It's Citrus season again in Hollywood

The dessert course is strong. There's that mushroom-shaped vacherin (filled meringue). The "Kit Kat Bar" is a long rectangle of chocolate with a layer of fine hazelnut praline inside and crowned with a cookie that looks like a chocolate sunrise. There's an intriguing orange souffle that comes on a plate with four sections. One part is the free-standing souffle (not baked in a mold) with its intense orange flavor and a cloud-like texture. The dish is finished with citrus wedges, caramel sauce in a little pitcher and a bowl of softly mounded whipped cream. Dig in.

Service from waiters in long-sleeved solid-colored shirts and ties is genial and relaxed. But the front of the house can be ditsy. Sometimes the welcome feels lukewarm, other times calculated.

No one who arrives on time for a reservation should be asked to wait in the bar when there are obviously plenty of empty tables -- nor should the party be led to the worst table, as we were one night. The next time, fully expecting the same stupid move, we're given a spacious corner banquette instead, which is a great place to watch the goings-on. It's an entertaining parade of metrosexuals in cocky hats and fashion victims in weirdly wonderful creations checking the place out. They're mixed in with older couples who savor each bite and each sip of their wine over the course of the meal.

With all that the new restaurant has going for it, it may not have enough action for the trendy Hollywood crowd and probably not enough for the fine-dining crowd either, who crave specials and tasting menus and more pomp and circumstance. This is not Citronelle or even the original Citrus but an abbreviated take on Michel Richard's cuisine performed by an excellent chef and his team. Even that is quite a lot, and Citrus at Social easily outshines most of the recent newcomers in town. There's not a boring dish on the menu. Well, maybe the lobster burger, but it does have its fans.

The surprise is coming out of the restaurant on a weekend night to the parade of girls in shivery dresses with no wraps and guys in leather jackets and hip-hop gear lining up to get into the club that occupies another part of the building. Two crowds, the dining and the club, passing in the night.

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virbila@latimes.com

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Citrus at Social

Rating: ***

Location: Social Hollywood, 6525 Sunset Blvd. (at Schrader Boulevard), Hollywood; (323) 337-9797; www.citrusatsocial.com.