RESTAURANT REVIEW : Trovare Offers Snazzy Setting, <i> Contempo </i> Food

I’m with my friends Ellen and Angelena at Trovare in Woodland Hills, and they’ve developed a theory about the restaurant, which they’re trying to prove. They think there’s an unwritten rule of attire. I have my back to the front door, but I can tell when it opens because the two of them stop talking and, well, they don’t exactly stare, but they peer as intently as they can without making major spectacles of themselves.

“Yep,” whispers Ellen. “There’s another. . . .”

“I don’t believe it,” says Angelena.

I resist the urge to turn and gape, and wait until the party they’re scrutinizing is led into view by the host.

Sure enough, the fourth attractive woman wearing stone-washed jeans, high-heeled boots and a fur coat appears.

Though they are not the only women in the dining room, and though the jackets may be fox, rabbit and something that looks like lynx, the combination, with pants and shoes, certainly stands out.

The women wearing them are all attractive and elaborately coiffed to appear mildly disheveled. They’re also invariably accompanied by men in big, loose, expensive-looking sweaters.

“When you called to make reservations,” asks Angelena, “did they tell you there was a dress code?”

We three are in shirts and sweaters, basically black, well-dressed enough for dinner in any mid-priced Italian restaurant. And although we don’t feel underdressed, we definitely do not have The Look for this restaurant. Those women look exactly right for the place. Snazzy. And, indeed, Trovare’s is a snazzy little place.

There’s an aqua-and-apricot mural on the west wall of palm trees and California architecture, done in a geometric style that might be called contempo . Opposite, there’s a well-stocked, gleaming bar lighted with neon and backed by mirrors that are dramatically striped in white.

The open kitchen, on the other hand, is a wide tunnel of white-and-green tile, very European. The dining room, with peach linens, brass, plants and candles, has a big octagonally domed ceiling lined in wood. The whole design of the place is multifarious, eclectic and busy, a real mix of styles.

The food, however, is pretty straightforward contempo- Italian. Angelena’s delicious calamari fritti comes, as it so rarely does, with ample lemon. Ellen gets the Trovare salad, a good mix of arugula, radicchio , leaf lettuce, hearts of palm and other contemporary salad makings. My Scottish salmon, an epic portion of excellent fish, is far more than the three of us could readily dispatch.

Ellen’s orichette (little ear-shaped pasta) with chopped broccoli and sun-dried tomatoes is a little salty and oily--or maybe we’ve just fallen out of lust with sun-dried tomatoes. (We liked them so much, we knew it couldn’t last.) And there are some wonderful things about my rosemary chicken, like the buttery, crunchy fresh herbs and the crusty skin, but it has been way overcooked. We agree that Angelena’s grilled scampi, hefty little crustaceans cooked in the shell, is the best bet of this meal.

If our entrees don’t exactly send us into raptures, cappuccino and desserts cheer us up. Angelena’s warm apple tarte tatin , made with good tart apples, is not overly sweet--really one of the best tarte tatins I’ve had in awhile. Ellen’s blueberry cheesecake is airy and cheesy and delicious, and my tirami su is perfect.

But, in the long run, it’s not so much the food that distinguishes Trovare from many other Italian restaurants. One can get food of similar content and quality at half a dozen other places in the Valley. But in the two-plus years that Trovare has been open, it has developed its own personality and cachet. Choosing Trovare over other moderately upscale Italian restaurants is purely a question of style--in this case, snazzy style.

Recommended dishes: calamari fritti , $6.50; Scottish salmon, $9; Trovare salad, $6; grilled Trovare scampi, $18; dessert cart selections, $4.

Trovare, 21618 Ventura Blvd., Woodland Hills. (818) 340-4451. Open for lunch from 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. Dinner from 5:30 to 10 p.m. Sundays through Thursdays, till 11:30 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays. Full bar. All major credit cards. Reservations suggested. Dinner for 2, food only, $25-$60.