RESTAURANT REVIEW : Ambience at La Pergola Will Steal Your Heart, but the Food Offers Little to Lust Over

Single men and women of the same age, tastes and interests can have many reasons for not falling in love with each other. My friend John and I faithfully invoke a number of such reasons and, so far, have managed to enjoy a good friendship. Recently however, during a lunch at La Pergola in Sherman Oaks, we almost threw all reason to the dogs.

It was the room.

During the day, La Pergola is a bright, sun-washed little restaurant that spills out onto the sidewalk. On every table is a big bouquet of fresh cut flowers--not the kind you can buy at the florist, but the kind you can only cut from a big lush home garden: sunflowers, lilies, roses of every color. In a huge vase on the counter, mature sunflowers, four and five feet high, reign over the restaurant like so many benign suns. There is no way to be unhappy or even indifferent in all the light and air and blooms. John and I found ourselves exchanging big-eyed stares, smiles from nowhere, heartfelt sighs.

Lunch itself started with a special of the day, a red pepper stuffed with chard that evoked summers and gardens, and what a good cook can concoct with nothing on hand but what’s ripe in the back yard. The bright, fresh taste was heady, and if lunch had continued in this vein, we might never have regained our senses.

As it happened, we had a bit of a reality check with a Caesar salad. I had high hopes for this salad because next door, at La Frite, one of the best Caesars in Los Angeles is made. If there was a little neighborly rivalry at work, I was certainly willing to enjoy the results. La Pergola’s Caesar, however, was so underdressed it was downright dry, and the lettuce wasn’t very fresh, either.

The Caesar proved to be a minor transgression. My angel-hair pasta with fresh tomatoes and heady, fresh-picked basil, brought summer back in full force. John ate the tuna special, a delicious charred rare loin in a rather overpowering soy/ wasabi sauce.

The next time John and I went to La Pergola, we brought my friend Kate along. No more taking chances on that room, we thought, not with just the two of us. As it happened, we needn’t have worried. This time we were here for dinner on a chilly Friday night. The clear plastic tarps were down, enclosing the sidewalk tables in a thick, shiny membrane. Despite reservations, we had to wait half an hour on the sidewalk outside before being led to a table on the sidewalk inside.

None of our dishes--either appetizers or entrees--was very good. The fried calamari was fine, but zucchini blossoms stuffed with Gorgonzola, spinach and mascarpone cheese looked and tasted like green goosh in a thin, vegetal casing. The eggplant rolled up with fontina and prosciutto (at least there was supposed to be prosciutto) was undercooked and tough.

All three entrees were a flop. The osso buco came in a sticky red sauce, and not one of the bones offered up a single speck of marrow. The cioppino was a pile of overcooked fish topped with a particularly hard, rubbery shrimp. My substantial ravioli was in a nice fresh tomato sauce, but after already having eaten a zucchini blossom, I’d had more than enough spinach and mascarpone filling too much green goosh.

Overall, the meal was a gastronomic flop. We were a little disappointed and a little cranky, especially when we saw the bill. It came to over $90, which seemed especially outrageous given the quality of the cooking. We left diminished in spirit.

At the same time, I can’t get that room--in the daytime, with the sunlight streaming in and the luscious bouquets on the tables--out of my mind.

LA PERGOLA

15005 Ventura Blvd., Sherman Oaks; (818) 905-8402.

Open Monday through Friday for lunch, 11 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., nightly for dinner, 5:30 to 11 p.m. Beer and wine. Valet parking. Visa and MasterCard accepted. Dinner for two, food only, $45 to $60.

Recommended dishes: Capellini alla checca, $9.50; stuffed peppers, $6.50.