At Mako, the Tinkering Is Continuing

The scene at Mako, the new Beverly Hills restaurant from former Chinois chef Makoto Tanaka, looks like old home week. The modern dining room is filled with fans and friends who have shown up to wish the Japanese-born chef well. Tanaka spent eight years cooking Wolfgang Puck’s eclectic Euro-Asian fusion; this is his first restaurant on his own. Everybody there on the night I visited seemed to know everybody else. Tanaka’s wife, Lisa Brady, is the maitre d’, the same position she held for some 15 years at Chinois.

The restaurant has a quirky, spare look, which seems appropriate for an Asian fusion bistro. Blue glass lamps snake down from the ceiling over the small bar. All you can see of the kitchen, really, are the toques of the cooks bobbing back and forth as the pace picks up. Out front, stylish metal garden chairs and tables are ready for lunch when it starts next month.

Instead of opting for Chinois redux, Tanaka is determined to do something different. And, in fact, he’s still tinkering with the menu.

Recently, his appetizers included sashimi splashed with Chinese black vinegar and sizzling sesame oil, a duck salad with greens and a sun-dried cherry vinaigrette, and sauteed foie gras in a whole grain mustard soy glaze with fresh wasabi.

Moving on to heartier stuff: You could order duck served two ways--the leg as confit, the breast grilled--with an intense Port tangerine sauce, a whole lobster with Thai basil and pasta, or grilled rib-eye steak with black olive pesto. Don’t forget to order some of the stir-fried basmati rice with pine nuts and fresh basil, one of the best rice dishes I’ve had recently.

Another plus is the interesting little wine list, which includes a Gruner Veltliner from Austria’s Freie Weingartner and Ojai Vineyards Sauvignon Blanc--by the glass.

BE THERE

Mako Restaurant, 223 S. Beverly Drive, Beverly Hills; (310) 288-0814. Appetizers $8 to $20; main courses $21 to $29. Open for dinner Monday-Saturday. Valet parking and nearby public parking.