RESTAURANT REVIEW / L’AUBERGE : A Slice of Europe : The menu is a classic one, with a notable exception or two. And it is the classic dishes that one should order.

If I wanted to show a foreign visitor a piece of genuine Southern California--with gnarled oak trees, mountainous, semi-arid back country and a pepper tree or two--I’d think immediately of the Ojai Valley. And if the lucky traveler were interested in food, I’d even be able to provide a tiny slice of European cuisine, hidden away in an inland valley.

That’s the feeling you get when dining at L’Auberge Restaurant. Just a couple of blocks off Ojai’s main drag, it’s a spot where one dines best outside, on the porch at the rear. The view looks out through the oaks and to the Topa Topa bluffs. In the serenity of this environment, I’ve enjoyed some really succulent French-Belgian dishes; the menu here bills itself as a “Restaurant Belge.”

It is owned by Paul Franssen, a Belgian who was once the dining room manager at the Santa Barbara Biltmore Hotel. He has been operating in this “expanded cottage” for 13 years. His staffers, he says, “are all like my children,” which may account for chef Ted Gowrie’s 12-year tenure here.

Franssen has expanded the building over the years, making certain that those rear porch tables are comfortable in most weather--even on those hot summer evenings when the mountains are hazed and the air is hot and still. Fans turn the air then, and awnings come down at the right time to filter the sun. In the winter, heaters do the work.

L’Auberge’s menu is a classic one, with a notable exception or two. And it is the classic dishes one orders here.

The sweetbreads ($17.50), sauteed in white wine, mushrooms, herbs, shallots and Madeira, are very, very good. Plump, yet firm, they’re the sort even those who don’t eat sweetbreads can be persuaded to try and enjoy.

Persuading a fellow diner to try the duckling in orange sauce ($18) should be no problem at all. Next to those sweetbreads, the duck is my favorite dish at L’Auberge.

Gowrie, a veteran of the late, great Olive Mill Bistro in Santa Barbara, has followed the main rule of duck cooking: Keep it simple. His duck--I personally prefer the sauce on the side, subject to finding out just how well the duck itself is working out--has a lovely dry and crisp skin. The fat has been rendered in the oven, and the bird is tender and moist inside, seasoned with herbs, and turns out to be one of those that don’t need the sauce.

A frequent appetizer special is a refreshing cold cucumber soup ($4), yogurt-based with a hint of garlic and herbs. The other appetizers, such as the usual snails in garlic butter and a pate or two, are fine, but it’s the main dishes that deserve the praise.

If I could tear myself away from either the duck or the sweetbreads, I would probably turn to another classic piece: the frogs legs ($16.75). These are sauteed in an almost-creamy, reduced sauce of garlic, white wine and the usual herbs, shallots and butter. They’re very garlicky. They probably deserve a as-good-as-I’ve-had-in-France rating. Well, perhaps not quite, but very close.

When diners stray from the classics, they leave themselves open to disappointment. One evening I tried the Indian chicken curry ($16.75). The accompanying condiments--the ginger, for example--are nearly worth ordering the dish for. But the essence of the dish, the chicken itself, is disappointing. It’s a flattened breast of no particular distinction, not much more than a chicken patty.

But Gowrie redeems himself with his handling of vegetables. The string beans are thin, but not too thin, the carrots are small, but not too small. Each has lots of flavor and arrives in a butter sauce. I mention this only because these small but tasty vegetables remind me of how often we are served “baby” vegetables--minute versions that have left in the earth all flavor they might have hoped to obtain.

Desserts are pretty much in the same category as appetizers. Good, but not good enough to write home about. There is the creme au caramel ($4); the mousse au chocolat-- in either dark or white chocolate; and my own favorite, the bombe de creme glacee ($4). I just enjoy that first cut through the chocolate crust into the ice cream.

* WHERE AND WHEN

L’Auberge, 314 El Paseo Road, Ojai, 646-2288. Open for dinner every day except Tuesday, 5:30-9 p.m. Open for lunch (limited menu) Saturday and Sunday, 11 a.m.-2:30 p.m. Reservations accepted, major credit cards accepted. Beer and wine. Dinner for two, food only, $55-$65.