Restaurant Review : A Simpler Menu and Brighter Surroundings Make for a Light Opera on Ocean

Opera has a new name, Opera on Ocean, bringing it in line with its next-door neighbor, Ivy at the Shore. The new business card features a wandering line of dots that might represent the hypsographic curve of the continental shelf out beyond Santa Monica State Beach. Or possibly the trail of a drunken hermit crab.

It also has new owners, who have brightened things up a great deal with a lighter color scheme and a more open feeling. The menu is lighter and simpler too. Basically, what we have here is a lighter Opera.

But not a wholly new one. The new owners are former investors; the kitchen is apparently the same, and there is a good deal of continuity with the old regime. The menu is definitely more sensible, though. The old Opera relied a lot more on baroque dishes that, enjoyable enough in themselves, were hard to combine with anything else in a meal (and I’m talking about you, Mr. Squab with Grape Beignets and Candied Walnuts).

It also had a more distinct North African presence on a menu that could basically be from some frontier of California, Italy and Provence. The one Moroccan holdover is the appetizer called b’stilla purses: bite-sized packets of chicken, duck and almonds in filo, on the sweet side and flavored with saffron and the exotic, Juicy Fruit-like spice called mastic. It was wise to keep this one.

Opera still makes several appetizers consisting of bread with a spread, such as walnut-olive bread covered with the olive puree known as tapenade . The most extraordinary is grilled focaccia covered with wild mushroom-and-walnut ragout. It’s like a small entree, with a rather rich bread substituted for, say, a piece of steak.

The menu still includes lavender chicken paillard , a chicken breast in a butter sauce rendered exotic with lavender seed. The best things tend to be far less exotic, though. The very best thing I’ve had here was a grilled swordfish in lemon caper butter. It was definitely grilled (there were grill marks to prove it) but it had a soft and melting texture you’d never expect in swordfish.

The rack of lamb is very impressive, though it might not be for everyone. This is rich, gamy lamb, and the chops are rather fatty, though so meaty it’s hard to complain. They’re arranged on a wild rice pilaf scattered with bacon, with a little bit of sauce consisting of meat juices, some balsamic vinegar and the odd marinated raisin.

Opera has a very Mediterranean taste for eggplant, especially the earthy flavor of eggplant skin. A grilled veal chop comes with white Italian beans and a piece of eggplant, mostly skin, topped with garlic puree. At lunch (a meal that is expectably heavy on salads and sandwiches), the excellent, if huge, vegetarian torta is a hollowed-out round loaf of bread filled with spinach, zucchini, tomatoes, mozzarella and more browned eggplant skin.

Opera’s bouillabaisse is a hothouse version, where the seafood is cooked separately from the broth, which is ladled on at the table. It’s a great broth, anyway, made of tomato, onions and julienne carrots with a bit of saffron and anise flavor. On the other hand, salmon in lemon grass is surprisingly dull. A highly flavored fish such as salmon could use a stronger foil than this faint lemon-grass aroma.

The best of the desserts is the chocolate praline and caramel almond tart, a lavish construction of praline almond slices, caramel, a sort of chocolate pudding, whipped cream and toasted almonds. The waiters knowingly refer to it as the Heath Bar tart.

There’s also a tarte tatin , where the apples could be a little more caramelized, and a creme caramel that could use a lot less egg yolk. The peach and raspberry cobbler is better than these, though it’s not a real cobbler, not cooked fruit with a biscuit-like top crust. This thick layer of cake-like dough with fruit buried in it, baked with butter and brown sugar on top, is actually a very good coffee cake.

Opera is still a very pleasant place to sit, particularly by the sidewalk on the Ocean Avenue side, with its view of the entrance to the Santa Monica Pier, a bit of park, and all the jogging, panhandling, promenading wildlife that makes Santa Monica exactly what it is. Only now it’s lighter.

Recommended dishes: grilled focaccia with mushroom-and-walnut ragout, $7.50; b’stilla purses, $8.50; rack of lamb, $22; grilled swordfish, market price; chocolate praline and caramel almond tart, $6.

Opera on Ocean, 1551 Ocean Ave., Santa Monica. (213) 393-9224. Open for lunch 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Tuesday through Friday, 6 to 10:30 p.m. for dinner Tuesday through Sunday; 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sunday brunch; closed Monday. Full bar. Valet parking. All major credit cards accepted. Dinner for two, food only, $40 to $78.