RESTAURANT REVIEW : Bougainvillea Flowers in West Hollywood

It was a full moon, the rainy first day of water rationing, and we were off to a bad start. Before setting out to Bougainvillea in West Hollywood, we lost a wallet. We were on the road two minutes when we ran a red light. Then, we barely avoided being No. 4 in a three-car pileup. Minutes later, we sat at a standstill in impenetrable Friday-night Hollywood traffic. By the time we parked near the restaurant, we were 45 minutes late for our reservations and thoroughly rattled.

Stepping into Bougainvillea, however, was a big relief. We walked through iron gates into a walled patio. Flowers bloomed along the periphery, near smooth-skinned eucalyptus trees. It was as if we’d made a right turn into an English garden.

The restaurant itself looked cozy. There were lace curtains with dried roses and flowers tucked into their folds; also, a lawn-green carpet, chandeliers and a jumble of antique odds and ends. Billie Holiday baby-talked the blues at a very low volume. Most remarkable were the walls, painted with stylized fuchsias, daisies and foliage, as if by the hand of an intelligent child. We felt as if we’d found sanctuary in the house of somebody’s charmingly madcap but civilized British auntie.

Our host greeted us warmly--remarkably, we hadn’t lost our table--and led us to a lovely window spot in the front room. We sank gratefully into tall-backed cane chairs. There was a fresh azalea full of white blossoms on the table, as well as a glass oil lamp and dinner china patterned with little orange flowers.

We sat between a table of three boisterous men and another with three sedate women: grandmother, mother, daughter. The sounds of a birthday party filled the more interior dining room. If Bougainvillea was a bit quaint and stylishly fussy, it was certainly not stuffy.

Our waiter, a wry, laconic Englishman, rationed out ice water and brought us some very pleasant food. The menu is what might be called standard eclectic California cuisine: part Continental (sauces), part Italian (pasta), part all-American comfort food (hamburgers, crab cakes). We started with an appetizer selection: smoky and sweet grilled shrimp; perfectly crunchy, light and delicious crab cakes, and spicy hot eggplant rolls with mozzarella.

Bougainvillea’s flavors are pronounced--no pussyfooting around here. A Caesar salad was powerfully tasty, with enough fresh garlic and dry mustard in the dressing to give one’s sinuses a good workout. A romaine and watercress salad came with roasted walnuts and nuggets of strong, delicious Maytag blue cheese. These salads were huge --so huge that we later thought we should have paid the $2.50 charge for splitting a dish and shared just one. By the time I’d fished out all the blue cheese from my salad, I had spoiled my appetite.

This was all the more regrettable when our entrees arrived.

My friend had a sturdy pasta with pesto and more of those tasty, smoky (but slightly overcooked this time) shrimp. By virtue of its goodness, he ate all of it. I had chicken stuffed with polenta: This was a very large plate of food with two good-sized chicken breasts bursting with spicy polenta, a hillock of great, garlicky fresh vegetables and a mountain of absolutely wonderful mashed potatoes. I valiantly ate a few bites, but had to take the rest home. (I got two more meals out of the leftovers.)

We returned to Bougainvillea for brunch the following Sunday. There had been a lull in the rain. Blue sky, sun and pretty clouds made the patio look inviting, but it was empty. We were seated inside instead, in the darkish interior dining room away from the windows, in a corner. An electric fire blazed in the fireplace. This time, visiting Bougainvillea was rather like paying a Sunday afternoon visit to an eccentric aunt who never ventured outdoors.

The brunch menu listed a dozen or so dishes--eggs, salads, pastas, which were all $14 and came with juice, champagne and fresh fruit. Nova Scotia salmon and eggs were scrambled together with capers; it was another of Bougainvillea’s strong-flavored dishes. So was the field green salad with herbed goat cheese and intense oven-roasted tomatoes. The fried potatoes were bland, however, and a little soggy. And the coffee was weak and burnt. In spite of this--and our yearning to be out on the sunny patio--we found ourselves cared for and content. Not a worry in the world.

* Bougainvillea, 8164 West 3rd St., West Hollywood, (213) 658-7233. Lunch Monday through Saturday, brunch Sunday, dinner seven nights. Beer and wine. Major credit cards. Dinner for two, food only, $35-$55.