It’s No Mystery Why Gustaf Anders Sees Swede Success

Precious few Orange County restaurants have serious culinary intentions. Even fewer manage to do anything about them.

Gustaf Anders is one that does. More to the point, it seems to get better and better with the years. That truly puts it in a class by itself among local restaurants.

Perhaps one could point to the fact that maitre d’ Bill Magnuson (middle name: Gustaf) and chef Ulf Strandberg (middle name: Anders) have been together for more than 10 years; time enough, certainly, to polish an act. But that’s no guarantee of success. The restaurant originated in La Jolla and has moved twice in those 10 years, meaning changes in staff, suppliers and clientele, which are difficult for any business to overcome. They just seem to do things right.

The South Coast Plaza Village edition of the restaurant has been a visual stunner from day one--a stark, minimalist space with a lofty ceiling and a high-contrast black and white color scheme. The lighting is soft and elegant, and tables are set apart discreetly. Most times there is art on display (at the moment, paintings themed with bottles of Sweden’s Absolut Vodka) and there is always soft jazz ringing faintly in the distance. This is a restaurant quiet enough for conversation and peaceful enough to dine alone.

It isn’t strictly accurate to call Gustaf Anders a Swedish restaurant, but that’s what I’m going to do. Both Magnuson and Strandberg are Swedes, and their eclectic, Euro-modern menu is dominated by Swedish dishes.

Besides, it sounds more romantic this way. Since the closing of Los Angeles’ fabled Scandia, highly polished Scandinavian food has been a rare commodity in California. Even if it were not first-rate, Gustaf Anders would have no competition today.

Strandberg’s menu revolves around a core of dishes that he seems to have been perfecting for years. A few of them are appetizers, and they really make you take notice. The house pickled herring--dark, purplish chunks of fish laid out on a plate with boiled potatoes and Vasterbotten cheese--is about as Swedish as it gets. This fish really has a bite, a salty tang much like the scent of Sweden’s Gulf of Bothnia, for which the oily, pungent cheese that accompanies it is named.

Wild rice pancake with golden caviar and smoked salmon has been on this menu for as long as I can remember. It’s light, puffy and delightful . . . even lighter if you eat around the sour cream.

Then there are the various salmon preparations, all of which must qualify as national treasures somewhere. King among them would be the grilled gravad lax with morel mushrooms. Gravad lax with dill mustard sauce comes in a close second.

Swedes probably have as many versions of salmon as they have words for snow, and the distinction between these two kinds of lax is far from subtle. The first one is salty, nearly cooked salmon presented as a large, saucy chunk with a crusty square of skin arranged across the top. The second, served in slices, could pass for ordinary deli lox until you taste it. The delicate, subtle flavor is sweet, not salty, and the texture is taut and muscular.

The salads are color-splashed plates of contrasting flavors. The most distinctive may be one of parsley mixed with chopped sun-dried tomatoes, heady cloves of garlic and liberal sprinklings of grated Parmesan cheese. Even though you know it is coming, the parsley still registers as a surprise.

Contrary to the restaurant’s general style, the Gustaf Anders Caesar salad is big, gaudy and even ostentatious. It’s an entire head of romaine draped with whole anchovies, in a tart, creamy dressing.

I must put in a word for the homemade breads here, which by this point in the meal you will doubtless have eaten too much of. It’s hard enough to resist the dark Swedish limpa, the yeasty onion rolls and the dill-scented white bread, but the jagged pieces of Swedish crisp bread, the best anywhere, would melt anyone’s anti-bread resolve.

You’ll need resolve to tackle the main courses, none of which could be termed spa dishes. The restaurant has been serving a filet of beef with a Stilton cheese red wine sauce for 10 years straight, and there isn’t a better dish on this menu. It’s a tender, pan-seared masterpiece, draped with a lavish sauce that never overwhelms natural flavors of the meat.

Kaldolmar is one of the few rustic-style Swedish dishes Strandberg prepares--admittedly, with considerably more elegance than usually attendant. Kaldolmar are Swedish cabbage rolls, with a slightly blackened skin and a wonderfully moist filling of minced beef and pork. The rolls come with lingonberries and whipped potatoes, an ideal dish for the frosty Swedish winter.

The name is interesting too. Kal is the Swedish word for cabbage, but the dish was imported from Turkey. You may know dolmas, or dolmades, as a Middle Eastern name for stuffed grape leaves. Sweden, having no grape vines, uses cabbage leaves.

Cabbage surfaces again in the house duck, essentially a French idea: roasted breast and thigh, on a bed of sauteed Savoy cabbage, laced with little bits of duck confit. Fish break water among the entrees too, of course, as with the (hardly Swedish) sturgeon served with braised spinach and radicchio. The ubiquitous salmon becomes an entree in a sherry and shrimp won-ton incarnation. With a chef like this one, no part of the world is safe.

The dessert list is pretty international as well, but does center on Mother Sweden. Lingonberry meringue tart is engaging and brightly flavored, hampered only by an excess of sugar. Good, grainy sorbets like kiwi and raspberry are fragrant and fruity. Crunchy biscotti are served with vino santo, just like they would be in any Italian restaurant.

But the knockdown, drag-out favorite is a baked chocolate mousse, accompanied by a glass of California port. It tastes like dream brownie mix for, ahem, serious dessert lovers.

Gustaf Anders is expensive. Appetizers are $6 to $13. Main courses are $15 to $28. Desserts are $6 to $10. The excellent wine list features premium wines at reasonable prices, and the restaurant does a winemaker dinner monthly.

* GUSTAF ANDERS

* South Coast Plaza Village, Bear and Sunflower Streets, Santa Ana.

* (714) 668-1737.

* Open daily for lunch, 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.; for dinner Monday through Thursday, 5:30 to 10 p.m., Friday and Saturday till midnight.

* All major cards accepted.