Mosun: Hip, Trendy and Rather Uneven

Hip, trendy Mosun, a combination restaurant and dance club, has made quite a splash in Laguna Beach. The dance club part is known as Club M, and Thursday through Saturday nights it throbs with House and Trance music. I have only a vague idea of what House and Trance music sound like and a far vaguer idea of how you go about dancing to it, but those who are au courant on these things stand in line to get inside, and suffice it to say they’re younger than I.

Mosun the restaurant, however, is a good deal more accessible to those of pre-House and pre-Trance generations. It has higher aspirations than providing fuel for dancers. (For one thing, it’s open every night, whether Club M is or not.) And in many cases it succeeds. Its emphasis is on sushi and seafood (not to mention cocktails and sake), and almost everything it serves has a pronounced Pacific Rim spin.

So does the restaurant itself. On entering, you see an attractive sushi bar to the left and comfortable cocktail bar to the right. In the dining area, the decor is appropriately cool. The perimeter is lined with black vinyl booths, their bases garlanded with a trail of smooth, round stones. Smallish tables (which tend to conflict with the oversized plates) inhabit the center of the room and are pushed close together. There’s an obvious premium put on keeping the energy level high, which can include background music bordering on the oppressively loud.

There are some nice touches, though, notably the miniature waterfall that gushes between the bar and dining room and the comfortable plantation chairs. A full bar is available, including a roster of sake martinis, a vogue against which I have to declare a personal bias. However, I must say the sake list itself is of impressive depth and breadth.

The sushi, a fairly basic treatment, is a good bet. The fish is fresh, but the sticky rice can be a bit too loose and the taste a bit sterile. The same is also a problem with several of the sushi rolls, the California roll being one of the best.

Oyster lovers may have conflicting opinions about the plate of oysters on the half shell, served with a sake-lime and a ginger-lime dipping sauce. They’re huge. Depending on your taste, they could be wonderful or way too much of a good thing.

For an appetizer, try the filet mignon won tons. Served in a puddle of hoisin-butter sauce, they have a more pleasing texture than flavor. The meat filling doesn’t have much taste, but the won tons are nice to bite into, and the sauce lends a sweet pungency. There’s also a simple, nearly perfect sunomono salad of thin cucumber slices dressed in rice vinegar and sesame oil.

I can’t say much for the lobster spring rolls, though. They’re over-breaded and taste of fish, not lobster. And skip the chicken satay, which seems to have evaded its traditional flavorful marinade. On the other hand, the tuna takaki is excellent. The tuna filet is rolled in a pungent crust of black pepper, flash-seared and served with a gentle soy-citrus sauce that cuts nicely against the spice.

As for which is the best entree, that’s a toss-up. My New York steak was especially good. It was grilled medium-rare, as ordered, and the pleasingly chewy slices had picked up a nice crust from being basted with mirin sauce. Accompanying it were creamy, wasabi-flavored mashed potatoes and garlicky spinach.

But then there’s the flash-grilled Chilean sea bass, served “miso-yaki” style with a sauce reminiscent of teriyaki that’s pungent with ginger. It’s wonderfully moist and flaky. On the other hand, the accompanying asparagus and carrot tempura rolls, an interesting gambit, suffered from a heavier batter than necessary.

Overall, the entrees are rather uneven. The low point of my meals was the baked halibut, billed as “mushroom crusted with a white onion sauce.” It appeared to have been blackened but was watery on the inside and had a flavor that might be described as medicinal. The surrounding sauce seemed an odd variation of beurre blanc except for the taste of undercooked flour.

The lemon grass swordfish was similarly perplexing. There was no discernible lemon grass flavor, and the so-called Asian vegetable ratatouille served with it was little more than a mass of julienne vegetables cooked al dente.

I liked the tiger shrimp better. They were a tad dry, and the bed of mushy ramen noodles didn’t help much, but I enjoyed the flavorful barbecue sauce. Mosun does serve up some fine deserts. The chocolate souffle has a taut crust and a molten center of chocolaty goodness. And while I’m a moss-backed conservative when it comes to creme brulee, this deft variation had a pleasing kick of ginger and was perfectly rendered, with a gossamer crust and a gooey center.

Mosun is moderate to expensive. Appetizers run $2-$14, sushi and sashimi $3.50-$11 and entrees $9-$26. Desserts are $3-$7. Full bar.

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Mosun, 680 S. Pacific Coast Highway, Laguna Beach. (949) 497-5646. Open Sundays through Wednesdays, 5-10 p.m, and until 11 Fridays and Saturdays. Sushi bar open until midnight Fridays and Saturdays.