The right menu, the right mood

By S. Irene Virbila

Feb. 12, 2004 12 AM PT

Times Staff Writer

Finding romance in a restaurant can be a dicey proposition.

Spend a lot of money, and chances are you’ll end up in the fanciest place in town with waiters hovering too long and too close. Tinkling pianos and dark corners aren’t necessarily the ticket, either. God knows that restaurants with an ambience dripping in romance -- the kind with secluded alcoves, candlelight and magical courtyard gardens -- tend to barely squeak by in terms of food. Which is why you should save Chianti on Melrose, the Little Door on 3rd Street, Beau Rivage in Malibu or Il Cielo in Beverly Hills, lovely as they are, for someone who doesn’t live to eat.

What’s romantic to anybody who loves food is sharing something delicious. There’s something about eating the same thing, whether it’s a massive steak, a platter of perfect oysters or a series of exotically spiced little dishes, that fosters intimacy.

You should go early, or very late when a more eclectic crowd will have surfaced and the noise level should quiet enough for conversation. Shouting over the din will wear you down before the evening’s out, and you won’t have been able to communicate much. And talking, getting closer, is the point, isn’t it?

Think about what you’ll be eating. Sushi is good; heavy fried foods a no-no. Eating with your fingers, very sensual, but really messy foods like barbecue, maybe not.

Shell game

Oysters are undeniably sexy, a reputed aphrodisiac. The place to indulge is Water Grill downtown, which has a very serious raw bar. Have them while seated at the bar or cozied up in one of the posh mohair booths. With some six or seven varieties on any given day, they’re all shucked to order, quivering in their juices. Bring a lot of money so, for once, you and your sweetie can eat as many as you want.

The ultimate in sexy dishes at Water Grill, though, is the chilled fruits-of-the-sea platter, an icy tower of Santa Barbara spot prawns, shrimp, steamed mussels, raw clams and oysters, crab and more to savor ever so slowly between gulps of flinty Sancerre or a racy Riesling.

You could stop there, or you could move on to some of chef Michael Cimarusti’s superlative seafood entrees.

But for a perfect bite before the theater or a concert, nothing beats that chilled seafood platter.

In the flesh

If your paramour has decided carnivore tendencies, it might be fun to rev up your senses by sharing the Porterhouse for two at Table 8. Chef Govind Anderson cooks it under a fragrant salt crust laced with fresh bay leaves, thyme and black peppercorns. When the waiter carries one toward your table, the dining room is riveted. Choose a great bottle of red from the list and ask for a corner table. Melisse in Santa Monica and Patina at the Walt Disney Concert Hall both have an excellent Cote de Boeuf for two as well, albeit in a much more formal atmosphere than Table 8’s.

Late plates

If you’re both night owls, you might enjoy the wildly romantic Oasis, a Moroccan-inspired restaurant and lounge on La Brea Avenue where the action doesn’t get started until well after 10. You can relax on brocade poufs in the bar decorated in the amazing colors of a Moroccan spice box or commandeer one of the canopied booths in the restaurant proper.

The menu is Spanish-Moorish nibbles -- peppers stuffed with vinegary Spanish anchovies, fried calamari with romesco sauce, shrimp in Berber sauce, to name just a few. The food and the selection of wines are better than you’d ever expect in such a trendy nightspot. Just make sure to get in a little nap before you go.

Caviar dreams

If your impulse is stuck on caviar, consider Diaghilev in the Wyndham Bel Age Hotel in West Hollywood. It’s dark, the banquettes are comfy and on weekends a sultry chanteuse sings sad old Russian love songs. The vodka is icy and strong; the restaurant makes its own flavored vodkas too, for something exotic. I’d stick with Stolichnaya myself, the better to wash down vast quantities of delicious miniature buckwheat blinis and caviar -- beluga, osetra or sevruga from the Caspian Sea -- with all the proper accompaniments: finely diced red onion, chopped hard-boiled egg yolks and whites, sour cream and toast points. Followed by, perhaps, chicken Kiev, roast duck or venison. Diaghilev always reminds me of a fancy restaurant in Cold War Russia, with its ornate Paris-Moscow decor and waiters in side-buttoned Cossack shirts.

Romance to-go

Some foods are sexy on their own, no matter where you eat them. You could, all things considered, skip the restaurant and simply order, or carry in Champagne and caviar from someplace like Petrossian Paris, the West Hollywood branch of the famous purveyor, which has been supplying tout Paris with caviar since the ‘20s. Make the caviar Tsar Imperial Ossetra and the Champagne Krug. Don’t forget the toast.

Just desserts

You’ll get points for originality if you take your heartthrob for a late-night snack at the ultra avant-garde Sona. Tell him or her to dress in black, the better to meld with the minimalist decor. The plan is sweets, specifically pastry chef and co-owner Michelle Myers’ $25 three-course tasting menu of forward-looking desserts. (Or, for a real indulgence, her $45 six-course dessert tasting.) She’s as spontaneous as her husband, Sona’s chef David Myers, so the lineup changes all the time. Highly experimental, her sweets can range from the sublime to the lip-curling, but they’re always interesting and unconventional.

On the wild side

What about a surprise destination, whisking that special someone up into the Santa Monica Mountains? Picture it, the moon and stars above, the dark winding road and at the end of the ride: Saddle Peak Lodge and valet parking in the middle of nowhere. The restaurant is set in a historic old stone-and-timber hunting lodge.

Inside, a fire crackles in the bar, where vintage fishing rods lean against the walls. Secluded corner tables are in high demand (you’ll have to beg for one), but are undeniably romantic. Just don’t be freaked by the trophies of bygone hunting expeditions mounted overhead. The menu from chef Warren Schwartz is predominantly game -- a wonderful buffalo tartare, wild partridge in foie gras sauce or tender roasted elk tenderloin -- though there’s certainly something for everyone.

Saddle Peak Lodge is worth the drive no matter where you started out.

The little black book

Diaghilev, Wyndham Bel Age Hotel, 1020 N. San Vicente Blvd., West Hollywood;

(310) 854-1111

Oasis, 611 N. La Brea Ave.,

Los Angeles; (323) 939-8900

Petrossian Paris,

321 N. Robertson Blvd.,

Los Angeles; (310) 271-0576.

Saddle Peak Lodge,

419 Cold Canyon Road, Calabasas; (818) 222-3888

Sona, 401 N. La Cienega Blvd., West Hollywood;