RESTAURANT REVIEW : Tivoli in Pacific Palisades: Italian Never Tasted So Healthy

“Mom,” asked the young boy at the next table, “can I have a Diet Coke?”

His parents, dressed as if for a hike in the Rockies, beamed indulgently. We were in Pacific Palisades.

Basically, you’d have to call Tivoli Cafe a sort of Italian diner. It’s a crowded, brightly lit place with tiny tables where you pick your wine not by poring through a printed list but by grabbing one of the bottles stacked around the wall. But as the diet-conscious family was wearing the best quality hiking gear, you’d have to call Tivoli a high-class Italian diner. Even a diet Italian restaurant.

It starts out with very good bread, which could be expected, since the proprietors’ husbands own Il Forno in Santa Monica. The soup might be mushroom: a pure, intense mushroom puree, with no cream. Or it might be corn with a fragile hint of cilantro.

Tivoli’s version of calamari is distinctive, the squid mixed with shrimp, yellow and red sweet peppers, black olives and capers. The white bean salad is a wholesome item that could certainly be recommended to the diet-conscious hiking family: cold Italian white beans and tuna with basil, mild red onions and vinaigrette. The vegetable plate is doubtless healthful: carrots, squashes and a broiled tomato, not grilled as one might expect.

Mostly what’s going on here, though, is pizzas, a long list that incidentally includes a dietarily inspired model called the Ken: shiitake mushrooms and tomato sauce, but no cheese. Whatever you order, you may get handed a sample. The idea of a cheeseless pizza takes getting used to, but it’s actually light and enjoyable on its own terms.

The pizzas, all on tasty medium-thick dough, include most of the designer favorites of recent years: “Popeye” (spinach and goat cheese), quattro stagioni , quattro formaggio and so on. Several have local names. The Santa Monica uses low-fat cheese; the Malibu is topped with quite smoky mozzarella and lamb sausage; the Palisades is a very tasty model combining duck sausage, dried tomatoes and sharp goat cheese.

The non-pizza entrees include some sandwiches, including a very satisfying lamb sandwich on a crusty bun with lettuce, tomatoes and brown gravy. There are always some specials as well, possibly whitefish with a slightly spicy sauce consisting of chopped tomatoes, red bell peppers and a little bit of hot pepper. The version of Dijon chicken comes in a somewhat peculiar sauce that tastes slightly of mustard and strongly of chicken broth.

There’s a cheesecake with a lot of integrity, and certainly a lot of cheese flavor. As an alternative to the usual tartuffo ice cream dessert, there are some fruit sherbets of impressive purity: just frozen fruit pulp, with no sugar or dairy products. The papaya ice comes in a hollowed-out papaya, and tastes pretty good for something so blamed healthful.

The best dessert, though, has no health excuse at all. It’s the tirami su made by the mother of one of the owners: ladyfingers soaked in espresso, mixed with creamy sweetened mascarpone cheese and stacked like cordwood. It is one of the most authoritative versions of tirami su around. No health excuse at all.

Madam, listen to me. Give your son a break. Just once, give him a little tirami su . There’ll be time enough for papaya ice.

Tivoli Cafe, 15306 Sunset Blvd., Pacific Palisades. (213) 459-7685. Open for lunch and dinner Monday through Saturday. Wine only. Street parking. MasterCard and Visa accepted. Dinner for two, food only, $22 - $48.