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  LIISA SPINK The Encounter restaurant is located at the Los Angeles International Airport.

By Emi Kojima

Daily Bruin Senior Staff

While the atmosphere and prices at the science fiction-themed restaurant Encounter may be out of this world, the food is a little more down to earth.

Encounter is a sci-fi eatery serving California cuisine in a space-age structure resembling a flying saucer with parabolic arches overhead at the center of the Los Angeles International Airport.

The elevator up to the restaurant plays a theme song that sounds like the take-off music from Disneyland’s Space Mountain, providing a sonic glimpse of what’s to come. When the doors open, diners enter a place that looks like a cross between the Jetsons’ space ship and Austin Powers’ shag pad. The restaurant overlooks the airport terminal, and watching planes take off never seemed so fantastic.

Surrounded by walls covered in Swiss cheese-like moon craters, patrons walk on a multicolored carpet to the metallic bar, complete with a large lava lamp, while waiting for their tables.

The restaurant’s electric-colored martinis – such as the “Electric Barbarella,” a concoction of Absolut, Triple Sec, Peach Schnapps and Orange Juice, or “Austin’s Apples,” a basic apple martini – run $8. They’re on the sweet side, relatively strong and very fruity.

The Fried Calamari ($10) appetizer is a small portion of squid cut into rectangles and fried in a light, salty batter. A heavy tomato and horseradish dipping-sauce arrives on the side, evoking an idea of what an intergalactic Happy Meal might be.

RESTAURANT INFORMATION Encounter Address: 209 World Way Los Angeles, Calif. Hours: Monday - Sunday 11 a.m. - 4 p.m. 5 p.m. - 10 p.m. Phone Numbers: (310) 215-5151 Price Range: Lunch $6-15 Dinner $19-27

The New York Steak ($29) comes sliced and drowned in a thin four-peppercorn cream sauce with a rich mushroom risotto side dish, nicely al dente.

The Carmelized Salmon ($25), a medium-sized piece of salmon, arrives covered in a sweet and syrupy sauce that does not mask the flavor of the salmon fillet, and is served with fresh dill. The asparagus on the side compliments the sauce well, and the sweet potato purée, which arrives in the shape of a decorative macaroon, is creamy and sweet; the combination of the sweet sauce and puree, however, is a bit overpowering.

If nothing else, order dessert. The Mocha Java cake ($8) arrives in an artistic, geometrical tower made of unusual cookies and yellow, transparent candy sticks. A small slice of cake serves as the base, piled with two paper-thin, triangle shaped cookies with holes in them. The candy sticks poke through the cookies’ holes and unite in an upside-down “V” over the cake, like the spidery arches of the building itself.

The cake is rich, moist and semi-sweet. A sugary strawberry and vanilla dipping sauce, presumably for the cookies, comes on the side, along with two real strawberries cut into geometrical pieces for presentation.

However, there are many reasons guests may dislike Encounter. Parking at the airport is always difficult, and the food is a mix of old, reliable staples topped with flavor-laden sauces at high prices. At $19 to $30 for entrees, dinner will take a toll on a student’s budget. Still, by providing something familiar in a novel fashion, the food manages to hit the pleasure centers of guests’ palates.

Encounter takes diners back to the traditional science fiction utopia, an ironically nostalgic experience reminiscent of the time when science had the potential to solve all problems. Everything about the restaurant suggests that it was envisioned as a throwback to the futuristic lifestyle that children of the ’60s imagined for today’s jet set crowd. Think about the average $35 meal as an admission ticket to an entire simulated world overlooking LAX.