FIRST IMPRESSIONS : Cozy Confusion at Boboli

The name on the door says Ryan’s; when you pay the bill the charge slip says Boboli.

The place looks like a steak house, but the menu looks like the one at Pane Caldo across the street. The food is Italian, the music is French. It’s all very confusing, but if you want to try it, the address is 8897 Beverly Blvd., Los Angeles, and the phone number is (213) 859-4903.

What you will find there is a cozy downstairs place built around a large bar. The kind of banquettes you can snuggle into and hug the walls, and in the daytime shafts of sunlight come through the windows, through which you get a swell view of marching feet. The restaurant is an offshoot of the popular Pane Caldo, but it is more substantial and considerably more expensive.

Pasta dishes run in the $8 and $9 range, (except for the one with generous amounts of fresh white truffle, which goes for $22), a good red snapper en papilotte in a basil-lemon sauce is $13.50, and a fat veal chop with lime butter sauce is $18. The minute you sit down they put a plate of panzanella on the table--cubes of bread topped with diced tomatoes, the whole thing slathered with olive oil and vinegar and garlic--and there is a display of desserts spread across the bar. Definitely not the place for a quick bite but a nice place to linger over lunch.