Caspian: Awash in a Sea of Aromas

IRVINE —  My friend the real estate agent was impressed. “Look at all the TIs [tenant improvements],” he said with awe. “They must have spent close to three-quarters of a million dollars renovating.”

A lot of money, time and energy have gone into Caspian. At one time, this palatial, free-standing building at the east end of Heritage Square Mall was a mere kids’ restaurant by the name of Bullwinkle’s, but it’s all grown up now. It’s a Vegas-like showroom with a better-lighted stage than most theaters; a place where a dressy clientele comes to dine on kebabs, exotic stews and gooey, fragrant Persian desserts.

There is marble flooring in the foyer, and the cavernous dining room is punctuated by dozens of floor-to-ceiling columns. Salmon-colored walls display framed photos of ancient Persian artifacts. The spacious bar fronts a wall done in sheet copper, gleaming like a gigantic battery. The ceiling over a small front dining area is a trompe-l’oeil depiction of a mild summer sky.

Tables in the larger dining area by the stage are set up end to end, banquet hall fashion, with oval-backed chairs upholstered in an intricately stitched fabric. Most of the tables afford a direct view of the stage, where traditional Persian music is performed Thursday through Sunday evenings at ear-splitting decibel levels.

Caspian offers Orange County’s most extensive Persian menu. One thing that distinguishes it is the range of what the menu calls daily dishes, largely the stews (khoresh) and pilafs (polo) that are the real glory of Iranian cuisine. Most Persian restaurants specialize in plain rice and shish kebab and only serve three or four other dishes a day, if that. Here, there will be at least a dozen.

But availability alone doesn’t ensure that a dish is going to be good; in fact, sometimes there are warning signals to the contrary. Some dishes seem to have been waiting around for quite awhile before serving.

At lunch I ordered stuffed Cornish hen, an entire hen stuffed with cooked fresh vegetables, walnuts and prunes. But the stuffing tasted only of prunes, and the bird came to the table badly overcooked a mere 10 minutes after being ordered.

At dinner, I took a chance on baghala polo, a rice pilaf with dill weed, lima beans and lamb. It was a dried-out mountain of rice, tinted green from dill--I presume; it was devoid of dill flavor. And I found gheimeh bademjan--a stew of veal shank, fried eggplant and yellow split peas in tomato sauce--to be overcooked and oily.

You’ll do fine sticking to appetizers, kebabs and most of the rice dishes, though. Speaking of appetizers, you might start out with eggplant borani, a dip of pureed eggplant, fried onions and garlicky yogurt. It’s a rich but restrained version of this classic, not oily at all.

A very Iranian way to begin a meal would be panir-o-sabzi. This is a refreshing combination of herbs--basil, mint, watercress, radishes and green onions--rolled up with feta cheese in buttered squares of lavash bread. It’s light and cleansing, a sensible choice before you dive into one of the meaty kebabs or hearty stews.

The stuffed grape leaves (dolmeh) may be ever so slightly dry, but the characteristic Persian stuffing of beef, rice, yellow split peas and tarragon is delicious, and the dolmeh have a wonderful lightness. Charbroiled chicken wings come lined up on hot squares of lavash bread, and they’re tasty, if you aren’t averse to a few drops of chicken fat.

The kebabs are marinated in garlic, cilantro and other fragrant spices, then flame-broiled and served on huge piles of basmati rice pilaf. The best I tasted was the lamb kebab: nearly a pound of meat, very juicy and tender.

Soltani, the largest dish served here, is a combination of kubideh (oniony ground beef molded around a skewer, broiled and served in one long piece) and barg, reputed to be filet mignon kebab, though the cut is hard to identify, having been tenderized to the point of mushiness. Both meats are beautifully seasoned.

Poultry and seafood dishes are also specialties, and two make especially fine choices. One is grilled quail: two lemony marinated birds, perfectly charbroiled. Sabzi polo with fish and koko sabzi can be a nice plate of food when the Lake Superior whitefish isn’t overdone. As for the sabzi polo part, it’s a delicious vegetable pilaf. Koko (more often spelled kuku) sabzi is something between an herb frittata and a flan laced with parsley, cilantro and chives.

Zereshk polo, a pilaf flavored with saffron and tart barberries, is terrific. Shirin polo, a saffrony sweet pilaf studded with orange peel, pistachios and almonds, is one you aren’t likely to find in many other local Persian restaurants.

A taste for rose water helps if you plan to order any Persian desserts. Bastani, the Persian ice cream, is really vanilla ice cream spiked with saffron and rose water; it grows on you fast. Zulbia, like the Indian jilebi, is a lattice fritter soaked in honey and rose water. I don’t see the point of bamieh, a dried-out madeleine-shaped butter cake. Perhaps the best choice is the small, rich serving of baklava stuffed with almond, pistachio and a snootful of rose water.

End a meal with aromatically spiced Persian tea served in a long-handled glass, in simple but marked contrast to Caspian’s persistent glitz.

Caspian is moderately priced. Appetizers are $2.59 to $7.99. Main courses are $7.99 to $17.99. Desserts are 99 cents to $3.99.

* CASPIAN

* 14100 Culver Drive, Irvine.

* (714) 651-8454.

* 11:30 a.m.-10 p.m. Sunday-Thursday, 11:30 a.m.-1 a.m. Friday, 11:30 a.m.-2 a.m. Saturday.

* All major cards.