Hot Spot

Valencia Town Center has been designed so families can stroll around and feel as if they are back in small-town America. But its restaurants, particularly Salt Creek Grille, have a jarringly slick corporate feel. So is this a bad thing? Maybe yes, maybe no.

To begin with, Salt Creek Grille is a spacious and rather handsome place, with comfortable upholstered booths lit by gorgeous Craftsman lanterns. Rather dimly lit, I should add; many people find it too dark to read the menu.

That’s why my party chose to sit on the large patio, where you can read by the neon glare of a huge multiplex cinema. True, you don’t get to smell the fish and meat cooking on the mesquite grill out here, but it is surprisingly quiet for the middle of a mall. On cool evenings, it has gas heaters to warm things up.

The menu is classic American grill food with one or two California twists, such as smoked shrimp guacamole--a bowl of guacamole and smoked shrimp in the center of a huge platter of red tortilla chips. What makes it good is the guacamole’s freshness, which plays off the sweet wood smokiness of the shrimp.

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An even better appetizer, for my money, is garlic-stuffed jumbo shrimp. At $12.95 for only four shrimp, it may seem a bit pricey, but it’s worth it. The mesquite-grilled shrimp come wrapped in applewood-smoked bacon with a complex, delicious chipotle-honey sauce.

It helps to like the taste of mesquite, because that’s the dominant flavor here. For instance, there’s the grilled chicken marinated with citrus and ginger, served with nicely seasoned coleslaw and a pile of crisp fries.

The baby back ribs, a full rack to an order, are tender enough but on the dry side, I must say, and polluted by a bland barbecue sauce.

I always love the flavor of mesquite-grilled fish, though grilling tends to dry fish out. Here we have a delicious (if dryish) 9-ounce grilled swordfish steak with fat, firm Kentucky string beans parboiled and dressed with melted butter.

The pasta to order is the bow ties with smoked salmon and rock shrimp--lots of them, bound with a subtle cream sauce. A few sides are pretty good as well, such as the lumpy pile of garlic mashed potatoes and the Parmesan creamed spinach, which comes with the first-rate Angus New York steak.

All things considered, I suppose they do know what we like up there in the boardroom.

BE THERE

Salt Creek Grille, 24415 Valencia Town Center Drive, Valencia. Open 11:30 a.m.-9 p.m. Sunday-Thursday, 11:30 a.m.-11 p.m. Friday-Saturday. Full bar. Parking lot. All major cards. Dinner for two, $35-$60. Suggested dishes: stuffed jumbo shrimp, $12.95; smoked salmon and rock shrimp pasta, $16.95; grilled loin of swordfish, $20.95; Angus New York steak, $19.95. Call (661) 222-9999.