RESTAURANT REVIEW : The Cozy Pleasures of Mille Rose

I am in a dimly lit room full of old columns whose gold-leafed capitals support nothing but air. The ceiling is a dark-blue night sky. A row of busts line the wall; one, a woman, has red lips, as if she’s about to speak. Deep in the room, cherubs swarm in a field with hundreds, perhaps a thousand roses. Inserted in this angelic vision is a square window. Inside the window, one sees a small, cramped working kitchen where two chefs cook at a frantic pace.

This is no mid-autumn-night’s dream, no ruined Mediterranean villa, but Mille Rose, a new little Provencal restaurant below a tattoo parlor on Melrose Avenue.

The dining room is a fantasy of faux effects--everything, even the flowerpots, have antique finishes. The little bentwood cafe chairs are moderately wobbly on the slate tile floors, and none too comfortable. But the hostess is friendly and the lush background music is emotional and alluring.

At 7 on a Saturday night, we are virtually alone in the restaurant. Our order is taken, our Pellegrino poured, we’re given good sourdough toast with a butter and roasted pepper spread.

Within a reasonable amount of time, our appetizers arrive. The scampi is tasty, although its piperade is very mundane. A pretty salad of mixed baby greens is well dressed with walnut oil and served with two discs of decent marinated goat cheese.

Meanwhile, the room begins to fill. Many of the clientele speak French and are greeted at the door with two kisses. The waiter and waitresses are running now. The chefs in the window are moving at fast-forward. And the long wait begins.

Apparently, Mille Rose’s popularity is just now picking up and the staff hasn’t quite adjusted to the new demands. We sit for 40 minutes before our entrees arrive. My friend forgives this lapse immediately upon tasting his beef tournedo sauteed with green peppercorns and sherry. It’s a dreamy steak, somehow perfectly cooked in the middle of the dinner rush. I wish I could be happier with my meal. Described as duck confit with lavender honey, polenta and leeks, I get two slightly charred duck thighs and legs in a wee bit of dark sauce with just a few leek-shreds. The duck meat is tasty enough, and there are some lovely haricots verts, but the fat round of polenta is bland and heavy.

Mille Rose is open only intermittently on Sunday nights, but the next week we check in advance and show up with two friends.

On this cold, quiet evening, the service is impeccable and the food is hot and intermittently satisfying. For starters, we split a pissaladier , onion pizza with fresh tomatoes and very intense anchovies, but even among the anchovy lovers, it is not a great hit.

Luckily, there’s a good, hot, nourishing vegetable soup with white beans and pesto, and a decent, all-out Northern Italian salad with radicchio, endive, fresh mozzarella, Parmesan and thick strips of prosciutto. My favorite appetizer--and possibly my favorite dish at Mille Rose--is a plate with small, thick squares of home-cured salmon, hot crunchy cubes of roasted potatoes and cool, wonderfully dressed mixed greens.

Mille Rose may call itself a Provencal restaurant, but a lot of its cooking is as heavy and cream-laden as Continental food. The New York steak comes in a creamy bearnaise with green peppercorns. The chicken ravioli comes in a thick cream sauce with slivers of wild mushroom. Depending on a person’s tolerance level for butterfat, these dishes might be rich and wonderful or just overwhelming.

The monkfish entree is well-conceived but poorly executed; the fish itself tastes predominantly of its heavy herb topping, and the accompanying green lentil stew, despite its appealing chunks of browned pancetta and baby onions, is blandness itself.

On this Sunday, we order coffees and dessert. The creme brulee tastes like scorched marshmallows--a delicious and appropriate flavor for a cold autumn night. The tiramisu is pink, from berries--an odd and not altogether likable variation, to my mind.

Such close scrutiny of the food, however, belies the cozy pleasures of sitting in Mille Rose, with its funky faux interior and the cadences of spoken French wafting in the air with good cooking smells.

Mille Rose, 7661 Melrose Ave., Los Angeles, (213) 655-2924. Lunch Monday through Saturday, dinner seven nights. Beer and wine. American Express, MasterCard, Visa. Dinner for two, food only, $32 - $61.