WOLFGANG'S EMPIRE GOES ASIAN.

Byline: Larry Lipson Daily News Restaurant Critic

Wolfgang Puck is not only a very talented chef, he has a sixth sense about American tastes.

It's all very well for someone who has learned classical French cooking techniques to be able to turn out delicious food. But who would have thought when he jumped from Ma Maison to open his own place that this Puck fella would make the lowly pizza a work of art and change the direction of restaurant menus across the land to the point where the word ``Spagoization'' has been coined as a culinary description.

Now Puck, whose Chinois on Main in Santa Monica, is to many food fanciers even more impressive than his fabled Spago, has taken a giant multi-Asian step forward with his unveiling of ObaChine in Beverly Hills.

It appears that many of the best and most familiar things we've been eating in Japanese, Chinese, Vietnamese, Thai and Indian restaurants around Los Angeles have been gathered on ObaChine's menu and given a dose of Puck flair.

And, of course, the Barbara Lazaroff-designed setting is similarly superb.

Lazaroff, Puck's wife and business partner, took the oba or shiso leaf, sometimes called the beefplant, that is a commonly used garnish and flavoring in Japanese food, as part of the restaurant's name and its theme.

Wall lamps around the main dining room upstairs in the ex-Tribeca building are warm golden duplicates of the oba leaf and the custom carpeting utilizes the leaf in a clever design that flows with apricot, purple and celadon green tones.

There's a warm, comforting, reddish-golden glow in the entire room highlighted by the dramatic red Persian travertine marble counter surrounding the exhibition kitchen.

From the buddha on the landing atop the stairs to the sometimes whimsical, colorful framed Asian art, to the surprisingly discreet use of specially imprinted and ceramic relief tiles, it's a handsome restaurant that buzzes with intensity in floor service and careful, diligent food preparation.

And the best thing about ObaChine is its price range. Whether it maintains it or not, at least now we can enjoy some darn good food in a great setting for as little as $30 a head. Entrees, believe it or not, run as low as $11.95 for a dramatic tostadalike rendition of wok-cooked cashew chicken bedecked with red, yellow and green bell pepper strips and $12.50 for tandoor-style roasted half chicken. An artistic baked salmon dish delivered with the crisped, moist fish in a large leaf with an array of thin-cut cold vegetables and a somewhat over-buttery yuzu lime dipping sauce is ticketed at a low $13.50.

ObaChine is the kind of place where a foamy glass of draft lager isn't out of place, where you can graze on appetizers and/or dim sum and never bother with an entree, where sharing is understood as food appreciation, not as a way to eat for less money.

Both the shumei ($7.95) stuffed with Dungeness crab and the chicken or vegetable potstickers ($5.50) - which are almost as delicate as gyoza - provide delectable starters. Or if there's slight wait downstairs at the bar, try a skewer of tuna satay with a vinegary mustard dipping sauce ($4).

Of the two soups offered, the wonton and baby bok choy one ($5.25) in a dark broth is easily the best. The Thai coconut chicken soup ($4.50), though with better quality white chicken meat than some neighborhood Thai restaurants use in a comparable dish, could be called a respectable rather than outstanding version.

But there are plenty of outstanding dishes here, especially the ocean fare. Stir-fried Maine lobster ($19.50) is terrific with a kick of chili pepper and lemongrass. Peppercorn-crusted ahi tuna ($16.95) is sensational with Chinese eggplant, black-eyed peas and sweet mashed carrot accompaniments.

Scallop fans will love them here ($15.95), served en shell with a rich, heady black bean and plum wine sauce and the jab of pureed yams with wasabi.

You never seem to stop nibbling and munching here. It starts with a complimentary tray of pickles - green dills, carrots and daikon radish.

There are tasty sushi-style salmon rolls ($7.95), triangular lamb samosas ($5.50) with a cilantro-yogurt sauce, crunchy shrimp in either a fall-apart Cambodian crepe ($9.50) with a devastating shiitake mushroom sauce, or in spring-roll style with Indian spicing and a mango-mustard sauce.

But the best appetizer is undoubtedly the barbecued eel and vegetable spring roll ($7.95) done the Vietnamese way with see-through rice dough wrapping and more of the mango-mustard dipping sauce.

You probably won't like many of ObaChine's dishes if you are averse to a bit of chili pepper heat and the distinctive flavor of cilantro.

Except, of course, for the desserts ($5.50 each) by pastry chef Christine Echiverri, the most dynamic being her coconut rice pudding napoleon, which will make you change your mind about rice pudding forever.

She, also, does a spring roll; hers stuffed with banana and walnut can be dipped in a rum-caramel sauce.

A bowl of chilled, tropical fruits with pomegranate seeds topped with icy purple hibiscus granita is her fruit soup. And creme brulee fans will like the apple ginger rendition, while parfait lovers will thoroughly enjoy the cubic coffee and almond one topped with a piece of honey-marinated orange.

Next ObaChine is due to open in a few weeks in Seattle.

The Puck empire continues.

THE FACTS

The restaurant: ObaChine.

Where: 242 N. Beverly Drive, Beverly Hills.

When: Open for dinner only from 5:30 to 10:30 p.m., to 11 p.m. Friday and Saturday. Will open for lunch early December.

Behind the scenes: Wolfgang Puck oversees. Barbara Lazaroff designed it. Executive chef is Naoki Uchiyama.

Wine list: It's a thoughtfully chosen - considering the fare - single-page list of 34 domestics and Europeans with some rarities from Austria (Puck's birthplace). Pricewise there are five bottlings under $20 and 17 between $20 and $30. Recommended are the inexpensive 1995 Domaine de Pouy, a pleasing, quaffing white from Gascony, and the equally refreshing Austrian 1995 Gruener Veltliner, Z. Goebelsburg, available by the liter for $21.

There are beers from China, Thailand, Vietnam and Japan here as well as Austrian Goesser Pils on tap ($4) and a fine draft called J.W. Dundee's Honey Brown Lager ($3.75). And, for goodness' sake, there's even Japanese sake.

Reservations: Needed. Call [phone].

Our rating: Four Stars for food; Three and One Half Stars for service; Three and One Half Stars for wine.

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Photo

Photo: The cooking gang at Wolfgang Puck's new ObaChine restaurant in Beverly Hills gathers behind general manager Philip Miller, left and Micky Kanolzer, vice president of operations.

Jeremy Greene/Special to the Daily News