RESTAURANT REVIEW / CAFFE SIENNA : Nouvelle but Filling : Artful choices from the four basic food groups: pasta, chicken, pizzas, calzone.

There’s some fancy food presentation going on at a new corner restaurant inside the North Ranch Mall in Westlake Village.

You know what I mean. An edible flower petal crowning a dish of pasta, geometric lines of sauces running from the edges of a plate of chicken and joining one another somewhere else on the plate, dribblings--dare I use a word like that?--of artful sauces along the edges of a ravioli appetizer. All of the colors are coordinated.

Don’t let this frighten you. I know, the concept of a flower sitting atop one’s food may make you shriek, “Not nouvelle again!” And there is the fact that Caffe Sienna’s chef does have a Wolfgang Puck background. That usually translates into beautiful food presentations that are pieces of art in themselves, and wonderful tasting--but not always too filling.

Worry not. Executive chef Derek T. Ashworth brings to the suburbs the virtues of the Puck cuisine, and enough food to fill your stomach. What I’m still trying to figure out is how there’s room to accomplish this in a place so small.

Caffe Sienna, previously the site of a pita sandwich store, is a single room of simple floor tiles, a semi-exposed kitchen, wooden trimming, small tables and original paintings and murals by Diane Knopf, wife of one of the owners.

The restaurant’s size may account for the fact that, if you’re dining alone, you’re relegated to one of those narrow tables--about 20 inches--where you get to hunch your shoulders together.

We’re talking four basic food groups here: pastas, chicken, pizzas, calzone--and a few appetizers. Since the most interesting-sounding appetizer--the stuffed artichoke--had already been eliminated from the menu by the time we found the Caffe a month after its opening, we found ourselves munching on the Ravioi Sienna ($5.95).

It’s one large ravioli filled with minced smoked salmon and floating in a savory sauce of mascarpone and other cheeses. Delicate and color-coordinated, the dish boasts a meager amount of filling. If you’re in a delicate mood, it’ll do very well.

Otherwise, the Critical Companion raved about the grilled shrimp appetizer ($6.50). “Outstanding,” gurgled the CC. Marinated and gently grilled, served with julienned vegetables, it is all topped with a basil vinaigrette.

Salads are, um, a mixed bag. We would have done well without the antipasto salad ($8.50 full portion) with its not-so-luscious tomatoes, its prosciutto cut too thin and its uninspiring cranberry vinaigrette. But I did love the Sienna salad ($7.95 full portion), a simple dish of better tomatoes--who knows why?--lots of fresh basil and buffalo mozzarella, tossed in a beautiful balsamic vinaigrette.

The consensus was that the calzone at Caffe Sienna was the star of the show. Their crusts were crisp and glazed on top, the edges doughy, but not dried out as they frequently can be.

The Caffe has a wood-burning oven, and the kitchen crew seems to know just how to time the dish. What they call their traditional calzone ($7.95)--stuffed with three cheeses, mozzarella, ricotta and fontina, fresh tomatoes and onions--is moist and slides sort of sensually into your mouth.

On the “decorator” calzone side, there’s the BBQ chicken ($8.50), with sauteed chicken in a BBQ sauce mixed with cheeses, sweet peppers and almost-crisp onions. As good as I’ve tasted in a long while.

The CC claims “the crust is the test of any pizza,” and swears to make detours just to eat the Caffe’s pizza crust again. I don’t know. I found the Malibu pizza appetizer ($5.95), which boasted clams, capers and jalapeno peppers, to be short on topping. I don’t even remember any clams, and only a countable number of capers. The same stinginess of topping is apparent in the chicken sausage pizza ($8.75). But I concede that to a real pizza lover--which I must confess I am not--crust really is the test.

The pasta list has some typical Puckish ideas. There’s the tiger shrimp pasta ($9.95), with shrimp sauteed in pasilla peppers and green onions, and covered with a spicy cream sauce and served over spaghettini. On the chicken side of the list (but really a pasta dish) is prosciutto and chicken ($10.50), served next to fettuccine in a garlic cream sauce. In this case, the thin ham helps the dish’s texture.

Although it certainly doesn’t sound as exciting as the others, I found the pasta primavera ($9.50) to be the best on the list. It’s a dish of fresh linguine served with zucchini, eggplant and other fresh vegetables, tossed in olive oil and topped with Parmesan. Very simple, extremely satisfying.

I’d have ordered the chicken piccata, but it was another dish that had already left the menu. Instead, the waiter suggested the chicken Sienna. The breast was slightly overcooked, we all agreed, and instead of the asparagus on the menu there was sauteed eggplant. But the eggplant was outstanding. The sauce on the chicken was hazelnut cream mixed with ricotta and goat cheeses. If you’re a hazelnut fan, this is the dish for you.

Caffe Sienna is a small, young restaurant. I hope it lasts. One of the rasons I hope so is its serving staff. They are also young, and very eager.

Our waitress one evening was struggling with opening a bottle of wine. “It’s my first night,” she candidly told us. “I’m sorry I’m not doing this as elegantly as I should be.” Give her time.

* WHERE AND WHEN

Caffe Sienna, 3825 Thousand Oaks Blvd., Westlake Village, (805) 373-6060. Open for lunch and dinner Monday-Thursday 11:30 a.m.-3 p.m., 5-10 p.m., Friday-Saturday 11:30 a.m.-3 p.m., 5 p.m.-11 p.m., Sunday 3:30-9:30 p.m. Reservations accepted, major credit cards accepted, beer and wine. Lunch or dinner for two, food only, $16-$56.