Mother Lode

Sunday is Mother’s Day, and there can be no better way to celebrate what mothers do for the world than to treat your own to a good meal out.

Like long-distance phone carriers, restaurateurs prepare for Mother’s Day as one of the busiest of the year, and many put together special menus.

At Chi’s Chinese Cuisine in Northridge, for example, the mother in your life can have a light meal in a small place specializing in Chinese dishes prepared with little or no oil.

Owner Chi Poon and Chef Kee Leung wrote their menu with health-conscious people in mind.

“Our most popular dishes are the dim sum,” says Chi Poon, who opened Chi’s Chinese Cuisine 18 months ago. “Most are steamed--delicate dumplings, all handmade--and we serve them all day long, not just at lunch, so you can order dim sum as your appetizer for dinner, too.”

A native of Hong Kong, Chi Poon got into the restaurant business with her brother some years ago with a takeout place in Canoga Park.

“I thought, ‘This is an exciting business,’ ” she says. “ ‘Why don’t I do it for myself?’ I wanted to have a cozy little sit-down place where I could serve light food just the way I like it--the way I eat at home.”

Her Mother’s Day menu: soup followed by peanut butter and shrimp dim sum as appetizers and, for the entree, chicken with fresh string beans sauteed in garlic and sauced with minced black mushrooms. Dessert will be chocolate almond cookies. The price: $10.95.

Chi’s Chinese Cuisine is at 9635 Reseda Blvd., Northridge, (818) 886-6928.

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Some other suggestions for Mother’s Day:

* If the mother in your life remembers the supper clubs of an expansive America in the 1940s and 1950s, take her to Moonlight in Sherman Oaks. Owner Lenetta Kidd will offer a Mother’s Day feast sampling eight house specialties including filet mignon with mushrooms and rosemary, plank salmon with a cucumber Hollandaise, and a char-grilled chicken with a lemon marinade and what Kidd calls a “shimmy sauce”--lime, homemade peanut butter, garlic, olive oil and cilantro. The price: only $7 for mom, $29.95 a head for everybody else in your party. Mothers pay nothing at all for any entree chosen from Kidd’s regular menu. Moonlight is at 13730 Ventura Blvd., west of Woodman Avenue in Sherman Oaks, (818) 788-2000.

* Herb Newman offers a three-course prix-fixe meal including salad, 6-ounce filet mignon and dessert at the Steak Joynt in North Hollywood. The desserts include New York-style cheesecake, chocolate blackout cake, cappuccino gelato and orange sorbet. The price: $19.95. The Steak Joynt is at 4354 Lankershim Blvd., south of Moorpark Street in North Hollywood, (818) 761-9899.

* At Monty’s in Woodland Hills you can have a special lunch starting at noon featuring beef, chicken and fish dishes and salads. Host Marty Morgan will serve from his regular dinner menu beginning at 5 p.m. Monty’s is at 5371 Topanga Canyon Blvd. at the corner of Ventura Boulevard in Woodland Hills, (818) 716-9736.

* Benito Prezia will serve from his regular menu starting at 10 a.m. Sunday, and mothers get a free glass of champagne at his Buon Gusto Ristorante in Mission Hills. Buon Gusto Ristorante is at 15535 Devonshire, just west of Sepulveda, (818) 893-9985.

* The Mother’s Day menu at Le Petit Chateau includes salad, soup and a choice of six entrees--Lake Superior whitefish, bow tie pasta with seafood, Long Island roast duckling, chicken grand duc, broiled filet of salmon or scallopini of white veal. The price: $24.95. Le Petit Chateau is located at 4615 Lankershim Blvd., just north of Riverside Drive in North Hollywood, (818) 769-1812.

* Le Petit Bistro in Sherman Oaks will serve dinner beginning at 4 p.m. from the restaurant’s regular menu, offering such dishes as baked lobster tail, filet mignon in a port wine sauce, roasted herbed Chilean sea bass, Long Island duckling in a ginger citrus sauce and grilled Norwegian salmon. Le Petit Bistro is at 13360 Ventura Blvd., east of Woodman Avenue in Sherman Oaks, (818) 501-7999.

* Finally, the Greek Bistro in Encino offers a prix-fixe dinner starting at 11:30 a.m. Sunday. The $15.95 dinner includes soup or salad, the Greek macaroni pastitsio, oven-roasted lamb, stuffed grape leaves, the Greek spinach pie called spanakopita, moussaka, rice pudding, and coffee or tea. The Greek Bistro is at 17337 Ventura Blvd., at the corner of Louise Street in Encino, (818) 789-2888.

* 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@gte.net