RESTAURANTS / Max Jacobson : 2 Takeout Places Pull Out All the Stops for Out-and-Out Good Food

Sociologists are having a field day with the upscale takeout trend; food writers are not. We are less attracted to life style than to plain good food, which is what many of these puffed-up sandwich shops don’t serve.

But I’ve found two that are different. One is a nosher’s fantasy with the color and variety of a Left-Bank street market. The other is a pan-ethnic pizzeria with oddly inventive interpretations of ‘80s food cliches.

I think I understand why the owners picked the name 7th Heaven for the first. Their brand new, food-filled Costa Mesa space makes you wonder if the Creator hasn’t dumped a giant burlap sack full of trendy goodies into the corner of a shopping mall, and framed it with a door. Some of the food here is celestial; all of it is brightly colored.

Located in the Crystal Court shopping mall, it doesn’t much differ in content from the original store in Santa Monica. You’ll find amazing salads in elaborate ceramic dishes, a fine tumble of imported cheeses, up-to-date hot steam-table offerings such as jerk chicken and eggplant torte, high-tech muffins such as cherry cobbler, rich breads like the weighty pumpernickel raisin and desserts such as pans of double-chocolate brownies or whiskey-bread pudding. If you are planning a picnic, a patio meal or a deck lunch on a Newport Harbor sailboat, this must be the best-equipped outfit for leagues.

Intent on conducting a small tasting, I brought along a friend who hates to cook. We filled three large trays.

The first step was to fill a plastic bubble with crunchy pesto green beans, some garlicky orecchiette (an ear-shaped pasta), curried chicken salad with mango chutney and toasted almonds, linguine with baby shrimp, and moussaka.

From there we proceeded to cut a swath through the hot section, starting with big squares of a cheese-topped corn-bread pudding, a cup of savory black beans with sour cream, some sweet, pungent Chinese chicken (with a lacquered finish that you could see your face in), and steamy roasted potatoes. We took our trays outside to the patio and frightened off a small crowd.

I almost wish I hadn’t snuck back to order a relentlessly authentic muffaletta because it was made with so much garlic, anchovies and chopped parsley that I tasted it well into the next day. But I was glad I had gotten more desserts because all of them were terrific. Best on the tray was an unctuous, grainy, rice pudding; a tart cobbler of mixed fruit ran a close second.

The food here is packaged in every conceivable shape and form, but if you order one of the special entree picnic baskets, the utensils and paper plates are included. I wish I had known.

7th Heaven is moderately priced. Sandwiches are from $5.25. Picnic baskets are $14.50 to $24;. one-salad plate, $5.50; two-salad plate $7.25; three-salad plate $8.50.

You will have to settle for a paper box at Z Pizza, an eccentric, French-owned counter place next to an Alpha Beta market in South Laguna. They provide the napkins. Pizzas are baked in a brick-backed oven and come in such flavors as Hawaiian (don’t panic, there is no macadamia-nut pizza), Mexican and Chinese.

My visit here with two pizza mavens triggered a bitter controversy. One said that the crust at Z was the best, bar none, he had ever tasted. The other dismissed Z as a forgettable, commercial dive.

In hopes of mediating the dispute, I suggested that we sample the Italian Capricciosa (pesto, artichokes, ham, fresh tomatoes, olives and mozzarella). No luck. I loved the crust--yeasty and crunchy--even better than my favorite, wood-burning versions or the finger-spun variety I grew up with. But someone in the kitchen had gobbed the thing up with cheese, and the toppings, except for a good, smoky ham, were tasteless.

The thing is, I went back and now agree with the crust-loving maven. Pissaladiere Nicoise is one of their best, a cheese-less pizza with sweet onion, anchovies, Nicoise olives and herbes de Provence that does its focaccia -style namesake proud. Morocco aubergine may be better yet, a pizza topped with baked eggplant, a fragrant pesto, feta and pine nuts. This pizza is such a good idea that you can’t help wondering why someone else hasn’t thought of it.

Unless you have put in an advance order, don’t expect much in the way of speed. The kitchen is on the slow side. And watch out for the pitcher of red chili oil that looms ominously on the counter; it is powerful stuff. A few drops flavor a whole pizza.

Inexpensive, with pizzas and sandwiches from $4.50 to $13.50.

7TH HEAVEN

3333 Bear St. in the Crystal Court, Costa Mesa

(714) 668-9464

Open Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 9 p.m.; Saturday, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., and Sunday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Checks and cash only.

Z PIZZA

30902 Coast Highway, South Laguna

(714) 499-4949

Open daily, from 11:30 a.m. to 9 p.m.

Cash only.