RESTAURANTS : SANTA MONICA’S DARWIN EVOLVES WITH NEW CHEF

The Darwin in Santa Monica has always been a good place to go for drinks. Tastefully wood-paneled to look like an English men’s club, its bar attracts a respectable young professional singles crowd, while its sedate dining room, with its frosted-glass lighting and spanking-white tablecloths, attracts an older, conservative clientele.

Lending a feel of the Wild West to all this is a lively ragtime piano played by a wonderful-looking character--a man with a Daddy Warbucks shaved head, attired in a tuxedo with shoulders as wide as a doorway.

The food has matched the English pub theme--fish and chips and bangers and burgers and steaks--passable, if you’d had one too many to propel yourself elsewhere, but not notable enough to have earned a place in the more distinguished restaurant guides.

Now, however, with the arrival of a new chef, Peter Deluca, ex of the kitchen at 72 Market St., the Darwin has evolved. Or rather, the menu has. The crowd is the same--at the bar are lawyers in or wanting to be in love; old and young fogies in the dining room. The L.A. hippoisie hasn’t found the place yet; you can still find a seat on the weekend. But you can’t help wondering just what the more conservative crowd thinks of tonight’s special: venison with blueberry sauce served with a gratin of salsify?

The new food’s good, though. The woman next to us is making a meal of one of the appetizers: fried calamari ($5) with tarragon mayonnaise and cocktail sauce for dipping. There’s calamari at our table too, and my friend, her first time on a restaurant review and feeling the need to criticize, sniffs, “They really give you too much for an appetizer,” then manages to polish off every single crisp, non-greasy morsel.

The Louisiana crab and corn cakes, which come handsomely presented on a yin-yang patterned-pool of pale-green tomatillo sauce and soft white creme fraiche, taste as good as they look. Even the steamed clams are as good as you’ll find on the West Coast (which is to say, not as good as on the East Coast), tender littlenecks in a broth flavored nicely with garlic, shallots and parsley.

The grilled breast of chicken, which comes with a salad dressed in balsamic vinaigrette really is too much for an appetizer (it’s listed as an entree at lunch), but is great with a drink as a light dinner before a movie, as is their very fresh Gulf shrimp appetizer, the shrimp marinated with ginger and garlic, then quickly grilled and served on a bed of hot, chopped endive and Napa cabbage.

As for the entrees, there’s something for everyone. A juicy, blood-rare, good-quality New York steak accompanied by a pile of skinny French fries is just what the angry young playwright at our table needs. The world’s fussiest man says the Norwegian salmon is a “damn good piece of fish,” and he isn’t even offended by its rosemary/Pommery mustard sauce. When he complains to the waiter that his mashed potatoes are cold, the chef sends out a fresh steaming bowlful, with apologies.

Even the chicken curry, held over from the old menu, has been improved, the gigantic portion heaped onto saffron rice, and served with side dishes of coconut, chopped peanuts, good chutney, currants. (A refined version of the Darwin hamburger--gone now from the dinner menu but still served at lunch--is a serious contender in my ongoing search for Los Angeles’ best hamburger). As for that blueberry venison, it’s on the tame side for my taste, but the salsify is probably the best thing on the table. Another night, that honor goes to a tender, sweet little poussin in a sauce as delicate as the bird.

Only the desserts are a disappointment: Neither the apple pie nor the hot-fudge cake nor pecan pie nor the walnut chocolate fantasy is anybody’s dream.

The Darwin, 312 Wilshire Blvd., Santa Monica. (213) 458-4143. Open Sunday-Thursday, 11 a.m.-10:30 p.m.; Friday and Saturday 10:30 a.m.-11:30 p.m. Full bar. Valet parking in the evening. All major credit cards accepted. Dinner for two, food only, $35-$60.