BOULEVARD'S CHINESE ADVENTURE.

Byline: Larry Lipson Daily News Restaurant Critic

After Marix closed, the onetime Ah Fong's building in Encino remained dark for a long time until a few months ago when it became Chinese again.

As the Grand Dynasty, it failed to catch on with locals, possibly because its menu was surprisingly limited and certainly not overflowing with bargains.

Now it has been brightened up, taken over by a group of downtown and Monterey Park Chinese restaurant pros and dubbed the Hong Kong Paradise & Seafood Bistro.

Tanks with live lobsters and other denizens now grace the bar and lounge area.

And a menu of well over 200 items, with everything from abalone and sea cucumber dishes to clay pot recipes, illustrates just how wide and deep a Chinese kitchen can go.

The only problem encountered here is that the portions are usually large enough for at least three or four people, so it's difficult ordering a variety of dishes for a twosome because you end up with enough food for a week.

A glance at the menu's lettuce-cup category, for example, and the enticements are apparent: minced seafood, beef, pork or the usual chicken, priced at $10 an order ($12 for the seafood) but they're evidently gauged for parties of four or eight because you receive eight pieces whether you want that many or not.

Even the small soup arrives in a bowl big enough for three or more to enjoy. And the shredded duck soup (small $5.95, large $8.55) one evening was so packed with tasty duck meat, it made it even more of a task for a twosome to finish the ensuing dishes.

This is a place where big is better, and that includes fresh oysters done several ways, numerous scallop plates, whole rock cod or flounder platters, squid and catfish, crab and clams and shrimp and more shrimp, some of them live and cooked at least half a dozen different ways.

Live lobster out of the tank priced at $12.99 a pound provides a tasty diversion. Most of the recipes on the menu call for it baked. But because the steamed version with garlic sauce usually results in lobster meat that's tenderer, more moist than the baked alternatives, that's the way it's the most recommendable.

Both lobster and crab may be ordered as a clay pot dish, of which there are several options. The clay pot really is a ceramic container utilized as a cooking-serving pot. The ingredients cooked this way have extremely subtle flavoring that would certainly seem bland when tasted alongside plates of assertive, spicy foods. And that's exactly what happened the night that we tried the Buddha's feast clay pot ($7.25) dish crammed with glass noodles, watery tofu and a mixture of vegetables. It lacked character.

Although you can get a little crazy trying to decide what to choose from this enormous bill of fare, if you pick the chow fun rice noodles, the flat kind, you'll discover that they're a delicious treat when combined with tender beef slices and black bean sauce ($6.25). And if you're interested in adding a touch of chili heat to your meal, note that the spicy eggplant ($6.25) not only will fulfill such a need, but the house policy of large portions continues here with a display of a giant mound of this peppery vegetable.

Fish fanciers may really believe they've landed in the Hong Kong idea of paradise, but carnivores are not by any means forgotten.

Meat eaters will likely enjoy the barbecued pork ($6.25) here, a generous appetizer offering. And the entree listing of deep-fried pork chops ($7.55) turn up as another large-portioned platter, this time drenched in a reddish, slightly sweet Peking sauce.

Hong Kong Paradise is a big, roomy, tiered restaurant, nicely appointed, sporting a full bar and what is probably the most ambitious Chinese menu on Ventura Boulevard.

A quick glance at its lunch menu indicates that this may well be the place for real noon-hour bargains, especially if that unrestrained portioning hand is in force.

Lunchtime diners will find a slew of interesting meals priced from $4.50 to $6 that include soup and salad.

But with all of its food excesses, this restaurant opened woefully short on wines, even considering that Chinese restaurants are not generally known for their extensive wine cellars. (There are exceptions, of course.)

At the last visit, the waiter apologized for having only one or two house wines in stock, a chardonnay that he couldn't name and a red wine, he thought, but whatever they possessed it was only available by the glass.

So we passed on the wine and drank the complimentary hot tea instead.

THE FACTS

The restaurant: Hong Kong Paradise & Seafood Bistro.

Where: 16240 Ventura Blvd., Encino.

When: Open for lunch from 11:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. daily, for dinner from 4 to 10 p.m. nightly, to 11 p.m. Friday and Saturday.

Recommended items: Barbecued pork or pork ribs, shredded duck meat soup, steamed live Maine lobster in garlic sauce, deep-fried pork chop with Peking sauce, chow fun with beef and black bean sauce, spicy eggplant.

How much: Starters from $2.50 to $9 (except shark's fin, bird's nest and jellyfish from $10 to $36), main dishes (includes vegetable and rice items) from $6 to $25, desserts from $1.50 to $2.75.

Wine list: Not yet available.

Reservations: Helpful. Call [phone].

Our rating: Three Stars for food; Three Stars for service.

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Photo

Photo: Hong Kong Paradise & Seafood Bistro co-owner Sam Wu, left, and chefs Joe Wu, and Peter Weng offer well over 200 items on the restaurant's menu look on. The restaurant boasts a menu of well over 200 items.

Phil McCarten/Daily News