Worldly Brunches

After weekday breakfasts consisting of little more than harried bites before work, the leisurely, decadent weekend brunch seems a just reward. With more than 100 nationalities living in and around Los Angeles, the selection includes a mesmerizing variety from an international menu. Shanghai-style leek cakes, better than many in China, turn up in obscure lunchrooms. Spicy Cuban picadillos at a neighborhood cafe outshine most island versions. You can always get dim sum, and, of course, any number of coffee shops serve croissants and huevos rancheros all week.

On the weekend, the landscape changes. Many restaurants go all out to make blowout meals filled with nostalgic favorites. So when you next hanker to break with your usual routine, you might keep these places in mind.

*

Like an enchanting country house in Mexico’s heartland, Gallo’s Grill sets the tone for relaxing meals. Sizzling platters blanketed with steak are the primary focus at this primo Mexican grillery, but on weekends, Gallo’s prepares an entirely different menu for breakfast. The food has a refined authenticity and freshness rare in L.A.

Dainty enchiladas suizas--compact white-meat chicken filling rolled into warm hand-made corn tortillas--come splashed with a sauce that includes fresh cilantro and a little cream. Sopes, unlike the usual thick, oil-soaked fried masa bowls, are thinner, larger and grilled. A veneer of melted cheese protects this shell from the filling’s earthy, chile-tinged meat juices.

Of course menudo is the requisite weekend dish, and Gallo’s version is compelling for the restorative qualities of its deeply rust-colored, protein-rich broth. No shortcuts are taken. Cooks grind whole dry chiles and buy whole tripe, cleaning it scrupulously. The soup never has that barnyardy flavor that results from using frozen, pre-cut tripe. Gallo’s prepares each order the way customers request it: with or without hominy or a pork bone. Other not-to-miss dishes are queso fundido, topped with Gallo’s homemade chorizo; agua de pepino, an icy cucumber-lime refresco drink; and superb pan dulces from El Gallo, the related bakery across the street.

Gallo’s Grill, 4533 Cesar E. Chavez Ave., Los Angeles; (323) 980-8669. Weekends from 8 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Entrees, $6.95 to $8.95. Agua frescas, $1.49. Coffee, $1.15.

*

The perpetually mobbed Sunday dim sum scenes at swank Cantonese seafood houses can turn into traffic jams of dumpling-laden steam carts. But a calmer, more intimate alternative is the modest J&J; Restaurant (called Jin Jian on its take-out menu). This Formica-clad cafe specializes in casual Shanghai-style foods: translucent-skinned seafood dumplings and tiny topknot bao filled with crab, for instance. Besides dim sum, the cafe has true breakfast items, served only Saturday and Sunday. The part of the menu that lists the breakfast items is written in Chinese, and little English is spoken here, so it helps to know the Chinese names of the dishes.

Almost everyone orders bowls of warm sweet or savory soy milk to accompany various buns and cakes. Some diners spike the savory version with chile oil, or use it for dipping the chung yo bien, Chinese doughnut rolls that come wrapped in scallion-flecked flat bread. Yo tee-yee-o, a bar-shaped crispy rice cake, is another good choice for dipping. Other excellent selections: siao bien, meat-filled sesame pancakes; chai bao, which is vegetable-filled bao; yo tun tsuh, fried grated radish cakes; wo te-ah, pan-fried dumplings; and any of the noodle soups delivered in sink-size bowls.

J&J; Restaurant, 301 Valley Blvd., #109, San Gabriel; (626) 308-9238. Weekends from 9 a.m. to noon. Items, 70 cents to $5.95.

*

ANTOJITOS LATINOS may seem overly plain for a weekend breakfast adventure because the eatery also doubles as a mini mart, with diners facing shelves filled with stacks of delicious-looking Colombian chocolate and exotic canned goods. But breakfast buffs will want to try this place. The tiny cafe draws homesick Colombians with its desayuno paisa, or country-style breakfast. A scramble of eggs and tomatoes is flanked by a mix of beautifully cooked rice and firm red cargamento beans plus an arepa, the national corn pancake filled with molten cheese. On the side comes a spicy fresh herb sauce to splash on at will. It’s enough food to fortify a field hand for several days.

It’s the rare restaurant this side of Miami where you can have “onces,” the term for the traditional Colombian midmorning coffee break. Light eaters simply take a cafe con leche with a pan de bono, slightly chewy yucca, or bunuelos, the faintly sweet, cheese-spiked doughnut-like spheres.

Heartier appetites may go for a chicken or beef empanada or papa rellena, a savory meat-stuffed potato ball, or its cylindrical relative, yucca rellena with a core of spiced minced meat. Batidos de leche or jugos, Colombia’s version of smoothies, are whipped up from exotic Colombian fruits such as maracuya, lulo and curuba.

Antojitos Latinos Restaurant, 14909 Vanowen St., Van Nuys; (818) 781-9004. Breakfast daily 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. Full breakfast, $5.99. Appetizers, $1 to $2.

*

Island vacation hotels may be serving Francafied Nouveau Hawaiian dishes but the Loft Hawaiian restaurants stick to the sort of basic fare most Hawaiians call “local food,” dishes islanders grew up eating every day. The Lofts have done for “local food” what Spago has for pizza: refined it. They bring what could be a mishmash of the islands’ disparate, inherited flavors into a tasty balance.

Hawaiian Portuguese sausage, one of the 19th century’s greatest culinary fusions, comes as rotund, juicy links. The kitchens also make a chicken version of char siu, Chinese barbecued pork. One island morning favorite known as the royale, a Hawaiianized free-form version of the Japanese domburi, is your choice of ingredients dumped over a mound of rice. The Lofts make their specialty royale with char siu, Hawaiian Portuguese sausage and green onion.

Their egg dishes, in bounteous Hawaiian tradition, come with a mountain of country fries or an avalanche of steamed rice and, of course, you may order them with the usual breakfast meats or with Spam--a perennial Hawaiian favorite. An ice cream scoop of mayonnaise-dressed macaroni salad is always the favored garnish.

Hawaiian sweet-bread French toast, usually another wonderful concept, could use a longer soaking in its eggy bath. It’s one of the Lofts’ minor sins, absolved by otherwise careful cooking and excellent coffee.

The Loft Restaurants: Loft at Lahaina, 17311 Yukon Ave., Torrance; (310) 523-3373. Loft at Punulu, Best Western Hotel, 15607 Normandie Ave., Gardena; (310) 523-4191. Weekends 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Brunch entrees, $3.50 to $5.95. Beer is available.

*

In a room bright with the festive colors of colonial Cuba, the relatively new Mercede’s Grill, just a few steps from the sands of Marina del Rey, cooks breakfasts that throb with sparkling Latin flavors. The Cuban selections appeal to grease-phobic Marina-ites (and health-conscious Cubans, no doubt).

Mercede’s makes a lean version of Cuba’s famed picadillo. The minced beef hash retains its full flavor, though, with lacings of capers and raisins. Joey’s Healthy Cubano consists of a nearly laptop-size skinless chicken breast redolent of lemon-garlic and topped with marinated grilled onions. It comes with scrambled egg whites (or whole eggs on request), precisely cooked black beans, rice and toasty grilled plantains.

For those who don’t want to know from good-for-you on a weekend, this kitchen turns out plenty of decadent options--ortega chile omelets with cheese and sour cream, or chocolate chip pancakes, for instance. Champagne drinks, sangria and mojitos, a rum and lime libation doused with mint, are on hand to help with the buzz.

Mercede’s Grill, 14 Washington Blvd., Marina del Rey; (310) 827-6209. Sunday brunch 8:30 a.m. to 2 p.m.; breakfast daily from 8:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. Entrees, $5.95 to $10.95.

*

Heart-thumping, thigh-slapping gospel music thunders through the rafters at the House of Blues Sunday Gospel Brunch. Some of the biggest gospel celebrities and choirs come and go, but the soul food stays the same. Most guests come for the music so they don’t mind if the buffet fare lacks the polish of Patina’s (though it’s not at all shabby, either).

Brunch begins an hour before the music. Among the choices served in two buffet areas: carved-for-you roast beef and turkey breast, a choose-your-own omelet, egg and waffle station, fried chicken, catfish nuggets with spicy tartar sauce, collards, salads and a fair jambalaya.

Select sweets from the fancily arranged layout of fresh fruit, cookies and bars. Avoid the dry bread pudding--other than that this brunch is mighty uplifting, and rollicking fun to boot. Alcoholic beverages cost extra.

House of Blues, 8430 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood; (323) 848-5100. Restaurant information, (323) 848-5123. Sunday brunch seatings, 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. Tickets $30 to $33, depending on your view of the stage; children under 12, $17; under 3, free but must have reservations. $2.50 charge for will-call tickets by telephone. Walk-ins accommodated when possible. Valet parking, $5.

*

In the evenings, El Rocoto makes its profits on Chaufa dishes--Chinese stir-fries evolved for Peruvian tastes. But on weekend mornings, country-style Criollo breakfasts draw a steady stream of regulars.

Under the eaves of its indoor stylized rustic huts, customers sip steaming glasses of cafe con leche or fresh papaya juice. The peasant dishes are as gentrified as the setting. Take, for instance, the tamal de chancho o pollo, a choice of pork or chicken embedded mosaic-style into a moist, steamy bar of broth-flavored corn masa. The famed Peruvian potato is transformed here into papa rellena, a sphere of the mashed tuber encasing spice-infused minced beef. Pan con chicharron, a crispy French-bread sandwich of rich, meaty pork chunks comes with rounds of deep-fried sweet potato stacked into a tower. Sprinkle on the green heat--the potent aj’ sauce from bottles on the tables.

El RoCoto, 1356 W. Artesia Blvd., Gardena; (310)768-8768. Weekends 9 to 11:30 a.m. Entrees, $4.50 to $5.75. Cafe con leche, $1.95. Juices, $2.25.

*

Ladies wearing hats give brunch at Pshaw’s, a small bistro overlooking Gower Gulch, an air as gracious as a Southern Sunday supper. Chef Phillip Shaw, trained at the Culinary Institute of America, has taken Creole cooking out of grandma’s kitchen and polished it up without losing her down-home flavors. Choices run to crab cake appetizers, roast chicken and a classy file gumbo--filled with lightly cooked seafood, sausage and chicken. The popular cheese-laced grits, a sort of American-style polenta, sit under a fleshy, beautifully fried catfish filet. Slow-braised oxtails barely clinging to the bone come with a heap of garlic-seasoned “hoppin’ john” (black-eyed peas and rice).

Homemade desserts tend to contain lots of pineapple or coconut. Triple chocolate mousse cake is a satisfying version, though it is purchased elsewhere. On a fine day, when the dining room expands to the box garden patio, request an outside seat. Wine and mimosas are offered.

Pshaw’s Bistro, 6099 Sunset Blvd., Hollywood; (323) 871-2546. Sunday brunch 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Entrees, $10.95 to $20.50. Appetizers, $5.50 to $8.95.