PIZZA PARLORS LIVE

Pizza is not just for kids anymore -- at these recently reviewed restaurants pizza makes a grown - up, big - deal dinner. These pizzas look different than they used to; some of them aren’t even topped with cheese. But th e chicness of pizza doesn’t signal an end to pizza parlors -- there are still a few places, like the California Pizza Kitchen, where pizza is the main part of the menu. All prices listed exclude drinks. CAFFE ROMA (1541 Ocean Ave., Santa Monica, (213) 395-9101.) Set off from the street in the courtyard of the pink stucco Paseo del Mar, this restaurant is airy, filled with pretty tiled tables and light bentwood chairs. The restaurant stands out not only for its good food but its first-rate service. The menu lists 13 pizzas ($5.50-$8), including pizza alla checca (mozzarella, fresh tomatoes, basil and garlic with olive oil) and pizza al carciofini (mushrooms, mozzarella, parmigiano, basil and artichokes). Lunch and dinner, daily. All major credit cards. Validated and valet parking. Beer and wine served. Dinner for two: $25-$55.

CALIFORNIA PIZZA KITCHEN (207 S. Beverly Drive, Beverly Hills, (213) 272-7878 and at 121 N. LaCienega Blvd., (213) 854-6555.) Sporting such standard pizza-place features as a high-tech setting, a high noise level and an open kitchen where pizzas are paddled out by exuberant young cooks, California Pizza Kitchen may be trendy, but it is also affordable. They serve 19 different pizzas ($5.50-$9.25) that have toppings some might call conventional and others bizarre--e.g., a cheeseless Sichuan shrimp pizza dotted with black Oriental mushrooms and black sesame seeds. The ambitiously named Peking duck pizza consists of shreds of duck breast atop a pizza shell smeared with hoisin sauce and sprinkled with cheese. A best seller is barbecued chicken pizza. Critical favorites include a goat cheese and bacon pizza and a Cajun pizza with spicy Lousiana-style sausage, okra and sweet peppers. This restaurant must be doing something right--a sister California Pizza Kitchen recently opened up in Beverly Center. Lunch and dinner daily, both locations. MC, AE, V. Dinner for two: $20.

IVY AT THE SHORE (1541 Ocean Ave., Santa Monica, (213) 393-3113.) This restaurant is pretty in a way that few restaurants are really pretty--it doesn’t look so much decorated as it looks like someone’s screened-in porch from the ‘50s. But be warned--this place is expensive and dining accommodations are far from optimum. They serve straightforward pizzas (most cost $8.75), including pizza primavera , which is topped with three kinds of cheeses, tomatoes, basil, leeks, carrots, asparagus and roasted red and green peppers. There’s also a pie with chopped tomatoes, garlic, basil and topped with fresh arugola--but no cheese. Stay away from the Cajun pizza--it tastes like a giant cracker covered with too many spices and overcooked shrimp. Lunch and dinner, daily. Full bar. Valet parking. MC, AE, V. Dinner for two: about $65.

LA FAMIGLIA’S PICCOLA (455 (N. Canon Drive, Beverly Hills, (213) 278-3395.) Recently reopened (a fire upstairs caused them to close and repair the water damage), this offspring of La Famiglia, next door to its parent, serves serious Italian food. Its pizzas are no exception. Cooked in a tiled, wood-burning oven, the pizzas tend to the traditional Margherita and Napoletena. Pizzas ($5.50-$9.25) have delightfully chewy, bubbly crusts and not too much topping. The menu includes tutto-mare , topped with fresh seafood, cristoforo with asparagus and pepperoni, and pizza pesto with garlic, basil and pine nuts. Lunch and dinner, Mon.-Sat. AE, MC, V. Valet and street parking. Dinner for two: $20.

LA SCALA PRESTO TRATTORIA (11740 San Vicente Blvd., Brentwood, (213) 826-6100 and in the South Bay Galleria at 1815 Hawthorne Blvd., Redondo Beach, (213) 371-7222.) When upscale La Scala opened these gourmet fast-food eateries they were instant successes. The decor--small booths, caricatures on the walls--gives them a look that’s a cross between Burger King and Spago. Nothing on the menu costs more than $8. Pizzas ($6.45-$7.95) are very good but fairly standard in the topping department--mushrooms, red peppers, vegetables and cheese. Lunch and dinner, Mon.-Sat. in Brentwood, daily in Redondo Beach. MC, AE, V. Validated parking. Dinner for two: $14-$38.

PREGO 18420 Von Karman, Irvine, (714) 553-1333 and at 362 N. Camden Drive, Beverly Hills, (213) 277-7346). An architectural stunner, Prego is housed in a Tuscan villa in rust and yellow stucco with an interior traversed by a dramatic cross-vaulted corridor. It serves light, refreshing pizza ($5.95-$9.75), so good they’d be worth eating with no topping at all--and that is practically what you get with focaccia mezzaluna (actually it’s topped with thin-sliced raw onions). The most exotic thing on the menu may be pizza margherita , a non-Americanized version of the original cheese pizza: fresh tomato sauce and mozzarella with fresh basil and sage. It’s positively springlike in its simplicity and freshness. Lunch, Mon.-Sat; dinner nightly, both locations. MC, V. Dinner for two: $20-$45.