Catering to the Customer : Chef at Capistrano’s is revising the menu to offer diners more options.

Robert Garcia, executive chef at Capistrano’s restaurant in Oxnard, has a dream about how he would like to see a restaurant operate.

“Something I’ve never ever seen is a menu that would say, ‘These are the ingredients we have today,’ and the guests would basically create their own menu,” he said. “We would have a limit of items, of course, but at least they would have a selection.”

Garcia said someday he may implement that plan in a restaurant of his own, but for now he is helping to design a modified version of the concept at Capistrano’s.

“One thing we are going to offer on our menu is that all of our seafood will be prepared to the guest’s choice of broiled, pan-seared, poached or blackened,” he said. Garcia is working on the menu with Jean-Claude Guerin, the restaurant’s food and beverage director. “And we’ll serve any item on the menu with any sauce we have.”

These multiple choices will be part of an expanded and revised menu that Garcia and Guerin expect to finalize this week.

“Something we want to do here is a lighter-fare type of thing,” Garcia said. “We also want to play on the exciting diversity of menus with a lot of emphasis on eye appeal.”

Gone from the dinner menu is the veal chop, making way for a veal scaloppine. The Muscovy duck will depart, with Garcia this week testing a Long Island duck, prepared Peking style. Seafood pasta and an elaborate shrimp salad also will make their way onto the menu.

Capistrano’s is at the Embassy Suites Mandalay Beach Resort, 2101 Mandalay Beach Road.

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Longtime fans of the California Grill in Camarillo are not imagining things. That is, indeed, a wine-tasting dinner scheduled for Sunday night.

Jim Foley, owner of the 11-year-old restaurant, said: “We did a special dinner last November and I’ve been thinking it’s something we ought to be doing again. We’re going to start doing one every other month.”

The first “All-Star Wine Dinner” will feature selections from several different winemakers, beginning with a Schramsberg champagne before the meal.

As for the meal itself, it will open with Veal Rollatini prepared with asparagus, king crab and a bearnaise sauce, and accompanied by a a Clos Pegase Chardonnay. It will be followed by a salad and a Silverado Cabernet Sauvignon.

For the main course, there will be a choice of roasted filet mignon in cabernet sauce or a spit-roasted duck with red currant sauce.

Dessert will be a vanilla custard with fresh berries and caramel sauce and a Royal Tokai dessert wine.

“I never did find a winery that made four or five great wines,” Foley said. “So I’m taking the best of each winery.”

Cost is $45. California Grill is at 67 E. Daily Drive. For reservations, call 987-1922.

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Francois Zanni Jr., owner of Le Rendez-Vous restaurant in Newbury Park, has a different approach to wine dinners. His establishment will host a special meal Monday to pay tribute to one winemaker, the Napa Valley’s Buehler Vineyards.

The meal will open with a hearts of palm salad paired with the 1995 Buehler Russian River Chardonnay, followed by a fresh monkfish and a 1993 Pinot Noir, and then coq au vin with a 1994 Zinfandel. The main course will be a filet mignon accompanied by a 1993 Cabernet Sauvignon. For dessert, Zanni has planned a chocolate walnut cake, to be served with a port.

Cost is $45. Le Rendez-Vous is at 1282 Newbury Road. For reservations, call 498-1019.

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About three dozen food purveyors and two dozen wineries are expected to bring samplings to the 12th annual Ventura County Food and Wine Festival on Sunday at The Oaks mall in Thousand Oaks.

Bella Luna Restaurant, Fin’s Seafood Grill and Wood Ranch BBQ and Grill will be among the participating restaurants, with Daume Winery, Leeward Winery, and Firestone Vineyard among those providing the drink.

Tickets are $25 in advance, $30 at the door. The Oaks is at 222 W. Hillcrest Drive. For tickets, call 371-1500.