SAMPLING THE NEW FLAVOR OF DOWNTOWN

The names that they wear have an upbeat air--Grand, Hope, Spring, Flower--that makes these streets seem slightly surrealistic. It’s been a long time since there was much that was magnificent or expectant or remotely vernal about this part of Los Angeles. But now all that is starting to change, and as the streets of downtown begin to blossom, their names begin to make some sense.

An inkling of what was going to happen began with the opening of the Museum of Contemporary Art’s Temporary Contemporary a couple of years ago, and then again with the new Los Angeles Theatre Center. Late next year, the permanent MOCA will add more culture to this corner of town. But it took a recent rash of downtown restaurant openings to make it clear that one of the country’s most sterile urban landscapes finally is being humanized.

Of course, there have always been restaurants for those trapped downtown: coffee shops and hamburger stands for the people who work here, and overpriced eating places hidden in hotels for tourists. And over the past few years some brave upscale restaurants--the audaciously beautiful Rex, the seriously sedate Bernard’s--have done their best to lure patrons downtown. But now comes proof that the place has a life of its own, for the new downtown restaurant is not for the hit-and-run eater--it is a mid-priced place for people who choose to come on down.

Consider Stepps, an extremely likable restaurant that opened only a few weeks ago. It is hard to imagine that anyone would drive a long way just to eat here, for you can find almost everything on the menu done better somewhere else. On the other hand, if you happened to be downtown, at the Music Center (a couple of blocks away) or, one day soon, at MOCA (across the street), you’d be thrilled to find such high-quality food served in such a pleasant setting at such reasonable prices. The almost-immediate enthusiasm of the neighbors is an auspicious sign; within hours of the opening, a large and congenial crowd had gathered, and now it looks like it will never leave.

There are people who are not pleased with the place. My first visit, for example, was in the company of a serious Food Snob who looked around the room and sniffed. It’s a large, pretty room, done in tones of copper with a very visible performance kitchen. The Snob found it a bit too boisterous. He also found the host depressingly friendly, and when all the waitresses went beaming by, he wondered sourly whether they all belonged to a cult. Then the Snob surveyed the menu (it’s enormous), and the prices (extremely reasonable), and said something scathing about the democratization of gourmet dining.

The menu is eclectic (as it is at Stepps’ sister restaurant, Cutters in Santa Monica). There is Japanese food, Chinese food, Cajun food, Italian food--just about anything that is remotely trendy, plus a few old standbys like steak. Stepps grills on a fancy new kind of charcoal--Kiawe, imported from Hawaii--and flies fresh fish and oysters in from the Pacific Northwest a couple of times a week. Their vegetables are al dente , their food can be prepared without salt and they serve any number of things that are approved by the American Heart Assn. They also offer 21 different kinds of beer, all served at varying temperatures that have been determined by a “recognized authority on beer,” and 22 kinds of single-malt Scotch. To quote the Food Snob: “They don’t miss a trick.”

The Snob picked up the homemade focaccia and called it “glorified white bread.” This Italian bread does seem overkneaded and underbaked, without the toughness of the original version, but it has a fine pungence from the garlic and rosemary with which it is topped. (As a bun for the excellent hamburger, however, this stuff has serious faults: It is impossible to pick the burger up without getting your hands drenched with olive oil.) He hated the shrimps in coconut beer batter, which he called “very fried,” and pronounced the marinated Korean short ribs “sugar-coated beef.” He terminated the meal by consuming a concoction he called a “grown-up ice cream soda” made of ice cream, Kahlua, brandy and creme de Cacao; he complained bitterly while he polished off every drop.

While no Food Snob is likely to think much of Stepps--it demystifies the gourmet’s world--my friend had ordered unfortunately. The Quilcene Bay yearling oysters here are unequaled anywhere in town, and the restaurant does a good job grilling the fresh fish. The Cajun shrimp are spicy and fine; grilled ginger chicken is satisfying. The Cajun meat loaf is absolutely addictive to fire-eaters. And the dessert that our waitress called “chocolate cream pot” is single-handedly worth a trip to the restaurant. This is a dreamy concoction of chocolate and coffee and eggs and cream that, at $2.25, is surely the best dessert for the money in Los Angeles.

I’d stay away from anything vaguely Asian--all those dishes seem to be extraordinarily sweet--and from the wines by the glass, which are overpriced in comparison to the wines by the bottle. The Food Snobs can spend their time at Rex, but for the rest of us this is a happy addition to the downtown scene, and I look forward to many happy afternoons eating oysters and meat loafs and chocolate cream pots.

Stepps, on the Court, Crocker Center, 350 Hope St., (213) 626-0900. Open daily from 11 a.m. until 2 a.m. Full bar. Validated parking. Visa, MasterCard and American Express accepted. Dinner for two, food only, $18-$40.

I’ve always known that a good view and a good meal tend to be mutually exclusive attributes when it comes to restaurants, but when I heard that the Bonaventure’s view restaurant had been renovated, I was curious. The press release said that it had “taken the fire of Louisiana Cajun cooking and mixed in timeless Sichuan recipes, creating a new spirited cuisine where East meets West.” They were better off apart.

Consider my pair of egg rolls at $5.75. So many layers had been wrapped around the lackluster filling that, while the outside layer was crisp, the three inside layers were soggy. They came covered in a sweet, pink sauce. Any little dive in Chinatown does them better, but at least you’ve got a view and some service, right? Wrong. When the busboy removed my plate, he carefully slid my knife back onto the table. I wanted to shout, “Hey, these cost almost $3 apiece. The least you can do is give me a clean knife.”

The seafood chowder was actually a broth, and yellowtail teriyaki served on a bed of arugula arrived without a single sprig of arugula. It had been replaced by a single limp piece of watercress. Dessert was disappointing. The service was lackluster. The place may have been renovated, but it still has the old downtown spirit, not the new one.

Top of Five Restaurant in the Westin Bonaventure Hotel, 404 S. Figueroa St., (213) 624-1000. Full bar. All major credit cards accepted. Reduced-price parking in the hotel garage. Dinner for two, food only, about $50.

Another well-known downtown restaurant has also made some changes--but of a slightly different sort. In this case, a restaurant that tended to be stuffy has become lighter and more approachable.

Chef Laurent Quenioux of the Seventh Street Bistro is one of the more underrated talents in town. For some time, he has been turning out an extraordinary menu of innovative and elegant French food that is quite at variance with the “Bistro” appellation. Quenioux has a classical background--he worked at Maxim’s, at L’Oasis, at the Negresco--but he has a mind of his own. He tends to like strong flavors and to use lots of herbs. He bathes a breast of duck in black pepper, or serves lotte in ginger sauce, punctuated by a pair of sweet, whole roasted cloves of garlic. Loin of pork comes paired with rutabaga, wrapped in a light puff of pastry and served in a classic, heavily reduced sauce. A puffy little omelet encloses a delightful filling of chanterelles brushed with port sauce. Sliced breast of chicken arrives in a pungent sauce rich with goat cheese, accompanied by a dainty crepe filled with grilled radicchio and rolled into a little purse.

This is beautiful food. And now you can taste quite a lot of it without spending a fortune, for the restaurant has started offering all of the dishes in half-sized portions. This allows you to drop in for dinner and make a meal of mini-courses. For about $25 per person, a couple can share six different dishes of some of this town’s more interesting food. This is just the sort of innovative idea that makes the new downtown restaurant so interesting.

Seventh Street Bistro, 815 West 7th St., (213) 627-1242. Open for lunch Monday-Friday, for dinner Monday-Saturday. All major credit cards accepted. Valet parking. Full bar. Dinner for two, food only, $45-$75

Innovation is certainly the spirit of downtown’s newest restaurant: Sushitron must be the only place in town where you have to take lessons before you can even order. This just-opened sushi bar has made verbal ordering obsolete by equipping each seat with an electronic menu and a light pen; you have only to put the one to the other to place an order.

It’s all fairly simple, and as you use the pen and watch the lights light up and the prices flashing, you suddenly find yourself ordering more than you really want to eat; the place is a lot of fun.

The sushi is quite traditional--all the usual rolls and slices. The fish is better in many of the Little Tokyo sushi bars a few blocks away, but the prices here are reasonable and the place is pretty. (Prices vary from $1.80 to $2.60 for a pair of sushi; a simple flick of the light pen will give you your total any time you like.) Best of all, this would be a wonderful place to take the children after an exploratory stroll around the new downtown.

Sushitron, 719 West 7th St., (213) 623-5452. Open Monday-Saturday, 11 a.m.-9 p.m. All major credit cards accepted.