Grill Watching

How many times have you recommended a restaurant to friends or gone back yourself only to find the experience didn’t begin to resemble your first--or last--meal there? It can be embarrassing to have friends complain about the service or the food, not to mention have them wondering about your taste or judgment. How can the same restaurant be brilliant one night and mediocre the next? Consistency in restaurant kitchens seems to be as elusive as the two-pound truffle. What’s a poor diner to do?

The number of places that can be counted on to perform well day in, day out is rare. Whenever I’m asked to recommend a sophisticated yet lively spot for American food, The Grill in Beverly Hills comes to mind. Until recently, it has been remarkably consistent. Whatever the day and time, the service was always personable and professional, and the food kept to the same high level.

It’s not a fancy kitchen. Just classic American grill food. Nothing is marinated in pineapple or mango. You won’t have to query the waiter about some hitherto unencountered fruit or vegetable mentioned on the menu. Descriptions of dishes don’t run on and on, and everything arrives just as described. At the Grill, there are usually no unpleasant surprises. Crab cake doesn’t turn out to be a souffle or something that looks--and tastes--like a dessert. No overly ambitious cook has come up with an unintelligible interpretation of a perfectly fine classic.

The Grill’s kitchen can be counted on to turn out a great Cobb salad, the best I’ve come across, with every bite a beautiful balance of moist diced chicken, crisp bacon, pungent blue cheese and chopped lettuce in a creamy dressing. The Dungeness crab Louis is wonderful, too. It’s a huge platter of iceberg lettuce topped with nice, big chunks of fresh crab, hard-boiled egg and tomatoes, with luscious sunset-pink Thousand Island dressing on the side. Or if half a cracked Dungeness crab is your pleasure, order that and know that it won’t be overcooked. The piquant steak tartare makes an appealing appetizer, too. Dungeness crab cakes, crisp golden-brown orbs packed with fresh crab meat and not much else, can be ordered either as an appetizer or a main course. And I never skip the fried potatoes and onions--a tall tangle of shoestring fries and straw-colored onion rings that’s large enough to serve four, I assure you.

Lately, though, the kitchen seems to have lost focus. One time the Caesar salad is missing its usual emphatic oomph. The romaine is limp, and I can barely taste the anchovy or garlic. By the next visit, it is back on track, every bit its pungent self. But this time, the veal chop has little to recommend it. Soft-shell crabs another night just don’t burst with either juice or flavor, and steamed littleneck clams are as chewy as rubber bands. Even the shrimp cocktail doesn’t sing the way it used to.

The double-cut lamb chops, on the other hand, are always terrific, charred on the outside, medium rare on the inside, and served with fat Blue Lake green beans. And the impressive slab of prime rib served on Sunday nights with freshly made Yorkshire pudding is as satisfying as ever. Yet on recent visits, the steak I’ve gotten has been either overcooked or lacking flavor. The prime New York strip is curiously flat, too, ceding the title of best steak on the menu to the 24-ounce Porterhouse. Still, even this doesn’t quite measure up to the well-aged prime beef served at other steakhouses. This may be, I realize, because steakhouses are booming and there’s only a limited amount of prime beef. And even within that category, the quality of the meat varies.

The good news is that the Grill’s wine list is looking better than ever. Of course, because this is basically a chop house, the wine list is weighted toward reds. Wine buffs with deep pockets can splurge on two vintages of both “Red Rock” and “Volcanic Hill” Cabernet from Diamond Creek Vineyards in Napa Valley. On the more modest end of the scale, there’s Francis Ford Coppola’s claret and Rosemount’s Shiraz Cabernet from Australia. Usually a half-dozen wines are available by the glass as well.

The bar is just as au courant with its long list of eccentric martinis, including “The Green Apple,” made with green apple liqueur, and “The Scotland Yard,” made with Johnnie Walker red label scotch and Drambuie. Thankfully, its classic is still made with Bombay Sapphire gin, dry vermouth and an olive, which is what any serious martini lover will order. The bar stocks a dozen single-malt Scotch whiskeys, too, with about as many trendy handcrafted tequilas. And I suspect that if anyone wants to pretend it’s chilly and damp outside and order an Irish coffee to wrap up the evening, the bartender would oblige. It’s that kind of place.

The staff is the real strength here. The managers are quick to remember a special request (such as saving an order of that Sunday night prime rib special) and will try their best to give you a booth if you request one. Everyone is treated with respect, and the service is the best in town, which goes a long way toward explaining the Grill’s success. What other restaurant is considerate enough to note at the bottom of its menu: “reading glasses available upon request”?

Restaurants go through developmental stages just like teenagers. At 15 years old, the Grill does so much that’s right, it can only be a matter of time before the kitchen gets back on track, and the Grill returns to its reliable self.

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The Grill on the Alley

CUISINE: American. AMBIENCE: Clubby, handsome room with coffered ceilings, comfy booths and green glass lighting fixtures. BEST DISHES: Cobb salad, Caesar salad, crab cakes, fried onions and potatoes, Porterhouse steak, double-cut lamb chops. wine PICKs: 1997 Patz & Hall Chardonnay, Napa Valley; 1996 B. R. Cohn “Olive Hill” Cabernet Sauvignon, Sonoma. FACTS: 9560 Dayton Way, Beverly Hills; (310) 276-0615. Lunch Monday through Saturday; dinner daily. Appetizers, $3 to $16. Main courses, $16 to $34. Corkage, $10. Valet parking at dinner.