RESTAURANT WEEK:

It was a little disheartening for me to see only six Huntington Beach restaurants participating in the Orange County Restaurant Week, which runs from Sunday to Feb. 28.

This would be a perfect opportunity for restaurants to showcase dining rooms and, with the economy as tough as it is, it might get some new customers through the doors. Other cities have more restaurants. Newport Beach has 11, Costa Mesa has 11, and Santa Ana is providing seven places. Huntington Beach is too big a city to only have six restaurants, especially when the six are all concentrated near the pier.

What happened to Slow Fish on Bolsa Chica or Capone’s on Beach Boulevard? And Fountain Valley apparently doesn’t have any places to eat because they have no restaurants listed for the week.

The good news is the six restaurants that are participating have some pretty good prix fixe menus available.

The first is Duke’s. The Huntington Beach icon has a three-course menu at dinner that has some of the restaurant’s favorites.

My choice from the appetizers would be the crab and macnut wontons. These feature real crabmeat and are stuffed with cream cheese, macadamia nuts and served with a plum sauce. They are a really tasty way to start a meal at the Polynesian-themed restaurant and a much better choice than the Caesar salad or New England-style clam chowder.

The choice for the main course is a little more difficult. My choice would be the Parmesan- and herb-crusted opah. This is the house’s specialty and is a great piece of fish that isn’t found in a lot of restaurants. It is sautéed with panko, macadamia nuts, lemon and capers.

The other choices are half a rack of mango barbecue ribs and prime teriyaki sirloin.

I was glad to see they are offering the Kimo’s hula pie. It is an incredible dessert, one of the best I have had in Huntington Beach. Macadamia nut ice cream in a chocolate cookie crust is topped with chocolate fudge, whipped cream and macadamia nuts. It is rich enough that it should be shared with another person but definitely shouldn’t be missed.

Duke’s downstairs neighbor, Savannah, is also part of the week, and is offering a three-course menu at lunch and a four-course at dinner.

Some of the appetizers are fried calamari with smoked chile aioli and a clam and corn chowder. I would get the voodoo shrimp martini, which is a great combination of shrimp and spicy cocktail sauce.

The maple-smoked paprika-glazed salmon is a good choice for lunch, but the linguine and shrimp pasta is also a worthy competitor.

For dinner I would get either the flatiron steak or the pan-seared scallops. There is no choice for dessert, the restaurant is just offering the Tahitian vanilla bean crème brulee.

Both the Hilton and the Hyatt are presenting their main restaurants for the week.

Shades, which is at the Hilton, has a limited menu with only two appetizers and two entrees. Seared jumbo scallops with a lemon risotto and roasted baby beet salad are the two appetizers. The main course selections are seared swordfish with braised fennel and a braised short rib with house-made gnocchi.

While there is nothing wrong with the selections, I wish the restaurant would have offered more from their menu, which is quite good.

The Californian has three entrees to choose from, as well as three appetizers and three desserts.

The appetizers are really salads and soups, which leaves out the crab and boursin cheesecake, which is a favorite appetizer of mine.

The restaurant is offering a favorite entrée, the wild mushroom ravioli, which comes with a delicious browned truffle butter sauce.

The dessert I would get is the molten chocolate cake. It has an extremely rich dark chocolate taste and comes with double-churned vanilla ice cream.

Spark Woodfire Grill has put together an impressive menu for the week that includes a glass of wine. I would start with either the wood-grilled artichoke or the seared Ahi tuna with sesame ginger glaze.

Though they are known for their steaks, the pan-roasted sea bass with goat cheesecake and sautéed mushrooms or pappardelle with Italian sausage.

Finish off the dinner with chocolate hazelnut torte or a glass of chocolate amore port.

The last restaurant is also the newest. RA Sushi has only been open a month, but it is eager to showcase some of its cuisine at restaurant week.

They are featuring a four-course menu with various tastes of the Japanese restaurant represented. For the first course get the crispy spicy tuna, which is mixed with soy chili sauce.

The Viva Las Vegas roll is the obvious pick for the second course. It is kani kama and cream cheese rolled in rice and seaweed, lightly tempura battered and topped with spicy tuna, crab mix and sliced lotus root, finished with sweet eel sauce and spinach tempura flakes.

For the third course it is a tough choice between the beef tataki roll and the chili ponzu yellowtail. The beef tataki roll is artichoke, asparagus, roasted red peppers and avocado rolled and topped with seared flat iron steak and soy chili sauce, served with a creamy wasabi sauce. The yellowtail is thinly sliced with jalapeno, cilantro, sautéed cashew and pine nuts with Kochjan chili ponzu, served over shredded daikon radish.

Finish up with the cinnamon tempura ice cream or the coconut cream brulee.

Maybe next year I will be able to write about more local restaurants participating in this worthy week.

IF YOU GO

WHAT: Orange County Restaurant Week

WHERE: Six restaurants in Huntington Beach participating; Spark Woodfire Grill, Duke’s, Savanannah at the Beach, RA Sushi, the Californian and Shades.

COST: $10 and $20 for lunch; $20, $30 and $40 for dinner

INFO: www.Orangecountyrestaurantweek.com

JOHN REGER reviews restaurants for the Independent.