RESTAURANT REVIEW : Angeli Mare Nets Rich Menu

Here’s everything you want to know about the new Marina del Rey branch of Caffe Angeli/Angeli Trattoria.

First, where the heck it is. Angeli Mare doesn’t bother with much of a sign. Until it put up a banner advertising its brunch, the main clue was the parking valet station. The next thing you might be curious about is what lies behind those blunt, bulging wooden doors. The design turns out to be far mellower than at the other Angelis. No metal objects stick out of the walls; instead, a grand rolling pattern of wooden bars fills the ceiling like breaking waves. Diners are in effect under a symbolic surf, looking out through the smoked-glass windows.

As for the decibel-level question: It has reached a sort of perfection. The trademark Angeli wall of sound is loud enough that you needn’t imagine another table could listen in on you, but at the same time you can actually hear each other.

If you know any of the other Angelis, you already know a lot about the food. There’s Angeli’s long list of elegant pizzas, including the luscious pizza meradona (a double pizza sandwiching a layer of cream cheese and prosciutto) and a pizza topped with the flavorings for pasta puttanesca , which works surprisingly well.

The Angeli appetizers are there too, such as suppli , the fried ball of saffrony risotto filled with cheese. There’s flavorful bread from the pizza oven, served straight, in sandwiches at lunch (there’s a good one of grilled tuna with capers), or as bruschetta with toppings that change daily. Desserts include old favorites: mixed Italian cookies, the not over-sweetened tirami su with its thick powdering of cocoa, zabaglione ice cream and so on.

What distinguishes Angeli Mare from the other Angelis is its specialty in seafood, which appears mostly on the page of daily specials. To be sure, the regular appetizers include two fishy items: the subtle, elegant tuna carpaccio topped with mild mustard sauce, white beans and radishes, and the blatant marinated sardines with julienned fennel and peppery oil.

Some of the specials are virtually permanent, too. Cacciucco , a fish and shellfish soup with rich tomato broth, and spaghetti with sweet, tiny clams (in a sauce of white wine and, as the menu puts it, “much garlic”) are there practically every day.

Good as the pizzas and the other old favorites are, the seafood dishes show Evan Kleiman’s taste for vivid flavors in an appealing new key, and I wish there were even more of them. For instance: grilled tuna carelessly scattered with fennel seed, or the whole snapper seasoned with rosemary and thyme and baked in grape leaves.

The dish that impressed me most was roast monkfish with basil-walnut sauce. It was essentially a walnut pesto, rich and pungent. For once, a perfectly convincing thing to do with the rich but oddly musky flavor of monkfish.

The final thing you want to know about Angeli Mare is what it serves for brunch. Champagne and fresh orange juice, of course, but mostly pastas, including penne with sweetened cinnamon ricotta, and a sweet risotto with optional raisins and pine nuts. The frittatas are not the thick baked sort but flat fried mixtures of egg and flavorings: say, Italian sausage and onions, sweet from the sausage and onions and aromatic with anise.

At brunch, the bruschetta is focaccia bread spread with olive oil and crushed garlic, which will wake you up in a hurry. And there it is. That’s what you want to know about Angeli Mare.

Angeli Mare, Marina Marketplace, 13455 Maxella Ave . , Marina del Rey. (213) 822-1984. Open for lunch and dinner daily; Saturday and Sunday brunch. Full bar. American Express, MasterCard and Visa. Dinner for two, food only, $25-$55.