THIS RESTAURANT IS CLOSED Mistral

THIS RESTAURANT IS CLOSED Mistral Restaurant Review:

The washed pink adobe on the corner of Cañon and Dayton conjures up the perfect mood for this offshoot of Sherman Oaks restaurateur Henri Abergel's Mistral. As the name and breezy bistro atmosphere imply, the cuisine is Provençal in origin, with a few Californian touches like coriander-crusted ahi, Asian pear salads and calamari al Ajillo thrown in for good measure. The duck confit offers strong-flavored, salted meat hidden under a perfect crust of cracklings, and the monkfish, offset by the meaty flavor of portobello mushrooms, makes for a hearty meal at both lunch and dinner. The menu is fairly straightforward, more reliable than inspiring, but lengthy lists of daily specials, like a watercress salad with sautéed white mushrooms, offer room for experimentation. If you like cheesecake, saving room for dessert is a must. Abergel's brown sugar-sweetened rendition of a traditional cheesecake is more seductive in texture than finely spun silk.