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Harry Rolnick

In the harried, faintly frazzled world of Lan Kwai Fong, Dillinger's could be excused for being schizophrenic. More precisely, it has three personalities.

  Take the top-floor Milk Bar. No milk here, but plenty of cocktails and shooters.

  Catering to the Yuppie/Chuppie crowd, the Milk Bar plays cool jazz in a black-and-white setting and serves up hefty drinks.

  One floor down, at street level, the Saloon opens on to the pavement.

  Beer is the drink of choice; about 300 can crowd in, with dancing, weekend DJs, snacks and lots of people.

  It's a big, noisy place that screams 'Lan Kwai Fong'. If you're into meditation, silence and inner thoughts, don't even think about the Saloon.

  Down in the basement is the Steakhouse. Chef Danny Cheung has compiled menus of eclectic originality and if one can fault the taste, at least the menu has audacity.

  As for atmosphere, it has one foot set in a Manhattan chophouse, one in a healthy veggie restaurant (with four tables of salads and original house dressings).

  A third foot ventures into the kind of goat cheese-and-curry creations found in nearby Michelle's.

  In a way, Dillinger's Steakhouse is a 'mom and pop' eatery made large.

  Hardwood seats around the tables and booths, a big open kitchen at one end, a bar at the other end, the long room seating about 80.

  However, while mom-and-pop shops stick with simple dishes Dillinger's has gone out on a questionable limb.

  Granted, it is difficult to find better service anywhere. We asked the waitress a few questions, and she was back like a shot - literally - with the answer. The Bull Shot was made with fresh, not tinned beef broth, she said.

  Like the waitress, the place has charm and personality too.

  Open grill at one end, bar at the other, a few paintings, some light jazz.

  The steak menu looks terrific. New Zealand and Nebraska steaks, at a reasonable $140 and $165 for eight ounces, served with a choice of sauces, all-you-can-eat potatoes, and seasonal vegetables.

  The surf 'n' turf at $190 is a bargain too.

  We plumped for the other dishes that looked quirky enough to eat.

  That, though, was the problem. The quirkiness extended to the flavours as well.

  Why, for instance, should somebody create a soup with fennel, filled with diced apples and deep-fried snapper chips?   The chef obviously thought this concoction was a good idea.

  But apples aren't really ideal for soups and the fennel had a curry-like taste.

   I opened with another original, the clam chowder in a puff pastry.

  As a Manhattanite, this Boston style was a bit too creamy for my taste - really thick, with big pieces of clam and tomato and onions. It would have been a good tonic for ulcers.

  But the surprise was that the whole pot was made of pastry. Mush it inside, and you have a virtual clam chowder pie.

  My second course was simplicity itself: smoked salmon placed on a bed of filo pastry, with the usual capers and onions. It was hard to fault.

  More complex was my colleague's curry.

  This was a baked curry of vegetables inside puff pastry. Trust me, this was delicious, a kind of glorified samosa.

  What was surplus to requirements were the sliced peaches and cucumbers on the side.

    The main courses, aside from steaks, include rack of lamb, duck breast, seafood, salmon and a few intriguing vegetarian dishes.

  My guest ordered the chicken, which was stuffed to the gills with liver, bacon, wild rice, and topped by banana fritters.

  It begged the question 'Why?'. Wild rice is wonderful by itself, so is liver, and so, I suppose, is bacon. Bananas are for breakfast. Put them together, and you have a chicken mush.

  My steak tartar would have been successful, but I was expecting the usual choices of ingredients such as whether I wanted it spicy or mild, with brandy or without.

  Instead, it came already made with foccacia bread. I never take brandy with steak tartar, so it wasn't to my taste at all.

  Admittedly, we were too full for the desserts. However, the pastry chef would have prepared Baked Alaska, raspberry souffle, amaretto cheesecake and other delicious dishes. The bill, excluding drinks, was an appealing $583 for two.

  Had we wanted, the staff would have served up the same food in the Saloon or Milk Bar. That we didn't need. People plainly would have been as unwelcome as banana fritters on stuffed chicken.

  DILLINGER'S STEAK HOUSE AND SALOON 38-44 D'Aguilar Street, (Saloon) 17 Lan Kwai Fong, Central; Tel: 2521-2202; Restaurant open: Noon-3pm, 6-11pm (closed Sunday); Bars open all day 



Unusual combinations at right prices