Navigating Delmonico’s Large Menu Requires Care

Delmonico’s Seafood Grille is an attractive big-city sort of place with a self-assured clientele. It’s the only Valley address attempting to be an old-fashioned large-scale seafood restaurant, and the compendious menu lists a load of fresh shellfish, entree salads, frothy chowders and bisques, grilled or sauteed fish and imaginative specialty dishes.

I reviewed this Encino restaurant a couple of years ago and I’m still impressed by its charms. The decor isn’t quite as retro-alluring as that of the original Delmonico’s on the Westside, but it features mahogany booths, lovely brass fittings, quantities of etched glass and a floor checkered in green and black.

There’s enough space between most of the tables to allow extending an elbow without having to worry about litigation.

For the past two years, I’ve heard rumors that the food is improving here. I can’t say I’ve been able to confirm them. It’s still true that you can coax a good meal out of the kitchen if you order judiciously; stumble around this restaurant’s encyclopedic menu card like Mr. Magoo, though, and you might (figuratively speaking) bump your head on one of those polished hardwood walls.

The service could use some polishing, for that matter. Our waiter knocked a brass lamp cover right into a dish of food one of my guests was eating. “Don’t worry,” he said, as he picked it up. “The lamps were all cleaned today.” Swell.

Among the appetizers is plump, tender, grilled asparagus, but I’d stay away from the Romano cheese “crisp” that accompanies it, having had one that was a bit rancid. The fresh oysters are superb, especially the Fanny Bays and Malpeques, but the Little Neck clams on the half shell are gritty.

The shrimp cocktail features fat, ice-cold shrimp that go perfectly well with the excellent cocktail sauce; on the other hand, flavorless gravlax is not the best garnish for a bland leek pancake.

And the stuffed mushrooms with crab meat and corn are weighed down unpleasantly by a gummy stuffing. The best hot appetizer is probably the simple fried calamari.

The Maine lobster bisque is a nice coral-colored soup with chunks of lobster meat at the bottom of the bowl. But when I had it here a couple of years ago, it seemed richer and more intense than the one I had recently.

The Boston clam chowder is good: thick but not floury. The salads are consistently reliable, particularly the Caesar and a top-notch Maine lobster salad, loaded with freshly cooked meat that has cooled to a soothingly warm temperature by the time it arrives.

By default, fish come with a variety of sauces, though you can order any of them plain. But note the disclaimer near the bottom of the menu’s right-hand page: “Due to the diversity of our menu, we are unable to make substitutions.”

They aren’t kidding. When someone at my table requested “surf and turf,” he got sole with capers and Dijon mustard along with an average-size filet mignon . . . plus a bill for two full entrees and a look of pity from the waiter.

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Mississippi catfish comes light and flaky in a good cornmeal crust, and the homemade tartar sauce suits it beautifully. Seared swordfish with artichoke risotto and Southwestern catsup sounds like a rip-roarer, but the rice is dry and the fish has absorbed an awful lot of oil in cooking.

The crab platter combines a nice crab cake, a timbale of crab meat and a deep-fried soft shell crab. Sicilian herb chicken is rotisserie chicken with a tempting “pie” of fried potatoes and garlic. Meats include osso buco, veal parmigiana, roast duck with brandied peaches and a variety of steaks.

For carbohydrate loaders, there are nearly a dozen seafood pastas. The best side dish is a garlicky, squeaky-fresh sauteed spinach.

Desserts are made in house and worth a shout. The fresh apple tart would do most French restaurants proud; it’s a thin round of crust topped with hot sliced apples and vanilla ice cream.

I like the sticky chocolate tart because of its crushed nut crust and that scoop of good raspberry ice cream on top. Jim Beam bourbon pecan tart comes in a buttery caramel sauce. At the finish, an after-dinner drink list is proffered: Cognac, Armagnac, port and eaux-de-vie. Big city stuff for sure.

DETAILS

* WHAT: Delmonico’s Seafood Grille.

* WHERE: 16358 Ventura Blvd., Encino.

* WHEN: Lunch and dinner, 11:30 a.m.-10 p.m. Monday-Friday; dinner, 5-10 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.

* HOW MUCH: Dinner for two, $38-$68. Suggested dishes: crispy calamari, $6.95; oysters on the half shell, $6.95; Mississippi catfish, $13.95; Jim Beam bourbon pecan tart, $4.95. Full bar.

* FYI: Valet parking in side lot. All major cards.

* CALL: (818) 986-0777.