A Bargain Seafood Sampler

I used to think of Scott’s Seafood restaurant across from South Coast Plaza as a pricey place for expense-account lunches. A midday meal here costs as much as most dinners elsewhere. But Sunday brunch is a bargain.

For $21.95, diners can experience Scott’s generous portions without the painful weekday price. The two-course meal comes with unlimited champagne (Christalino on our visit) or orange juice; a choice of two starters and six brunch entrees.

An upper-crust crowd dines quietly in the spacious dining rooms, decorated in a “gentleman’s club” style. I like the shiny copper pots circling the open kitchen and expansive counter where waiters pick up the plates fresh from the fire. Oysters are tucked snug in a bed of salt next to other fresh seafood. The impression is one of a professional operation aiming to please discriminating customers.

The Costa Mesa location is one of eight Scott’s restaurants, a San Francisco-based chain that began in 1976 at the corner of Lombard and Scott streets. The Costa Mesa spot caters to the pre-theater South Coast Repertory and Performing Arts Center crowd, as well as shoppers and workers in the South Coast Metro area.

Brunch customers are welcome to select from the large regular lunch menu as well as the Sunday choices. These courses, from $17.50 for linguine Sichuan to around $40 for lobster, come with rice or potatoes and usually a side of vegetables. Good bets for main courses include the seafood cioppino with crab, scallops and other shellfish; and the swordfish with caramelized shallots and sweet eggplant caponata or puree.

Salads, which are not included in the lunch price, are worth the extra shillings. Try the beefsteak tomatoes with red onion and blue cheese and the spinach salad with mushrooms in a hot bacon vinaigrette.

The main menu has several good choices to begin a meal, including crab cakes in a citrus sauce topped with crumbled blue cheese. I would skip the oysters Rockefeller, because these poor mollusks are choking under their crown of heavy cheese and spinach.

It’s slim pickings for brunch starters, but the two offered are exceptional, in particular the baked stuffed tomato. Stuffed with smoked salmon and avocado, the tomato is topped with fresh Buffalo mozzarella. The strawberry appetizer comes with a light and cheesy custard sauce.

Brunch entrees change periodically but for a few weeks running have included a fisherman’s breakfast of charbroiled fresh fish, generally swordfish or salmon, with scrambled eggs and French toast stuffed with cheese alongside au gratin potatoes. The potatoes are served with every dish except the Belgian waffles, and the seafood au gratin, which is an assortment of shellfish--shrimp, scallops, swordfish and salmon--in a light basil cream sauce over scrambled eggs topped with a light cheese finish. This dish comes with rice pilaf and is highly recommended.

Other good choices are shrimp omelet--if you like Creole sauce and andouille sausage--and chicken fried steak, which delighted the teenagers in our party with its crunchy breaded coating over soft tender beef with a creamy mushroom sauce on the side.

The Belgian waffles are the only choice for those who prefer a sweet breakfast and are probably the least recommended. Its simple ingredients of chicken sausage and fruit can’t compete with the other plates’ complex flavors and creative pairings: crab cakes with poached eggs and Hollandaise or scrambled eggs with mushrooms, for example.

Nearly every dish is a work of art. Reluctant to ruin its perfect symmetry, I took a stab at the scrumptious Key lime torte. It tasted even better than it looked. Ditto for the cheesecake, which comes with a cookie swan peeking out from the cake. The piece de resistance, however, is the cream puff, which lost the beauty pageant but won best in flavor.

Scott’s Seafood Bar and Grill, 3300 Bristol St., Costa Mesa, (714) 977-2400. Brunch hours: 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.