Strike It Ritz

The view of sea and sky from the Ritz-Carlton Laguna Niguel is so drop-dead gorgeous that it’s worth driving all the way there just to have a drink in the bar or the Library. The Dining Room, the hotel’s posh French restaurant, is another reason to visit. Despite being windowless, it’s everything the French find cozy and elegant: padded banquettes, double-skirted tables, glittery chandeliers and tuxedoed waiters. It’s also one of the few places in Southern California where you can walk in dressed to the hilt and not feel out of place.

The Dining Room’s capable young chef, Yvon Goetz, comes from Alsace, the region that boasts more Michelin-starred restaurants than any other in France. Trained at three-star Le Crocodile in Strasbourg and the Dorchester Hotel in London, he turns out delicious contemporary French cooking that tastes every bit as good as it looks. The kitchen isn’t as consistent as it should be, though. But you can count on the luxury of a quiet, unhurried pace. Even on a weekend night, the room is rarely full. The one evening when every table is taken, it feels like an entirely different restaurant--festive, even glamorous.

The food, particularly the appetizers, adds to Alsace’s reputation for fine foie gras, especially silky terrine of foie gras. Goetz’s version, made from Hudson Valley duck liver, is superb, ribboned with black truffle and served in a thick slice sprinkled with sea salt. It comes with a beautiful plait of warm brioche. For summer, Goetz sears foie gras and presents it with warm, caramelized peaches and juices infused with ginger and green peppercorn.

A pretty Maine lobster salad includes rosy, expertly cooked lobster and artichoke heart in a bracing vegetable gazpacho coulis scattered with diced tomato. And a soup of pureed fava beans poured over seared scallops and beans is dressed up with black truffle.

Goetz also creates some excellent pasta dishes, such as two large ravioli filled with Swiss chard and pine nuts in an herb-flecked cream sauce (from the vegetarian menu). The supple scalloped ravioli with a creamed onion stuffing is noteworthy as well but would be better without that clump of wilted frisee on top.

Main courses are expensive (around $35) and lead you to expect something special. Goetz’s Maine lobster doesn’t disappoint. Perfectly cooked, with everything taken out of the shell and reassembled, it’s paired with chewy handmade noodles and a beguiling Alsatian Gewurztraminer sauce freckled with vanilla bean. The vanilla plays well against the lobster’s inherent sweetness. But Mediterranean loup de mer, usually a remarkably flavorful fish, tastes like nothing in particular and is outshone by the accompanying olive-studded polenta and nutty stewed artichokes. Turbot for two (at $72!) was a tired piece of fish and, fortunately, is later replaced on the menu by a fresher filet of turbot encrusted with foie gras.

One rather old-fashioned dish, thick veal medallion blanketed with a tarragon veal reduction and gratineed under the broiler, is a comforting main course, especially with bites of rich, scalloped potatoes. A fine guinea hen comes carved and reassembled in a sharp reduction, then handsomely garnished with carrots some poor soul has spent all afternoon carving into small beads. The black-olive polenta covered with those beguiling artichokes and ordered as a main course off the vegetarian menu turns out to be one of the evening’s best dishes.

Ordering wine can be frustrating. The waiter might bring the wrong wine or wrong year. Our server erred three times in a row. And the list needs to be updated. Such lapses are inexcusable at a restaurant of this caliber. They certainly don’t inspire confidence in the Wine Room, a new private dining room where, by prior arrangement, the chef will prepare a special menu with wines to go with it--at $200 to $700 per person.

At meal’s end, the restaurant really does put on the Ritz, serving opulent petits fours in addition to whatever dessert you order. And if you’re marking a special occasion, the pastry chef will send out edible chocolate banners with anniversary or birthday greetings written in gold icing. Unfortunately, the regular desserts are less impressive: a coconut parfait tastes only faintly of coconut, for example, and a nougat glace is laced with soggy nuts and candied apricot. The best dessert I try is miniature crepes wrapped around warm, sauteed pineapple.

Dining in a luxury hotel is never going to be a bargain, so be prepared. Of course, if you really want to disembarrass yourself of some cash, you could sign up for the Wine Room’s “Ultimate Dinner Party,” a five-course Chateau La-fite-Rothschild dinner party for 12 that includes six oceanfront suites for a two-night stay, private wine tastings and a limo to and from the airport. The tab? Only $48,000.

THE DINING ROOM

CUISINE: French. AMBIENCE: Elegant hotel restaurant but with no view. BEST DISHES: Hudson Valley foie gras, Swiss chard ravioli, Maine lobster, veal medallion. WINE PICKS: 1992 Kalin Cellars Semillon, Livermore Valley. FACTS: The Ritz-Carlton Laguna Niguel, One Ritz-Carlton Drive, Dana Point; (714) 240-2000. Closed Sunday and Monday. Dinner for two, food only, $105 to $150; Corkage $25. Valet parking.