Monsoon Whips Up Visual Treats

That pair of giant painted eyes staring down from the facade of the new Monsoon Cafe on Third Street Promenade in Santa Monica is enough to stop you right in your tracks. Go ahead; peer in the bamboo-framed windows at the raffish bar with woven palm roof and colored glass lanterns where dolled-up denizens of the night languorously sip exotic drinks.

Conceived by designer Margaret O’Brien, Monsoon Cafe is an alluring tropical fantasy, the latest venture from Kozo Haseyawa, who owns more than 20 other restaurants in Japan and the United States, including Cafe La Boheme in West Hollywood.

Everything in the huge multilevel restaurant was handcrafted in Bali, a waiter points out. The dark wood tables, the rows of booths separated with beaded curtains, the ornate lamps that look like something out of a tale of “Arabian Nights.” Under the exhibition kitchen’s tall copper hood, cooks toil in a hiss of steam.

The decor is pretty fabulous. I wish I could say the same about the pan-Asian menu, which collects dishes from Vietnam, Korea, China, Japan, Thailand and India. Vietnamese spring rolls were insipid; grilled tandoor chicken wings so overcooked the meat was falling off the bones. Pork came doused in a cloyingly sweet brown glaze, and a lamb shank was covered in a mud-brown masala that tasted as if someone had thrown every stale spice on the shelf into the mix.

Until the kitchen finds its focus, you might want to stay in the bar or, just for fun, check out the restaurant’s Internet site at www.global-dining.com. It is due to start up in mid-December.

* Monsoon Cafe, 1212 Third Street Promenade, Santa Monica; (310) 576-9996. Open daily for lunch and dinner. Major credit cards accepted. Valet parking. Appetizers $3.75-$9; entrees $7-$16. Prix fixe lunch, $8.50.