Savory Tsunami

Seashore Japanese Restaurant offers a tidal wave of Japanese and Korean dishes to an appreciative clientele. One possible reason: The portions are far larger here than at your average Japanese restaurant. Even the sushi are big strips of raw seafood on giant clumps of vinegar rice.

Donburi, the Japanese rice bowl, comes in a bowl big enough to mix a Duncan Hines layer cake in. Chicken don has a delicious topping of grilled chicken, fried eggs and sauteed vegetables. Ten don, a steal at $5.50, features what would amount to a double order of shrimp and vegetable tempura at most Japanese restaurants.

More adventurous eaters may prefer some of the two dozen Korean dishes. What makes them an adventure is that they’re accompanied by a whole array of the side dishes (pan ch’an) that are an integral part of any Korean meal.

One evening, the side dishes--appropriately, given this restaurant’s name--arrived in waves. They included salty shrimp in the shell, salty boiled sesame leaves, squid in fermented bean sauce, a terrific pan cake (bindae tok, here spelled pinttaettok) of mung bean flour, boiled salted soy beans (called edamame in sushi bars) and three kinds of spicy pickles.

We easily could have made a meal of the side dishes alone.

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It’s hard to resist the Korean dishes, all of which turn out to be staggeringly large portions. For instance, order corvina (a relative of sea bass) and you get four salt-broiled corvinas; that’s four whole fish, each nearly a foot long. Dae gu soup is an enormous kettle of fish.

It’s chunks of black cod, skin on, in a fire engine-red chile broth definitely not for sissies. The well-known broiled beef short ribs (galbi) are on the fatty side here, but they’re flavorful enough that you won’t mind.

One dish left me cold. The chap chae--cold transparent noodles sauteed with beef, chicken and vegetables--was starchy, and the noodles matted together unappealingly.

This pleasant place has two distinct dining areas. In the front room is an open kitchen with a full view of the sushi chef at work. The quieter back room has mint-green walls, cloth-backed wooden chairs and a gallery of glossy, blowup photos of sushi.

It’s no restaurant for someone in a hurry. The service is often erratic, and dishes aren’t served in any scientific order.

But if you have a seaman’s appetite or want a bargain-priced cultural encounter, surf’s up.

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BE THERE

Seashore Japanese Restaurant, 18044 Saticoy St., Reseda. Open daily, 11 a.m.-10 p.m. Parking in lot. Beer and wine only. MasterCard and Visa accepted. Dinner for two, $16-$35. Suggested dishes: yellowtail sushi, $3.50; chicken don, $5.50; dae gu soup, $8.95; galbi, $13.95. Call (818) 345-4787.