Romancing the castle on the hill

Chateau MARMONT, the 1920s hotel that looms like a turreted castle over the Sunset Strip, is better known for its wild and crazy rock ‘n’ roll crowd than for its fine dining. Guests have been known to hole up in one of the Marmont’s cottages or swell penthouse suites for months at a time. And at certain points in the hotel’s colorful history, one wonders if anybody ever remembered to eat. Maybe you’d go to meet someone for a drink in the lush courtyard garden or have a late-night Cognac in the lounge, but stay for dinner? No way.

But since owner Andre Balazs hired Mohammad Islam away about a year ago from New York’s Mercer Kitchen where Islam was executive sous-chef, the restaurant at Chateau Marmont has become one of the city’s best-kept secrets. This is not hotel cooking as usual. Islam worked briefly with Jean-Georges Vongerichten at Jean Georges before he moved on to Mercer Kitchen, also a Vongerichten restaurant. His sensibility is more Chez Panisse than the Ritz. And because of the restaurant’s modest size, dinner here feels more like a meal at a rather grand country house than at a proper restaurant.

That’s part of the hotel’s charm. It harks back to an earlier, more gracious era. Most of the rooms are really apartments, complete with kitchens and fridges -- not mini-bars -- for stashing Champagne. The lounge is a grand living room with cushy chairs and sofas pulled up around low tables lighted by amber-shaded lamps. And out in the courtyard garden, a bartender is on duty at a bar set under a huge palm meticulously groomed into an umbrella. It could be Taormina or Cap Ferrat except for the neon along the Strip.

I rediscovered Chateau Marmont last summer when I came up to a friend’s room for a drink on a terrace overlooking the city. In the twilight, the garden below looked ravishing, lighted with tiki torches, candles flickering on a scattering of French cafe tables. When I came back for dinner one night, the reality was just as magical.

The sad rule of thumb is usually the more romantic the setting, the worse the food. Here, the food took me by surprise.

Poached shrimp cooked to just this side of translucence made a wonderful salad with peppery arugula and blood orange segments in a subtle Champagne vinaigrette. Sushi-grade tuna came seared at the edges accompanied by a demure Asian slaw and a lovely ponzu for dipping. The tastes were pure and satisfying.

Calamari tempura is just a fancy way of describing squid fried in a gossamer-light batter, delicious dunked in a roasted tomato and pepper concasse. It’s hard to stay away from this one, or from the sticky aioli that comes with it.

Chestnut-ricotta ravioli taste homemade and real, lightly sauced in a roasted-tomato vinaigrette with a splash of vinegar that plays up the soothing taste and texture of the filling. New York strip, which one of my guests insisted on ordering, may not be aged as long as serious steakhouse beef, but it is a perfectly satisfying steak, chewy and juicy. It would taste awfully good if you had just sat down to dinner after a long plane flight.

That night, the chef had prepared veal breast too, something you don’t often see on restaurant menus. It could have been braised a bit longer, but still had a pleasingly delicate flavor. With sauteed mushrooms, it makes a fine supper. Roast chicken -- with a crisp skin and an overlay of fresh herbs -- tastes like it comes from a good home cook.

Desserts, made by Islam’s wife, Malika Ameen, who counts pastry chef at Balthazar in New York among her many credits, follows a similar aesthetic. Flavors are pure, presentations elegant and simple. She makes a dreamy butterscotch “silk,” a pudding with an incredibly sensual texture, fantastic with a barely sweet coconut sorbet and miniature Moravian gingersnaps that set your taste buds tingling. The most interesting dessert here may be her sticky-toffee pudding, which is more a molded steamed pudding laced with sweet spices than a pudding pudding. She cuts the sweetness with a mascarpone sorbet. Last but not least is her tart topped with a swirl of thinly sliced apples and a heady cinnamon ice cream. She’s definitely a talent to watch.

Menu changes with the seasons

I wanted to move right into the Marmont that night. Think of room service in a place like this. Now I know why some people barely budge once they’ve checked in.

I’ve been back several times since then. The short, casual menu has evolved with the seasons. The chicken now comes with black truffles, for example, though when I tried the truffle version I couldn’t detect any. For $25 how many could there be -- even if they were there? It’s no big disappointment, though, because the chicken itself had so much flavor.

I discovered the Caesar salad, a sheaf of tender inner leaves of romaine cloaked in a piquant dressing. And I fell in love with a winter salad of emerald arugula leaves, prosciutto and luscious ripe persimmon splashed with droplets of very dark, aged aceto balsamico.

Actually, when you think about it, executive chef at Chateau Marmont could be a dream job for a young ambitious chef. You don’t have to produce the kind of volume that makes hotel work so routine, you have the flexibility to buy from the farmers market and you can change the menu as often as you want. If the chef feels like putting lamb loin in a red-curry emulsion on the menu on the spur of the moment, he can do it.

The restaurant keeps a low profile. The hotel doesn’t exactly encourage anyone other than guests to come. It is quite small and it’s by reservation only, but if you try to make a reservation before 6 p.m., most of the time all you get is a recording telling you to leave a message. And sometimes no one calls back.

In winter, when it’s too windy or too cold to sit in the garden, you’re relegated to the dining room. Recently redecorated, it looks like a diminutive Viennese coffeehouse, the walls covered in gorgeous cafe-au-lait brocade and wavy-edged mirrors. An antique chandelier casts a wan light, and on the tables are candlesticks with little shades. The contrast between dollhouse decor and the scruffy young diners -- guys in wool beanies or baseball caps worn backward -- is delicious.

A fragile balance

What makes dining at Chateau Marmont so interesting is the eclectic mix of guests. It’s a fragile balance to maintain, so I thought long and hard before writing this review. I want to point out the good work the chefs are doing, but at the same time, I want to ensure the restaurant isn’t overrun. Note that a reservation is always required. The parking lot holds only 43 cars. And if it’s already full, the security will send you down to Bar Marmont (which no longer is owned by Chateau Marmont), where they’ll charge you $20 upfront to park your car.

A few caveats: The water is about as expensive as I’ve ever encountered. The wine list is limited and overpriced, though it does have a few interesting bottles. But when I can go in for dinner and find delicious little risotto al salto (risotto cakes laced with cheese), or a lovely squash soup lighted up with threads of lemon peel, I’m a happy camper.

I even enjoy the salmon, not my favorite fish. When Islam slow-roasts Atlantic salmon to a custardy texture and serves it with sauteed greens on creamy white polenta, it’s about as good as it gets in terms of simple and satisfying.

Hotel restaurants are always trying to put on the Ritz. This one isn’t and that’s why it’s so smart. Just please, don’t go all at once.

*

Chateau Marmont

Rating: ** 1/2

Location: 8221 Sunset Blvd., Hollywood; (323) 656-1010.

Ambience: Casual dining in the courtyard garden with a bar under the palm tree or in a cozy brocade-lined dining room at this boho-chic 1920s hotel. Used mainly by the hotel guests, it feels more like dining in a grand country house than in a restaurant restaurant.

Service: Front of the house is casual and smart; waiters can be terrific or not, depending on whom you get.

Price: Dinner appetizers, $8 to $14; main courses, $18 to $32; desserts, $9.

Best dishes: Calamari tempura, risotto al salto, crab cakes, poached shrimp and blood orange salad, roasted free-range chicken, slow-roasted Atlantic salmon, lamb loin in red-curry emulsion, butterscotch “silk,” sticky- toffee pudding with mascarpone sorbet, cookie plate.

Wine list: Pedestrian and overpriced. No corkage.

Best table: One in the corner of the courtyard garden.

Special features: Room service for those lucky enough to be staying at the Marmont.

Details: By reservation only. Open daily for breakfast, 6 to 11 a.m.; lunch, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.; and dinner, 6 to 11 p.m. A late-night menu is served, 11 p.m. to 6 a.m. Full bar. Valet parking, $8 with validation.

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.