At Pasadena’s Maison Akira, Old Favorites Have Retro Flavor

When the chef at Grill Lyon in Pasadena decided to go back to Japan, another Japanese-born chef was ready to move right in. Akira Hirose had spent the last few years as chef at the Tower, the posh restaurant with wraparound views at the top of the Transamerica building downtown. At the new Maison Akira on Green Street, the French-trained chef’s cuisine may be less elaborate (he doesn’t have the same kind of kitchen staff, after all), but it’s still unabashedly Franco-Japanese in style.

He’s warmed up what was once a rather cold space with diva lights, red floral print drapes and padded screens, making this one restaurant where you won’t have to shout across the table to be heard. That’s a big plus compared to most overly loud restaurants.

At dinner recently, the chef sent out an appetite teaser of seared ahi tuna on soba noodles drenched in a gingery ponzu. First courses included an eccentric “ratatouille” encased in stiff gelatin, seared foie gras in Port reduction and a fragile foie gras flan. Both a smoked duck breast salad and an intense Maine lobster bisque are fine.

No surprises here, just the same dishes he’s probably been cooking for so many years they almost begin to seem as retro as the classics of continental cuisine. If baby rack of lamb in rosemary sauce or the ubiquitous miso-marinated Chilean sea bass doesn’t appeal, try the Atlantic salmon encrusted in coriander seeds and sansho pepper, then pan-fried and served in a red wine reduction. The coriander and the pepper liven up this familiar dish. Sometimes the reductions go too far--an inky Port sauce obliterates the subtleties of the veal sweetbreads. From this first meal, I’d say Hirose is stronger on fish than meat. But that’s no surprise given his background.

Now that he’s come down out of the Tower, Pasadena benefits with a small Franco-Japanese restaurant that’s open both lunch and dinner, and in a neighborhood that’s not over-saturated with such places.

Incidentally, Maison Akira offers free parking for guests attending performances at the nearby Pasadena Playhouse.

BE THERE

Maison Akira, 713 E. Green St., Pasadena; (626) 796-9501. Open Tuesday to Friday for lunch; Tuesday to Sundays for dinner and Sundays for brunch. Dinner appetizers $5 to $11; main courses $16 to $22; lunch items $5 to $12. Parking on street and in lot.