Global Menu

If you doubt that the restaurant scene hereabouts is a dazzling ethnic stew, get yourself out to Westlake Village to Oishii Landing Bar and Grill.

The restaurant is owned by Ramin Akbar and Khos Mossayebi, who hail from Iran, and run by executive chef Francisco Alvarez, who hails from Puebla, Mexico. What’s more, Alvarez has to use a nickname, Franco, to distinguish himself from his three chefs, all of whom share his first name--Francisco (Paco) Cruz, Francisco (Pancho) Herman, and Francisco Gonzales.

As if to punctuate all this diversity, Alvarez serves up a menu that spans the globe from Asia to Europe, and he recently added a handful of new dishes that make things even more various.

Alvarez took over as the restaurant’s executive chef last month, and the new offerings constitute his first overhaul of the Oishii menu. They include two new appetizers--portabello mushrooms stuffed with shrimp, spinach and mozzarrella cheese, for $8, and steamed Manila clams in olive oil, garlic and chardonnay, for $9--and a warm shrimp salad, for $13.

The new entrees: fettuccine with chicken and broccoli, with roasted tomatoes and a white wine sauce, for $14; a classic bouillabaisse, for $20; and scampi and ravioli stuffed with scallops in a brandy cream sauce, for $18.

Then there’s the regular menu, from which you can order the restaurant’s signature chicken breast with a seven-herb crust, for $15; Lake Superior whitefish with tomatoes and capers, for $17; and grilled swordfish with vegetables provencal, for $20.

Last but not least, the menu also offers up some sushi dishes unlike those you find in the ordinary Japanese restaurant--for example, a crab-meat roll wrapped with shrimp, baked scallops on a California roll, and a “Philly” roll with baked salmon, crab, cream cheese and vegetables. All the sushi rolls go for $9.

Oishii Landing Bar and Grill is at 32123 West Lindero Road, Westlake Village, (818) 706-8887.

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Meanwhile, not far away in Calabasas, Akbar and Mossayebi run a second restaurant they recently overhauled and renamed.

What was the Borage restaurant and nightclub on Calabasas Road is now Fusilli Italian Kitchen, which caters to a family crowd through the dinner hour and to a nightclub crowd later on.

“We’ve owned this place for a year now,” Ramin Akbar says. “It was Borage, and we had both fine dining and a nightclub. We discovered that this area will support a nightclub, but not the fine dining, so we changed the name and now we offer family-style Italian dining--and a nightclub Thursday through Saturday nights.”

On the menu: veal piccata, a rack of lamb, beef medallions with mushrooms in a cognac cream sauce, grilled marinated swordfish, trout stuffed with shrimp and scallops, sauteed chicken breast with artichokes, and chicken marsala over pappardelle pasta. Prices range from $10.95 to $16.95.

The restaurant also serves a variety of salads, pasta dishes and panini--Italian-style sandwiches made with such foods as swordfish, portabello mushrooms, chicken breast and even meatballs. Prices range to $9.95.

Kids eat free Sunday through Thursday if accompanied by an adult, and the nightclub comes alive after 10 p.m. Thursday through Saturday.

Fusilli Italian Kitchen is at 24454 Calabasas Road, Calabasas, (818) 225-8090.

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Thanksgiving draws near, and if you want to eat out, you need reservations--quick.

Lenetta Kidd’s Moonlight offers a prix-fixe Thanksgiving feast for only $15.95, half for children under 12.

On the menu: roast turkey with a giblet gravy or a roast prime rib with a fresh horseradish sauce, plus Louisiana-style sweet potatoes, a green bean casserole, scalloped potatoes, a sausage and sage dressing, and, of course, cranberry sauce.

Moonlight is at 13730 Ventura Blvd., Sherman Oaks, (818) 788-2000.

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And chef Alain Cuny and his partner JB Torchon offer a prix-fixe feast at the Wine Bistro in Studio City.

For $24.95, you can have a traditional turkey dinner or, if you feel adventurous, salmon in lobster sauce with bay shrimp, duckling in cherry sauce, rack of lamb or angel-hair pasta with yellow peppers and mushrooms.

Wine Bistro is at 11915 Ventura Blvd., Studio City, (818) 766-6233.

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* Juan Hovey writes about the restaurant scene in the San Fernando Valley and outlying points. He may be reached at (805) 492-7909 or fax (805) 492-5139 or via e-mail at JHovey@compuserve.com