A Taste of New York in Costa Mesa

“See, it’s the Statue of Liberty!” The waitress says this as she sets down a plate of spit-roasted pork garnished with a crown of crisply fried polenta spikes. “You can tell the chef came from New York.”

The chef, Christine Hillmer, has cooked in New York (also at San Francisco’s Zuni Cafe), and the restaurant she’s cooking in comes from New York too. Piccola Cucina is the first West Coast venture from cookbook author and restaurateur Pino Luongo, who owns New York celebrity joints Coco Pazzo and Le Madri, as well as other Piccola Cucinas around the country.

This newest Piccola Cucina, on a quiet third-floor section of the South Coast Plaza next to the New York clothier Barney’s, is a pleasant place to sit, asylum from the hordes of shoppers below. On a warm, sunny day the patio makes a nice spot for lunch or early dinner--the flower-covered lattice wood panels almost hide the rooftop machinery that keeps the mall’s Chanel and Gap browsers in temperature-controlled comfort. Inside, the dining room has the look of a sophisticated cafe, with a view of the kitchen and the wood-burning oven from which thin-crusted pizzas emerge.

Much of the menu is made up of the sort of dependable Italian classics we’ve come to expect in the last 10 years--carpaccio, spaghetti aglio e olio , roast chicken, lots of salads. But there are also hand-rolled garganelli (like floppy penne ), tossed with a good sauce of ground veal and prosciutto. Lasagna isn’t the usual heavy red-sauce deal but a changeable dish with different ingredients, maybe fennel and chicken, each day. Mozzarella is made at the restaurant. The fish of the day is wrapped in lemon leaves and steamed. And there’s a small but well-chosen wine list, though a little more expensive than it needs to be.

With a few adjustments--the pizza needs work, the espresso could be thicker, and that Statue of Liberty pork had a nice garlicky roast flavor but was a little dry--Piccola Cucina has the potential to become one of the area’s nicest Italian restaurants.

Piccola Cucina, 3333 Bristol St., South Coast Plaza, Costa Mesa, (714) 556-5844. Entrees $10.50 to $19.50.