CHRISTOPHER’S: SO CLOSE YOU CAN ALMOST TASTE IT

Christopher’s, a new restaurant in Pasadena, is a charming place with an enticing menu--such things as crab chowder and winter squash soup; salads of wild California greens and warm endive; grilled tuna with tomatillos and coriander, roasted veal chops stuffed with forest mushrooms, and a nice, affordable selection of California wine. But much of the food, unfortunately, doesn’t measure up to the restaurant’s tasteful design and the menu’s promise.

Too bad, too, because there is so much about Christopher’s that’s pleasing. I loved the look and feel of the place--it’s nicely lit, spare, almost austere decor, its parquet floors, cafe curtains, white tablecloths with napkins of teal blue. Though it calls itself an American restaurant, it has a cosmopolitan atmosphere--classical guitarist playing pleasant background music; genteel, casually dressed Pasadena clientele--the kind of place you’d find near a museum, a place where you could talk with friends or feel comfortable dining alone at the counter or at a table for two.

The staff is pleasant too, fresh-faced and eager to please. When waiters recite the specials of the day, they tell you the prices as well, so there are no nasty surprises when the bill comes.

When the food comes, it’s beautifully presented--baby carrots, stems on; tiny white potatoes, skins on, too; the squash soup, a beautiful golden color with a small island of soured cream topped with a sprig of coriander--everything as attractive as the place itself.

The trouble is that many of the dishes turn out to be disappointments. The hot, fresh rolls taste like the brown-and-serves you’d buy at the store. The simple steamed artichoke, served with drawn butter, could use a hint of flavor in the steaming; the chicken pot pie at lunch one day, though its crust is crisp and delicious, is on the inside bland and thick with flour.

I could go on and tell about a tough veal chop, overcooked tuna (though its tomatillo/coriander sauce has a wonderfully strange, green taste), dry chicken and a grilled eggplant sandwich that sounds like a good idea but turns out to be an oily thing on a soggy onion roll--and more.

But I’d rather mention a few things I do like, such as good crab chowder; a decent lunchtime Cobb salad; a delectable appetizer of grilled lobster on a sweet pepper cake (a crepe spiced up with cayenne, paprika and red peppers) which, in light of the other disappointments, seems a miracle. For dessert, the apple pie and homemade vanilla ice cream is not bad either.

Forget the black-bottom pie, though. I found its raspberry sauce unpleasantly bitter and the pie itself uninteresting. There I go, complaining again, but I feel like a teacher exasperated with a student who’s not living up to his potential. If Christopher’s pushed itself a little harder, it could be more than a pleasant place to have a bite when you’re in Pasadena--it could, with all its charm, be a destination.

Christopher’s, 39 South Raymond, Pasadena. (818) 796-9911. Wine and beer only. Visa and MasterCard. Lunch 11 a.m.-3 p.m., 7 days; dinner 6 p.m.-10 p.m., Sunday-Thursday; 6 p.m.-11 p.m. Friday and Saturday. Dinner for two, food only, $30-$50.