LA Flambee Deserves To Be Discovered

XXX La Flambee, 16150 N.E. 85th St., Village Square Shopping Center, Redmond. Continental and Algerian. Lunch ($4 to $7) 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday through Friday. Dinner ($9 to $16) 4:30 to 9 p.m. Monday through Thursday; until 10 p.m. Friday, Saturday. Closed Sunday. Beer, wine. Major credit cards accepted. Nonsmoking area. Reservations: 869-5559.

Some restaurateurs are sprinters. They flash into town, do impressively for a year or two, run out of energy after a while, fade and disappear.

Others, however, are in for the long haul. Ali Chalal, the Algerian-born chef who opened La Petit Cafe several years ago, has been around the Seattle area for more than a decade.

And when he's not running his restaurant, he's actually running. (Last Saturday, in training for the Goodwill Games marathon, he ran around Green Lake. Eight times.)

Lately, however, the long-distance runner is more lonely than he deserves to be. His latest endeavor, La Flambee, a small but cheerful culinary outpost on the outskirts of downtown Redmond - it's across the street from the post office - has not yet been discovered.

That is a shame. Chalal is as talented, energetic and as dedicated in the kitchen as he is on the track (he finished 10th in last year's Seattle Marathon, second in his age group, the over-45s).

Chalal's specialty for many years has been couscous, the bountiful and peppery North African dish that features a variety of stewed meats and vegetables (carrots, turnips, tomato) served over steamed semolina.

La Flambee offers five versions of couscous, priced from $9 to $14: Braised Lamb, Merguez (lamb sausage), Roasted Chicken, Vegetable and Royale. The latter includes most of the former. There is also a couscous luncheon special (with chicken and merguez) every Monday for $6.50.

Couscous is not an easy dish to make well in the home kitchen (the steaming, steeping, soaking, drying, sifting, rubbing, resteaming, etc., can drive you nuts). Not many restaurants in the area do it well, either, although the Mediterranean Kitchen, the Marrakesh and Mamounia all provide excellent versions.

If I have any quibbles with Chalal's couscous, it is that the harrissa, the fragrant and potent pepper sauce that is spooned over the assembled dish, is too thin and should be hotter. The basic merga (the tomato-meat stock in which the various meats are braised), however, is excellent and well-balanced.

Appetizers (around $5) include a delightful Scampi La Flambee with angel-hair pasta, Calamari- stuffed Artichoke, and Sauteed Wild Mushrooms. A somewhat uncommon, but very appealing, Fettuccine Alfredo ($4.95) goes beyond the essential cream-and-cheese sauce with the addition of sun-dried tomatoes that never occurred to Alfredo.

The stuffed artichoke, incidentally, is presented in a pool of creamy raspberry vinaigrette, blended with fresh herbs (rosemary, oregano) and a scattering of fresh raspberries.

Available as a house special on most evenings is a Mulligatawny Soup that is the best I have encountered outside of London. No flour thickener is used - or so little that it was not detectable. The result is a chicken-turmeric-coriander combination of brilliantly open flavors, garnished with minced green apple, celery and peas.

The House Salad of radicchio and butter lettuce, wedges of lemon and tomato, is included with dinner entrees. The dressing is a creamy vinaigrette with crumbled hard-cooked egg.

Three pasta dishes ($12.95; in addition to the fettuccine on the starters menu) are untraditional, but inviting: Seafood Linguine (scampi and smoked salmon in a light cream and pesto sauce with pine nuts), Wild Fettuccine ($11.50; chicken-breast chunks with wild mushrooms in a Marsala cream sauce) and Pasta Big Mamou ($10.95; rigatoni, Cajun Andouille sausage and vegetables in a lively tomato sauce).

Pork Alilou ($11.50) is one of La Flambee's more decorative items: tender medallions of pork are quickly sauteed, then finished in a deep red-purple sauce of poached pears and port wine. Thin filets of pork are difficult to saute and sauce without drying (lean pork is very fat-free; hence there is little self-basting), but Chalal executed the dish perfectly.

Three chicken entrees are offered. The Pistachio Chicken ($11.95) is particularly good, and brings to mind a similar - and wonderful - recipe that Peter Dow has been using for at least a decade at Cafe Juanita.

The restaurant features a bargain ``Early Bird Dinner,'' beginning at 4:30 p.m. nightly. A three-course meal is served until 6 p.m., with a soup or salad, main course, dessert, coffee or tea and a glass of wine included for $12.95.

La Flambee is Chalal's first restaurant on his own; his partner in the endeavor, Laura Bady, runs the dining room. It's a small place, about 15 tables, but in terms of sheer quality, easily one of the best restaurants east of the lake.