TRYST YIELDS SATISFYING SURPRISES.

Byline: Larry Lipson Daily News Restaurant Critic

Filipino restaurants seem to be rarer than they once were in Los Angeles.

You'd never know by its name that the Tryst Bar & Grill in Chatsworth has a Filipino menu.

Tryst also has an extensive American menu of steaks, chops, seafood (including lobster tail), chicken, ribs, sandwiches, salads, appetizers, house-baked desserts and, just to make it more interesting, a list of 37 exotic tropical drinks from its creative bartenders.

Brew fanciers will find such tame stuff as Sierra Nevada on tap.

This is probably the best companion to the homey, hearty Filipino fare cooked by chef-owner Tommy Puyot.

And trust me, you won't find a better, more satisfying plate of food for such a low price anywhere.

Listen to this. For a mere $3.95, the Tryst kitchen offers a plate of any two regular and/or daily special items with rice and a cup of pork soup.

When your plate arrives, you'll find it's pretty crowded with food, often displaying a couple of stewlike Filipino mixtures containing meat along with a generous portion of rice.

You might choose the traditional noodle dish of the Philippines called pancit and join it with tasty chicken adobo.

Or you might prefer the classic fried eggrolls, here crispy and not overly oily, called lumpia.

Pork skewers, really well-laden with tasty, seasoned meat, are a thoroughly satisfying alternative.

You'd be surprised how tasty Filipino menudo - a mixture of pork, liver, potatoes and green peppers - is. Pair it on any Monday with sauteed vegetables (and surprise, there's even meat in this item) and you have a well-rounded meal for under $4.

Wednesday's specials are a little harder for a lean, mean critic to take. Lechon kawali, deep-fried pork backs, reminds of Mexican chicharrones. They're delightfully crunchy and tasty, but with every bite the guilt mounts. You know that the cholesterol count has to be very high.

Add oddness to the guilt. Wednesday's sauteed mung beans with vegetables has a slight bitterness that to be appreciated probably needs an acquired taste.

Thursday's stuff is a marked improvement, especially a hearty, homey beef stew with potatoes and sweet peppers, both red and green, in a dish called kaldereta. Guisadong (sauteed) zucchini is usually paired with the kaldereta.

Peculiarly though, the same day the kaldereta was sampled, there was a du jour beef stew soup that almost tasted the same.

Dinty Moore's was never so good.

THE FACTS

The restaurant: Tryst Bar & Grill.

Where: 21352 Devonshire St., Chatsworth.

When: Dining room open for lunch from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. daily, for dinner from 4 to 10 p.m. nightly.

Recommended items: Pancit, adobo, lumpia, pork skewers, menudo (Monday only), kaldereta (Thursday only), lemon torte.

How much: Filipino combination plates $3.95 each. Full bar. Exotic tropical drinks. AE, MC, V, Discover.

Wine list: Small list of 11 labels (two sparklers, three whites, one blush, five red) ranging from $14 to $24 per bottle, most under $20.

Reservations: Helpful. Call [phone].

Our rating: Three Stars for food; Three Stars for service; Two Stars for wine; Four Stars for value.

CAPTION(S):

Photo

Photo: Tommy Puyot Jr., left, and his father, chef-owner Tommy Sr., with some of the exotic drinks and cuisine at Tryst Bar & Grill.

John McCoy/Daily News