RESTAURANT REVIEW : Little to Beef About at the MT Plate

Just as some people look at the doughnut, some at the hole, the irrepressibly cheerful will take the name of Redondo Beach’s MT Plate Gourmet Bistro to mean: The food is so delicious here, everyone leaves an empty plate. Soreheads and cynics, on the other hand, have a field day with the name: The next trend? Absolute minimalism? Conceptual cooking? Or: The ultimate diet restaurant? A restaurant for those on fasts?

Pessimists might have more fun with the name, but optimists come closer to the truth about this attractive, 4-month-old vegetarian restaurant. Located on the second floor in a Cape Cod-style mall on PCH (that’s Pacific Coast Highway), MT Plate is a bright, stylish room with rubbed gold walls and lots of windows overlooking an outdoor patio.

The booths are padded in quilted gold-colored fabric and lit by electric blue halogen lights. The artwork, as it were, is natural, and mineralogical: Heaped here and there are big quartz crystals, some choice examples of red sandstone, baskets of granite.

A copy of Jeremy Rifkin’s book “Beyond Beef” is prominently displayed on the bar in such a way that the cow on the cover greets customers as they enter. MT Plate is itself beyond beef and any other form of meat--there’s no red meat, no fowl, no fish of any ilk.

The menu is large and varied, however. There are so many ethnic dishes, one’s dinner might literally be “all over the map”--pizza, chilaquiles , pasta, burgers, curry, spanakopeta , soba noodles. Protein comes from skillful combining of beans and grains, from cheese and tempeh, and from seitan, the versatile wheat-based protein from Japan.

I loved lunch at MT Plate. Two of us started with a salad called “Perestroika” because, as the menu says, its ingredients--fresh beets, potatoes, vegetables and baby greens--are so good for “Rebuilding the System.” If only the real perestroika had been as pleasurable and virtuous as this salad.

Pizza pomodoro , with chopped tomatoes, basil, garlic, onions and cheese, was simple and good. The dish called “T’s Linguine” had an aglio e olio con peperone sauce (garlic, olive oil, hot red pepper and parsley) gilded with many big and delicious sauteed oyster mushrooms. Very different, yet equally delicious, was a smooth, hot Thai coconut cashew vegetable curry on basmati rice. Everything at lunch that day was fresh and distinct and delicious. The only obstacle to a series of MT plates had to do with portion sizes, which tend to be quite generous.

In trying to present a multifaceted, multiethnic, exciting alternative to the usual vegetarian repertoire, the chefs at MT Plate take a lot of risks. For this reason, dinners can be a little more hit-and-miss. Over time, as MT Plate matures, I’m sure some of the weaker dishes will be weeded out, and better recipes added.

One night, there was a cup of bright orange, sinus-clearing carrot ginger soup that was just wonderful. Then came a let-down: a big chunk of good goat-cheddar bundled in an unwieldy amount of puff pastry served with a few tired, old-tasting peppers. Completely different were the tempeh chips with kechap , a sweet Indonesian soy sauce: The chips were battered, fried sticks of tempeh about the size of shrimp, which were slightly sweet and tasted, more than anything else, like doughnuts.

Salads also can vary. One night, there was a great special salad made with romaine, chopped ripe tomatoes, fried rice noodles and nice little chunks of sauteed, chewy seitan--a nice vegetarian variation of the classic Chinese chicken salad. But the Mexican salad--jicama, cilantro, cucumbers, tomatoes, red onions in lime juice with chile--was, despite its lively ingredient list, actually pretty dull.

A moussaka made with potatoes, zucchini, eggplant and tempeh was substantial and tasty, but not as good as dishes made to order. The Mista Grillade pizza, for example, with nicely grilled vegetables, was fresh and basic. The dish called “Petrovna’s Polenta” was a piping-hot, good-tasting individual casserole of polenta, cheese and spinach that was nevertheless so browned and crunchy on top it seemed first and foremost an exercise in chewing.

I didn’t love any of the desserts, but those with a sweet tooth may like the restaurant’s flaky apple turnover, or a special of poached fresh peaches on Rice Dream, a light, dairy-free ice cream substitute. Espresso and cappuccino, made from organic beans, are especially delicious.

MT Plate Gourmet Bistro, 403 N. Pacific Coast Highway, Redondo Beach. (310) 318-8558. Lunch and dinner seven days, brunch Sunday. Beer and wine. Free parking. MasterCard, Visa accepted. Dinner for two, food only, $24-$48.