The following is a summary of a...

The following is a summary of a recent Times restaurant review.

Spats, 901 Civic Center Drive, Santa Ana. (714) 558-1883. Open for lunch Mondays through Fridays 11:30 a.m to 2 p.m., for dinner Mondays through Saturdays 5 to 9:30 p.m. Closed Sunday.

Spats is one of those maddeningly confusing little restaurants where it is impossible to know what you are supposed to be eating. The chef is Japanese. The menu is Italian and Japanese. The ambience is pure California. Best to try are the more Japanese dishes like broiled beef on bamboo skewer, fresh oysters in the shell with Japanese dipping sauce, and soba , handmade buckwheat noodles treated with a simple respect. Avoid the gummy pastas and the pretentious Western concoctions. Most of them are better left to the concept stage. There is an adjoining disco if you get too impatient waiting for service.