Third Yankee Diner Is Bigger And Better

XX 1/2 The Yankee Diner, 5300 24th Ave. N.W. Ballard (other locations: Bellevue, Lynnwood). ($ 1/2) American. Breakfast ($5 to $8) 7 to 11 a.m. Monday through Saturday; from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sunday. Lunch ($4 to $7) 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Saturday. Dinner ($4 to $12) 4 to 10 p.m. Monday through Satur-day; 2 to 9 p.m. Sunday. Lounge, full bar. Major credit cards. Nonsmoking area. Reservations (five or more people): 783-1964. ------------------------------------------------------------------- The Yankee Diner was no new concept when owner Tom Singleton first came up with it a dozen years ago in Lynnwood. But it's nevertheless a good one:

Comfort food at comfortable prices.

A Bellevue version opened a few years ago and also prospered.

But last summer, the company took a quantum leap, both in terms of menu ambition and interior design, moving into the old Canal restaurant southwest of downtown Ballard - a huge place (18,000 square feet on two floors) on the ship canal surrounded by shipyards and work boats.

The building was remodeled extensively.

"It's remarkable what $2.5 million can do," general manager Doug Pearl said wryly. The restaurant opened last September with hundreds of yards of neon - and acres of parking, all of which was needed.

The new Yankee Diner is a hugely appealing restaurant with none of the bare bones minimalism of the first venture. It still serves the single-best example of pot roast and mashed potatoes in the region - massive portions for $8.45 - and doubtless could serve as the model for a dozen more Yankee expansions.

"But I won't," Singleton said. "There will be one more - somewhere in the South End, and that's it."

This Yankee Diner is the best one yet. It's comfortable, warm, smoothly crafted with dark walnut and mahogany, deep reds, blues and plaids - if a bit overfestooned with several hundred nautical and fruit-crate design prints.

I tried it for breakfast, lunch and a couple of evenings and came away impressed. As I said to the Research Assistant, "If I lived in Ballard, I'd be here several nights a week."

There's a great central bar surrounded by high-backed booths. The place seats 364, yet affords privacy. Haute cuisine dining, it is not. Grand eating, it is.

A nightly fresh sheet augments the old standbys with from 10 to a dozen fresh seafood options, all less than $12. That is, in part, key to the diner's formula of success.

You can stick with the excellent, inexpensive roasts of beef or turkey - made daily in visible custom ovens near the front entry - or sample Hawaiian ahi (tuna) or mahi-mahi (dolphin), halibut or king salmon and still not top out the bank card.

"Cocktails of the Day" are $2.50. My dry martini was one of the smallest - and oddly murky - specimens in recent encounters.

Appetizers are available (including a bountiful Dungeness Crab over a lively red "cocktail" sauce for $5.95), but be warned that portion sizes are formidable and a choice of soup or salad is included in the price of the meal.

At least once, you have to try the Old-Fashioned Yankee Pot Roast ($8.45) - it's what built the franchise. It is slow-roasted (Singleton claims 12 hours - who knows?), amazingly tender, without having been reduced to shreds and pulp, and loaded with flavor. It's served under a dark pan gravy (a touch too salty for my taste but still compelling) and alongside a ski slope of mashed potatoes and a scoop of mixed vegetables.

You can order baby red potatoes or rice pilaf, and both are OK; but the mashed are exemplary, dense and rich with earthy flavor.

The second most popular dinner is the Roast Young Tom Turkey (also $8.45), with trimmings, sage dressing, veggies and cranberry sauce. Great slabs of moist white breast meat overlay the darker cuts. The gravy is that whitish version traditional in some parts of the country. A dark, rich pan-dripping rendition would be an improvement.

The Sugar Cured Hickory Smoked Ham ($7.95) is another house favorite. It's grilled and topped with a pineapple-rum sauce.

Veal Cutlets (made from ground veal), Chicken Fried Steak, Calves Liver and Home Made Pot Pies (turkey or beef) round out the regular menu, priced between $6.95 and $7.95. They all come with freshly made biscuits and made-on-the-premises berry preserves.

Really enjoyed Grilled Mahi-Mahi ($11.95) under an almond-pineapple compound butter sauce.

Oddly enough, a serviceable meat loaf ($7.95) is only available as an occasional nightly special.

Since this is a diner in more than name only, 32 sandwiches are on the card, all on homemade bread, and all less than $5, fries included with most of them. Half sandwiches are paired with soup or salad for $3.95.

The diner bakes its own pies and cakes (I have never had room for any of them) but the Whiskey Bread Pudding is not to be denied - not too sweet, too boozy or raisin-saturated.

I had put off reviewing this flagship edition of the Yankee Diner, thinking it would be merely a larger variation on a good, but predictable, theme. I was pleasantly surprised - and impressed. (Copyright, 1993, John Hinterberger. All rights reserved.)