Everything else of visual interest appears on the plates.

If the decor seems a bit chilly, the best thing to do is start with the cream of leek soup or the potato soup: Hearty, creamy and delicious, they’ll warm you right up.

Mitsuno’s cooking is French-Californian often with a pronounced Japanese edge. While some of his food can be wonderful, not all dishes hit.

Sweet, tender morsels of lobster encircle a mound of fresh greens, cubed avocado and asparagus spears: a perfect dish to launch us into spring. Quite different, the rare albacore salad boasts generous slabs of mild, extremely rare fish and fresh greens sprinkled with crisp threads of leek and an offbeat vinaigrette made golden and gently provocative with curry.

My favorite raw fish starter, however, is a carpaccio made with pale, translucent snapper topped with slivers of cucumber and scallion, a luscious dressing and lots of fresh cilantro leaves.

Good, crunchy fried calamari is drizzled with an unusual (and addictive) chili and vinegar-spiked parsley sauce.

Not all appetizers are so well-thought-out. A shrimp cake looks almost exactly like a turkey burger; it has a fun, springy texture but isn’t otherwise inspiring. And the asparagus roll is simply an oddity; thin spears are bundled in thin slices of beef (they look like weird, homemade drumsticks) set in a red wine reduction on slices of tiny potatoes--the potato slices, thin and supple, are in fact the tastiest component of the dish.

Entrees here are reasonable--reasonable portions, very reasonable prices. These may well be the best $11 lamb chops in town, and they’re so pretty, too, upended in a small tepee, surrounded by slices of melt-in-your-mouth grilled Japanese eggplant. Duck, medium-rare, is meaty, scented with ginger, and also a bargain at $10. A generous wedge of salmon, in a charming presentation with thick grilled onion slices, capers and spinach, is also excellent.

Other entrees may not hold to this standard. Snow-white, sweet monkfish looks stunning on bok choy but water from the leaves has hopelessly diluted an already insipid sesame/balsamic sauce. A sliced beef filet in a red wine reduction is simply dull, despite some tasty mashed potatoes. Breaded chicken breasts, while tender, come in a puzzling, nearly tasteless herb sauce. And a spaghetti with chopped-up soft shell crab is peculiarly fishy.

Desserts, however, are excellent. Green tea “bavarois” is an eye-catching mousse with celadon and ivory swirls: Barely sweet jelled froth, it’s like eating a prettily scented cloud. Then, each bite of flourless chocolate cake smolders with superb, full-flavored chocolate. Even the eternal creme bru^lee here is terrific: at once eggy, rich and beguilingly light.

* Restaurant 2117, 2117 Sawtelle Blvd., West Los Angeles, (310) 477-1617. Open for lunch Monday through Saturday. Open for dinner, 7 days. Beer and wine served. Major credit cards accepted. Dinner for two, food only, $28-$48.