Hotel Dining with a View

In its heyday, the strip of luxe hotels along Santa Monica’s Ocean Front Walk was known as the Gold Coast, and Club Casa del Mar was one of its jewels. After World War II, the 1926 hotel fell on hard times, later serving as a drug rehabilitation center and a Pritikin facility. The owners of neighboring Shutters on the Beach, though, saw something in the world-weary grande dame and poured $65 million into restoring her to a semblance of her former glory.

The new Hotel Casa del Mar debuted last October. It looks so much the part of grand hotel, it’s hard to believe that people in Pritikin bathrobes ever prowled the halls. Now valets wait out front. A double staircase sweeps from the entrance up to the hotel’s main salon, which could rival the Titanic in size. Walk past meticulously groomed potted palms and a sea of invitingly soft sofas and armchairs pulled up in front of fireplaces to the bar--where a pianist churns out background music--and the view of the ocean beyond. The restaurant, Oceanfront, with floor-to-ceiling windows on two sides, is off to the left and up a few steps.

Even though it means dining early, it’s nice to arrive at dusk to watch the sun set from one of those cushy sofas. The 75-seat Oceanfront is smaller than most hotel dining rooms. With its wicker armchairs, roomy tables and ocean views, it feels more unbuttoned than most, though service is crisp and professional.

Instead of hiring an experienced hotel chef, the owners recruited Andrew DeGroot from the charming little bistro Pastis, where he held his first L.A. job. After cooking school 15 years ago, DeGroot did the rounds of starred restaurants in France, then worked for Jean-Louis Palladin at the Watergate Hotel in Washington, D.C., and Gunther Seeger at Atlanta’s acclaimed Seeger’s Restaurant. DeGroot is only 34, but he’s been working in restaurants for 17 years.

In the four months that the restaurant has been open, DeGroot has slowly brought the California menu into focus. The execution was consistently on the mark on my last few visits, unlike in the early weeks. Yet if it’s a step up from the usual hotel dining experience, don’t expect the fireworks of a Lespinasse in New York or a Masa’s in San Francisco, both hotel restaurants that burst out of their class.

The menu features straightforward descriptions that avoid fussiness and purple prose. If you have any questions, Oceanfront’s waiters are schooled enough to give a credible answer--the advantage of a fixed menu with only a handful of specials each night.

One of the best starters is the mussels steamed in white wine with shallots, herbs and nuggets of a spicy paprika-streaked chorizo sausage. It sounds odd, but shellfish and pork is a combination often seen in Portuguese cooking. It’s surprising to find such an exuberantly earthy dish on a hotel restaurant menu. The no-dairy soup isn’t the soulless puree so many chefs feel compelled to offer their food-wary guests: This is a full-bodied ocher puree of sweet corn ladled over a red pepper mousse. It is more tough than fragile, but the taste of the corn is rich and intense.

DeGroot is not timid when it comes to flavors. His shrimp cannelloni is French in inspiration: a tender, fresh pasta roll filled with shrimp and napped in a smooth cauliflower sauce perfumed with curry powder. I’m less

fond of his crab, avocado and cucumber tartare. One night the avocado tastes off, and everything else is as bland as can be.

Since a hotel restaurant has to please everyone--both the staid and the more adventurous eaters--DeGroot offers something as simple and classic as warm asparagus spears in a coarse-grained mustard sauce. And when it comes to seafood, he’s got the obligatory Chilean sea bass on the menu, but he cooks it wrapped in applewood smoked bacon to play up the firm meatiness of this popular fish and sets it on French lentils laced with herbs.

One night he serves cockles--a sweet, delicate shellfish about the size of small clams--with rigatoni. His kitchen manages not to overcook the cappellini, no mean feat with these notoriously slender noodles. Tossed with asparagus, they would make a lovely light entree if they hadn’t been doused with white truffle oil, which inevitably tastes like the artificial product it is.

One dish I haven’t been able to appreciate is the lobster pot au feu, though I have tried it several times. Whole claws and chunks of lobster meat and root vegetables are served in a strong, murky broth the color of Worcestershire sauce. Nobody else at my table likes it much either. Rack of lamb is about what you’d expect from a hotel restaurant: boring, but perfectly acceptable. Ditto for the grilled beef filet in a red wine reduction. In the future, I’d like to see more daring, more personal cooking from DeGroot.

The wine list, with the exception of French Champagnes, concentrates on the West Coast, with a wide choice of California, Oregon and Washington wines.

For dessert, I’d stick with the chocolate truffle cake or the caramelized apple financier, an awkward but delicious hybrid of buttery almond cake and tarte tatin, with enough caramel for three desserts. Those with a classic bent will like the truffle cake. Nothing fancy, just good dark chocolate served with a ball of vanilla ice cream.

All that, and a view, too. Which means if your Aunt Eleanor comes to town and doesn’t feel like stirring from her hotel, you can look forward to a pleasant enough dinner with her at Oceanfront. It may not be the most exciting dining, but it’s dependable

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AMBIENCE: Comfortable open-plan dining room with wicker armchairs and ocean views on two sides. SERVICE: Crisp and professional. BEST DISHES: Sweet corn soup, mussels with chorizo sausage, shrimp cannelloni, Chilean sea bass over lentils, caramelized apple financier, chocolate truffle cake. Appetizers, $7 to $18; main courses, $15 to $28. Corkage, $15. wine PICKs: 1997 Flowers Chardonnay, Sonoma 1997 Swanson Merlot, Napa Valley. facts: Breakfast, lunch and dinner daily. Valet parking.

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Rating is based on food, service and ambience, with price taken into account in relation to quality. ****: Outstanding on every level. ***: Excellent. **: Very good. *: Good. No star: Poor to satisfactory.