RESTAURANT REVIEW / THE SHORES : Mystifying Success : Aside from the delicious ribs, the reason for this hot spot’s popularity is hard to pin down.

As we were sitting at the bar one evening at The Shores Restaurant, I looked around and realized that the Critical Companion and I were probably the only people in the place who weren’t regulars. “Uh oh,” I mumbled, “this is one piece that’s sure to bring in some letters.”

The Shores is obviously a restaurant with a strong, loyal and local following, which isn’t going to want to hear some of the things I’m going to be saying about its favorite hangout. Then again, restaurant reviewing is so subjective it’s just as likely that the denizens of the bar and the dining room at this Oxnard Shores hot spot will just laugh me off. That’s all right, gang, in this business, you get used to it.

It has been my experience that hangouts that do a fairly decent business and have customers who love them can be good, sometimes very good, and frequently a lot of fun. They are some of my favorite places.

Here, it’s obvious, even before your eyes get accustomed to the dark, that the steady stream of regulars keeps the place going strong. I’m still trying to figure out why. Could it be the evening’s baseball game on the TV at the back of the room?

The decor can’t be the answer. Nestled in a line of miscellaneous stores, this meat-and-seafood place boasts a sort of maritime motif, with harpoons on the wall and an aquarium behind the bar.

And I don’t think the bar is what attracts them either. The mixes come out of a gun and the potency doesn’t begin to match that at, say, places such as M.K.’s in Ojai, Joe’s in Santa Barbara or even the Sportsman in Ventura. Since prime rib is at the top of the menu--although it’s only available on Friday and Saturday nights--I thought the meat might be the answer. The prices are right and there’s a selection of three sizes of the prime rib.

The Captain’s Cut ($10.95) is all right, but nothing to write home about, contrary to the views of the guy next to me at the bar one night. “I eat here nine or 10 times a week,” he enthused, “and the meat is great, although I sure wish they still had that fried chicken, it was fantastic.”

I don’t know about that; the chicken apparently got kicked off the menu before I arrived.

There is at least one outstanding dish at The Shores: the ribs. It turns out that all the prime rib is served without the bone. The bone has been removed in the restaurant’s kitchen. And if you’re lucky, there may be an order or two of ribs ($6.95) left. Cooked in the restaurant’s own barbecue sauce, these can be outstanding, meaty, tender, flaking off the bone.

The sirloin steak ($11.95) is as dull a steak as I’ve ever eaten, with no flavor, no character. It needs something, anything, perhaps just a dash or two of seasoning?

The shrimp in the jumbo shrimp cocktail ($7.95), contrary to the waitress’s report, taste frozen. They taste like the worst, mealiest example of a frozen shrimp. But the chowder ($2.50 bowl) can be one of the restaurant’s better dishes. One evening it was really good, with lots of clams, not too much thickening and a flavor right out of New England. But on two other nights they had tossed in too much flour or other thickener, and you could just about eat it with your fingers.

Depending on the night and the dish, the fish too can be good. A red snapper ($8.95) one night came out fine, while the halibut steak ($12.95), coming out of the same kitchen at the same time to the same table, was overcooked.

And when I think of lunch at The Shores, one item comes to mind: Liver and onions, with the liver overdone to the point that it’s easy to understand why most people don’t like it. The rest is a vague recollection of stale bread and overdone hamburgers.

Dessert is cheesecake ($2.75), made by chef Reyes Rengel. Not bad, Reyes--how about putting some of that effort elsewhere on the menu?

Steve Thomas and Judy Hoover, who have owned the place for the last nine of its 26 years, are--judging by the steady stream of customers at both bar and dining tables--doing something right. If I could just figure out what.

* WHERE AND WHEN

The Shores Restaurant, 1031 S. Harbor Blvd., Oxnard, 984-5533. Open for breakfast and lunch seven days, 9 a.m.-2 p.m., for dinner 5 p.m.-9 p.m. Full bar, reservations accepted, major credit cards accepted. Lunch for two, food only, $14-$17. Dinner for two, food only, $19-$50.