RESTAURANT REVIEW : Dining Just for Kix : Stuffy Phoenicia has been replaced by a casual, salmon-hued room with a terrific, low-priced menu and wine list.

Remember the greening of America? Now let’s try the salmoning of Glendale.

Kix, a panorama of salmon tones today, was gray and pink back when it was called Phoenicia. In those opulent days Phoenicia considered itself a fancy restaurant. One could eat Beluga caviar and clay pot chicken there, and get lost in the encyclopedic 53-page wine list.

Now the restaurant has been completely refurbished into a casual, breezy room with the kind of color scheme that, as one woman put it, “makes everyone’s complexion look rosy.” Owner Ara Kalfayan even pumps in hip music these days; at my last lunch there, a Bob Marley tape was playing in the dining room. Signs of the times.

What this doesn’t tell you is that Kix is a terrific little restaurant where the menu lists nothing over $12. Kalfayan recently brought in chef Mark Salonsky, a refugee from New York’s Le Parker Meridien Hotel, and the man is really imaginative. Kick-start a meal here with Salonsky’s special platter of assorted appetizers. It’s the best appetizer plate I can recall eating for a long time, and it gives you a good idea of the chef’s range.

The plate’s centerpiece is a big pile of tabbouleh salad ringed with fat grilled shrimp--homage to owner Kalfayan’s Armenian heritage, perhaps. The salad is flanked by savory, densely packed egg rolls filled with minced chicken and gently kissed with cumin seed; oysters lightly dredged in cornmeal and blanketed with an ethereal dill sauce; and something Salonsky calls “asparagus Nicoise,” which combines fresh green asparagus with diced olives and capers. Wow.

If finger food isn’t your thing, Salonsky has other appetizers up his sleeve. Grilled vegetables and warm goat cheese may sound banal, but in the hands of this chef, it’s a vegetarian’s dream plate: thinly sliced eggplant, zucchini, carrot and oyster mushroom, lightly browned in olive oil and served with thin slices of garlic toast made from chewy baguettes provided by the Pasadena Bread Co. (also responsible for the fine, crusty country white and the raisin walnut bread this restaurant serves to all comers).

Splitting Salonsky’s delicate, lightly sauced pastas is another way to work yourself into the entrees, the only caveat being that they have a slight bias toward the sweet. Wild mushroom and spinach ravioli would be my choice. The noodle skin is perfect, and a scallion and cucumber “confetti,” with the cucumber cut to look like ribbon candy, gives the dish real character. Black pepper fettuccine with spicy sausage doesn’t quite live up to its promise. Candied onions and apple cider make the sauce cloy rapidly.

Salonsky stumbles sometimes, I must say. Roasted corn soup is a brilliant idea, but I’m not totally sold on the execution. The soup looks gorgeous, a pale yellow froth swirled with a faint colored carrot puree. But the tastes are slightly insubstantial, and you find yourself reaching for the salt and pepper all too quickly.

Usually the problem is Salonsky’s sugar fetish. Among the entrees, oven-roasted duckling has a crisp, though sweet, skin. The breast is served Chinese-style, chopped into pieces, while the leg rests on a bed of creamy polenta and (hold on) mapled cranberries. Crackling salmon gets its name from the skin, obviously--so why is this fish swimming in a pool of sticky sweet Cabernet wine sauce? Smoky white beans come on the side and almost rescue the dish by themselves.

Other entrees include a mean barbecued catfish, served with roasted potatoes and wilted spinach, and an interesting herb-crusted chicken (this is the dish you wish were crisp) that comes with mashed potatoes.

The best entree, coconut shrimp with pineapple salsa, happens to be the one that sounds sweet--but it isn’t. The shrimp are coated in one of the most delicate and flavorful batters anywhere, a mixture of cornmeal and toasted coconut that makes you want to eat until you burst.

Another irony: Desserts don’t amount to much here. Special desserts such as millefeuille of apples and walnuts with caramel sauce, which are likely to come hot out of the oven, are about as good as they get here. The rest are average upscale pastry tray fare, like a creamy chocolate ganache and a couple of randomly topped cheesecakes.

The restaurant has a small but remarkable wine list. Kalfayan has several wines from his former restaurant, and because he’s been sitting on them for a long time, some of the prices are just not to be believed. An ’85 Diamond Creek Volcanic Hill Cabernet is $38 and the ’81 Ridge Montebello Cabernet is $41. Drink up, They won’t be around for long.

WHERE AND WHEN

Location: Kix, 343 N. Central Ave., Glendale.

Suggested Dishes: Special appetizer platter, $6 per person; grilled vegetables and goat cheese, $6; coconut shrimp and chips, $8; oven-roasted duckling, $11.

Hours: Lunch and dinner 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Monday through Saturday. Closed Sunday. Valet parking. Full bar.

Price: All major cards. Dinner for two, $20 to $35.

Call: (818) 956-7800.