RESTAURANT REVIEW : Le Triumph Dishes Up Good Fare at a Bad Pace

Driving west on the 118 freeway toward a fat, orange sinking sun, I realize I’m looking forward to my third meal at Le Triumph, a small French restaurant in Mission Hills. I already know better than to expect good service there; in previous visits, our orders were taken, we got our food--that’s about it. I also don’t expect to find a lively scene. Still, I’m utterly confident I’ll get something good to eat; I haven’t forgotten the rack of lamb Provencal, a peppery watercress soup, or a knockout mirabelle tart.

The first time I was told there was a pretty good little French restaurant in Mission Hills, I didn’t pay much attention. I found it hard to believe that an establishment that couldn’t spell its name in French could cook in French. But the name kept coming up and was always couched in the same context of plaintive concern: “It’s better than you’d think.. . . There’s a competent chef from Lyon.. . . It doesn’t deserve to go out of business for lack of customers.” Finally, I decided to check it out.

Tucked into a mini-mall with a dry cleaner, a video rental store and Payless Shoes, Le Triumph doesn’t look as if it will make a successful living from walk-in business. And it seems unlikely that even the most ardent Francophile would scour Devonshire Boulevard in search of gastronomic adventure. On the other hand, located within blocks of three major freeways--the Golden State, the San Diego and the Simi Valley-San Fernando Valley, --Le Triumph is easy to reach. So tonight, when I walk in and find my dining companion waiting for me, I’m shocked to see we’re the only ones there.

A well-appointed restaurant, Le Triumph’s mauvey-peach dining room has cozy, curtained booths and upholstered dining room chairs; it’s designed entirely for customers’ comfort. So it’s especially sad to find it empty. Invariably we’ve been greeted warmly at the door, but after that the service slows to a crawl. Even when we’re the only people in the room, we have to replenish our own cutlery by stealing from other tables and have no choice but to wait and wait for second bottles of mineral water. The waiters clearly have too little to do, and customers come as an intrusion to their meditative boredom.

The food is too good to be betrayed by such indifferent service. Oh, at times it falls short of its own ambitions: A wild mushroom soup is too bland, an osso buco ruined by an excess of rosemary, a lobster sauce is strong and bitter. But much of the food is delicious, and if the presentation is strictly no-frills, the portions are steak-house huge, heaped onto the plate in enormous quantity.

“The shrimp pate ,” says Francoise, our Parisian waitress, “it is made with the red peppers, Cognac and cornichons. Cornichons are . . .” she pauses, searching for the right words.

“Little French gherkins,” I say.

“Yes! That’s right!” She seems surprised. “Very good!”

I feel like an A student.

Both the special shrimp pate and the duck pate on the regular menu were quite tasty (although the aspic was the usual rubber). We also liked the feuillete de champignons, wild mushrooms in a pastry puff.

The fish soup, described as the broth from the bouillabaisse special, was thick, really a bisque and delicious when doctored with a garlicky rouille, toast, and grated Gruyere.

But the bay shrimp and avocado were smothered in a dull tomato and cream sauce aurore, and a fresh artichoke was overcooked and filled with tasteless seafood. Worst of all was the single pasta we tried, farfalle, which was described as coming with white butter, bell pepper and fresh diced tomatoes. What arrived was linguine swimming in an appalling sweet and sour sauce--a sort of linguine chop suey.

But as I was to discover, the entrees and desserts are far superior to the first courses.

The duck ginger was plump, crispy and excellently seasoned; you can heap the grated ginger on as you see fit. Rack of lamb Provencale was an excellent, flavorful piece of meat. We also liked a blackened swordfish special and a great piece of fresh salmon in a curry sauce. A monkfish special came with lobster and white wine sauce, and we liked half of it--the white wine half. Each entree came with consistently dreamy pureed turnips and inconsistently cooked haricots verts ; some nights the beans were crisp and buttery, other times they were grievously overdone.

Some of Le Triumph’s desserts--generally those made with fruit--are worth a drive to Mission Hills, no matter where you’re coming from. A cold raspberry souffle, which is essentially a frozen mousse, took me by surprise; not too sweet, it was served with a perfect raspberry coulis. With each successive spoonful, I loved it more: I can’t imagine a better, cooler antidote for hot Valley evenings.

So why wasn’t I utterly content with my dessert selection? I’ll tell you: My companion was hoarding a mirabelle tart. Set in a delicious pastry, lightly glazed, the small white plums tasted like meaty Queen Anne cherries, only better. On future visits to Le Triumph, my heart always sank when I saw a perfectly good raspberry tart displayed instead as the night’s pastry maison. So deprived, I was forced to try a passion fruit mousse cake, which was juicy and light, not a bit too sweet and, well, sublime. By comparison, the creme brulee was merely acceptable, the poire belle Helene an ordinary chocolate sundae with a pear in it.

Despite the poor service and rather average appetizers, there’s little wrong with Le Triumph that more customer support wouldn’t alleviate. After all, a chef needs an enthusiastic, responsive audience to cook for, and waiters need to be busy enough to establish a working rhythm. Certainly, Mission Hills and the surrounding communities could do far worse than to keep this little French restaurant on hand. At the very least, the sources that sent me here were right: Le Triumph could use, and deserves, more business than it’s presently getting.

Le Triumph, 15535 Devonshire St., Mission Hills, (818) 891-0406. Open for lunch Monday-Friday; for dinner Monday-Saturday. Diner’s Club, MasterCard and Visa accepted. Beer and wine. Dinner for two, food only, $25-$70.