Neptune, meet your match

IT’S one of those peculiar L.A. ironies that the best seafood restaurant in Southern California isn’t anywhere near the ocean. Water Grill is, in fact, many leagues from shore -- firmly entrenched in the impressive old Pacific Center in downtown L.A. And while it’s sometimes tough to make the case for downtown to anybody who is unfamiliar with the place, Michael Cimarusti’s cooking -- all on its own -- is reason enough to make the trip.

This is a chef who is obsessed with seafood. For all I know, he lives it, breathes it and may keep a pet lobster. Every shrimp, every oyster, every cut of fish served in this 174-seat restaurant is impeccably fresh. Tanks between the kitchen and the sprawling dining room hold live lobsters, crabs and Santa Barbara prawns. Ensuring the range of first-rate seafood he offers every night requires knowledge and deep pockets. It also takes the dedication and patience to pursue leads and develop relationships with suppliers, because the best raw ingredients are strictly allocated.

The raw bar at Water Grill usually offers half a dozen kinds of oysters, plus clams, steamed mussels and all sorts of impeccable chilled shellfish. A lot of restaurants offer seafood platters, but Water Grill defines the genre by virtue of the quality of the shellfish and the thoughtful presentation. Instead of heaping the chilled seafood on platters filled with ice, here everything is laid down like the pieces of a puzzle within the frame of a square glass platter. The shrimp, crab and lobster are vibrant with flavor and never ever overcooked. When white Mexican shrimp are on the menu, there’s nothing better. The sauces -- an incisive cocktail sauce, freshly grated horseradish and a mignonette revved up with cracked peppercorns and pink shallots -- arrive in small white porcelain dishes. If you’re four or six, the setup is thoughtfully divided in two, the better to share.

From the beginning (that would be 1997, when Cimarusti took over the stoves at Water Grill), white clam chowder has been on the menu, and may it never be retired. This bowl of succulent clams, smoky bacon and diced potato swimming in cream and flavor is a classic. Hand-cut tuna tartare in a green peppercorn vinaigrette is another signature dish, along with a superb foie gras au torchon.

Some of the dishes in the early days, though, seemed unnecessarily fussy and lost their focus with too many ingredients and trendy tricks. That’s not the case now. Since we last reviewed Water Grill in 2000, the restaurant has matured into not only the best seafood restaurant in L.A. but one of our best restaurants, period. Cimarusti has always been a passionately intelligent chef; but now his cooking seems more personal. His dishes don’t resemble anybody else’s. They’re his own. He’s pared down his ideas to their essence, so that they deliver a one-two punch with bold flavors and sensual textures.

With Fredi Buhler, formerly of Bernard’s at the Biltmore, heading up the dining room, the service has stepped up a notch too. Pastry chef Wonyee Tom continues to delve into the mysteries of sweet and not-sweet. Sommelier Chris Angulo and wine director Joe Baylis are continuously tweaking an already fine wine list. Only the uncomfortable layout and stodgy decor, with no design or architectural element of any interest, detract from the experience. Water Grill still looks like what it used to be: a corporate restaurant for business travelers and conventioneers.

Every meal I’ve had at Water Grill recently has been exciting and delicious (which is not always the same thing). I loved a celery root soup that sent a small island of spiced Asian pear compote and walnuts afloat when the waiter poured it into the bowl. Each bite carried a different level of sweetness, and when you got a taste of walnut too, it all worked, brilliantly. Roasted Dutch white asparagus, each the size of a fat cigar, made another terrific starter. Lined up like the logs of a raft, the pale spears were scattered with fresh fava beans, julienned lomo (a Spanish cured ham), apple and shaved Parmesan, which sang against their grassy sweet flavor.

Cimarusti’s hamachi sashimi, as velvety and pristinely fresh as at any top sushi bar, is an inspired match with crushed cherry tomatoes, served very cold and doused with soy and sherry vinegar. The balance is breathtaking. Maine rock crab forms a crab cake taller than it’s wide, fried to a golden crunch and wearing a topknot of feathery micro-greens. Inside, it’s all crab, great on its own, even better with a bright remoulade.

It’s rare to have main courses outshine the appetizers, but it can happen at Water Grill. Cimarusti changes the menu every day, depending on what seafood is available, but some dishes, or variations thereof, last the season. One night French line-caught loup de mer, skin on, arrives on a rectangular platter framed in wide orange brushstrokes of piperade, a Basque red pepper sauce scribbled through with green. The colors sizzle like a Howard Hodgkin painting and the flavors are just as riveting. That same night, wild New Zealand John Dory is surrounded with nickel-sized coins of carrot, pearl onions and spinach. A beguiling Meyer lemon “syrup” twirls around the edge of the plate, dancing between the vegetables and into the mingled juices of spinach and onion.

Hand-harvested diver scallops are big as pincushions and so sweet they could be candy, which is why placing them on a bed of crushed butternut squash, which is also sweet, may not be the best idea. But on the same plate, the shallot walnut dressing with sauteed chanterelle and shimeiji mushrooms has perfect pitch. Occasionally a dish, such as wild Virginia striped bass with artichoke puree, braised squid, baby arugula and chickpeas, has a little bit too much going on. But then Cimarusti will win your heart back again with halibut, serving a slab of the pearly white flesh with English peas, fat lardons of bacon and sweet pea tendrils. I’ve never had halibut this good.

If you order the tasting menu, and you should, he doesn’t simply recycle the dishes on the menu but sends out a series of beguiling new dishes. Maine lobster in an infusion of fresh chamomile has a sensual logic that clicks into place like the tumblers in a lock. The faintest hint of cumin sparks a Dungeness crab salad with mango and pink grapefruit. And a miniature fricassee of sweetbreads, foie gras and crayfish showered with English peas is sheer magic.

Pastry chef Tom’s focused flavors and command of technique put her desserts on a level every bit as high. My favorite of the moment is her creme fraiche cheesecake wearing a lacy tuille hat crowned with a ball of creme fraiche ice cream. The dreamy cheesecake is freckled with vanilla bean and delightfully shy on sugar. Or if not that, try her fragile napoleon layered with lavender-infused cream and brilliant red strawberries from Harry’s Berries, scented with orange flower water. It would take superhuman discipline not to have dessert at Water Grill.

You could have cheese, of course, and they do have a small, well-edited selection. Or you could enjoy one of 30 dessert wines by the glass. The wine list runs some 18 pages and, in terms of white wines, offers some wonderful choices for seafood, everything from vintage Champagnes and steely Chablis to Central Coast Roussanne, Hermitage Blanc and the rare Gruner Veltliner M from the famous Austrian producer F.X. Pichler.

Unfortunately, it seems designed for vanished expense accounts. Some of the markups are excessively high, especially on imported wines, but the restaurant does have interesting wines from around the world.

Cimarusti has learned to keep his eyes on the prize, working with only the best raw materials and paring each dish down to its essentials. And Water Grill, once a stodgy corporate dining room, is one of the best restaurants in all of Southern California.

*

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Water Grill

Rating: *** 1/2

Location: 544 S. Grand Ave., Los Angeles; (213) 891-0900.

Ambience: A sprawling seafood restaurant in the historic Pacific Center with a lively bar scene, top- notch raw bar and setting reminiscent of a steakhouse, only it’s not.

Service: Among the best around; crisp and attentive but not a bit stiff.

Price: Dinner appetizers, $11 to $22; fruits of the sea platter, $24 per person; main courses, $29 to $36; seven-course tasting menu, $85 per person.

Best dishes: Seafood platter, oysters, white clam chowder, celery root soup, hand-cut tuna tartare, foie gras au torchon, crab cakes, Alaskan halibut, loup de mer, John Dory with Meyer lemon syrup, vanilla creme fraiche cheesecake,strawberry napoleon.

Wine list: Wide-ranging list with some truly interesting choices for seafood. Markups for imported wines tend to be high, though. Corkage, $20.

Best table: A booth along the wall.

Details: Open Mondays and Tuesdays, 11:30 a.m. to 9 p.m.; Wednesdays through Fridays, to 10 p.m.; Saturdays, 5 to 10 p.m.; Sundays, 4:30 to 9 p.m. Full bar. Valet parking, $4.

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.