Disney’s Rim Shot

A year and a half ago, Disney bought a hotel on West Street from a Japanese corporation and completely redid it. The Mouse Factory’s mark is all over the new edition. As you enter the hotel’s main door, you’re greeted by cheery statues of Mickey, Donald and Goofy, clumped together on a pedestal in the lobby.

Look on the left side of the concierge desk, though. You’ll see a stack of Tokyo newspapers (Yomiuri Shimbun, to be precise) for the hotel’s Japanese guests. Japan is still a presence.

And in the hotel’s restaurant, Disney’s PCH Grill, which specializes in Pacific Rim cuisine. This is as sharp a departure as can be imagined from the mainstream Americana food Disney has been identified with.

To reach the grill, walk across the bright renovated lobby. You’ll see a giant, L-shaped room decorated with delightful kinetic sculptures, diva lights and a blue carpet with an aggressively Op Art pattern. The tables are graced with fresh tiger lilies in surrealistic glass vases. Dozens of colorful box kites are suspended from the ceiling.

The place may have been designed with kids in mind, but the menu takes dead aim at the parents. Nearly every dish is spiked with a Pacific Rim ingredient such as lemon grass, spicy plum sauce or shiitake mushrooms. There’s even a short glossary of these ingredients on the corner of the menu.

Restaurant-savvy guests will also note the colorful tiles and oakwood pizza oven by the front podium. Hmm. Rather reminiscent, one would say, of a Wolfgang Puck cafe. When you’re seated, everyone gets a complimentary plate of tasty, chewy pizza bread, smeared with herbed cheese and topped with chopped tomatoes.

The asparagus soup, the lightest way to begin a meal here, is a surprise. Instead of the food-processor puree you usually get under this name in O.C. restaurants, it’s a clear, clean, Pacific Rim-ish broth fragrant with lemon grass, sprinkled with diced asparagus.

Moo shu duck quesadilla is a fusion-cuisine dish, stylishly combining Mexican and Chinese sensibilities. Between the two grilled flour tortillas there is an appealing mix of shredded duck meat and tangy Hoisin barbecue sauce, with barely enough cheese to earn quesadilla status.

Less successful is something called Sichuan chicken lettuce wraps, a spinoff of a popular Chinese New Year’s dish. The original depends on the textual contrasts of minced chicken, pine nuts, rice noodles and bamboo shoots. Here you get a platter of lettuce leaf cups, big pieces of grilled chicken in a sweet plum sauce and a salad of radish sprouts and sliced bell peppers. It’s bulkier, less elegant and a bit cloying.

Pacific spring rolls are oily and nondescript. Baby back ribs are available as an appetizer or a main course. The menu tells us these tender, heavily sauced ribs are grilled, but I’d swear they’re baked.

On the other hand, PCH Grill’s pizzas are everything you’d hope a pizza to be. The four-cheese version (goat, Boursin, mozzarella and Parmesan) is a tad salty, but there’s fresh basil in it to offset the saltiness, and the crust is just about perfect. I also like the vegetable pizza, topped with grilled asparagus, shiitake mushrooms and roasted bell peppers, dressed with ponzu (citrus-flavored soy) sauce.

Main courses are called Ultimate Destinations on this menu, but only a few are places I’d be in a hurry to visit. The best one I tried is roasted eggplant ravioli: terrific al dente pasta pockets stuffed with a delicate mixture of goat cheese and stewed eggplant. Another good one is panko salmon, a big hunk of Pacific salmon coated with bread crumbs and fried, served with Japanese rice and a thick soy-based dipping sauce.

The pan-fried swordfish (a nice chunk of moist fish) is subtly scented with lemon grass, but the mashed potatoes it comes on are gummy. Char-grilled filet mignon, at $17.50 by far the menu’s most expensive item, is a reasonably tender piece of meat topped with Maui onion strings.

One of the least expensive entrees is ginger tofu fettuccine: bland noodles that have tofu in the dough. They come with plum tomatoes and the sweet Japanese herb called shiso, though barely enough to taste.

The desserts are beautiful, and I’d advise a walk to the display table to view them. The waiters will haul over one or two to show you, time permitting, but there’s no dessert cart.

Tres leches, a delicious Mexican cake made with condensed, evaporated and whole milk, is sweet, moist and rich. The flourless chocolate cake, shaped like a certain cartoon mouse, is light and fluffy. Another novel sweet is fruit “brochette”--two sticks of solid chocolate on which strawberries, kiwi fruit and mangoes have been arranged.

Yep, we’re goin’ to Disneyland, and, for the first time in memory, our imaginations will be present at the table too.

Disney’s PCH Grill is moderate to expensive. Appetizers are $3.50 to $7.50. Pizzas are $7.95 to $8.95. Entrees are $9.95 to $17.50.

BE THERE

* Disney’s PCH Grill, 1717 West St., Anaheim. (714) 956-6755. 6:30 a.m.-11 p.m. daily. All major cards.