COVER STORY : The Top 20 Restaurants in the Valley

It wasn’t long ago that the Westside restaurant community snickered at the thought of fine dining on our side of Mulholland Drive. Today, they are watching us like hawks.

Dining in the Valley has been steadily on the upswing for quite some time, while some Westside businesses are slumping. People living here once routinely planned evenings in Beverly Hills and Santa Monica. Now, that’s hardly necessary.

Additions like Cha Cha Cha, Posto and Pinot--just opened by Joachim Splichal of Patina fame, a man many consider the preeminent chef in Los Angeles--are giving Valley dining an entirely new image. If Pinot (in the former La Serre location) and these others continue to succeed, more first-rate chefs, and owners, are sure to follow.

Selecting the Valley Edition’s first top 20 restaurants took a bit of gerrymandering. The occasional pick in Glendale and the Antelope Valley indicate that these places are not only terrific, but that our community is expanding. Balance was also a factor in this list. The Valley has many fine delis, for example, but because Art’s is still first among equals, it is the only one singled out for praise. Ditto for Chinese, with the spotlight on Mandarin Deli. The price for dinner per person without wine is as varied as the restaurants and ranges from inexpensive (less than $15), to moderate ($15 to $30), to expensive (more than $30).

1 POSTO: Piero Selvaggio took a bold step when he opened his controversial Posto last fall. Some find his strikingly modern L-shaped dining room noisy. Others are unsure about his soothing, rustic fare, authentic Italian cooking with peasant overtones. All that aside, this is a superbly conceived affair, a truly grown-up restaurant. Chef Luciano Pellegrini’s dishes, frico , addictive Parmesan cheese chips, ribollita, a thick Tuscan soup, homemade sausages and beef brasato (stew) al Barolo with polenta croutons, capture the spirit of Italy with grace and skill. The restaurant’s encyclopedia-thick wine list, a Selvaggio calling card, is loaded with great selections for less than $30.

14928 Ventura Blvd., Sherman Oaks. (818) 784-4400. Expensive.

2 CHA CHA CHA: Six years ago, Toribio Prado knocked the Lower Melrose crowd on its ear with his colorful Caribbean fare. Now, his newest venture is doing the same in Encino. This restaurant is the ultimate sugar shack, a color-spasmed Disney ride serving incredibly delicious dishes with names like mambo gumbo, crispy jerk pork and Carioca chicken. Outrageous desserts, like Hilary’s frozen candy bar, layers of cookie, caramel, pistachio, raspberry and chocolate mousse. Prepare yourself for silly drinks, and some serious partying. Yeah, mon.

17499 Ventura Blvd., Encino. (818) 789-3600. Moderate.

3 PINOT: One visit to this homey bistro, opened on the site that once housed La Serre, will make you wonder why there aren’t more of these places. L.A. wonder boy Joachim Splichal and executive chef Octavio Bercerra have created a menu of country-style dishes you simply want to eat: endive salad with Roquefort and walnuts, fabulous duck confit, oxtail ragout with basil gnocchi, beef tongue and sumptuous home-style desserts. Prices are more than reasonable for cooking at Splichal’s level. The room, warm, comfortable and elegant, recalls old New England and ‘20s Paris.

12969 Ventura Blvd., Studio City. (818) 990-0500. Expensive.

4 SADDLE PEAK LODGE: This most rustic of local area restaurants is a refurbished lodge nestled securely in the Santa Monica Mountains, and there’s nothing else like it between here and the Rockies. The specialty is game--anything from wild boar chops to bison steak--but ‘90s-style salads, elegant pastas and more are available from a menu that spans the decades. Sit upstairs in the library room or outside at weekend brunch. Also, remember to reserve well in advance. Rustic, judging from the crowds here, is chic nowadays.

419 Cold Canyon Road, Calabasas. (818) 222-3888. Expensive.

5 CAKES AND COMPANY: Ken Frank protege Mitchell Frieder is chef at this homey cafe, the High Desert’s best restaurant. Jamaican jerk chicken, cassoulet, rosti potatoes with sour cream and golden caviar and a wondrous dish called Grandma Emily’s deep Southern pan-fried chicken are just part of an amazingly versatile configuration of good foods. Wife Susan does the pastries. Fabulous pancake breakfasts, too, cornmeal johnnycakes, airy, sour cream pancakes called Heavenly Hots and Frieder’s multigrain Company cakes, all served with real maple syrup.

858 W. Lancaster Blvd., Lancaster. (805) 948-2253. Moderate.

6 BARCELONA: Catalan Jose Maria Companys prepares the best Spanish food in Southern California, in a casual setting recently brightened with ceramics and blond wood. The specialty here is tapas, Spanish bar snacks served on tiny plates, savory delicacies such as morcilla , blood sausage, marinated octopus, tiny, meat filled pastries and chorizo--a spicy cousin to salami. Companys makes an opulent, seafood-rich paella Valenciana, and his pollo a la llama, chicken flamed over charcoal, is astonishing. Bring your own rioja . No wine license here yet.

14054 Burbank Blvd., Sherman Oaks, (818) 997-6604. Inexpensive.

7 DAILY GRILL: If “American Graffiti” were a restaurant concept, this casual yet swank dining establishment would be the prototype. The newest Daily Grill is one more restaurant that bounded over the hill, and the can’t-miss menu of nostalgic comfort foods has brought in the crowds from Day 1. Dishes like shrimp cocktail, Caesar salad, meat loaf and hot fudge sundaes are American classics. The house BLT on sourdough, crammed with what must be a half-pound of bacon, is the best sandwich in the world.

16101 Ventura Blvd., Encino. (818) 986-4111. Moderate.

8 DR. HOGLY WOGLY’S: This modest roadhouse serves the best barbecue in the entire Valley, and has won numerous awards to prove it. The full name for the restaurant is Dr. Hogly Wogly’s Tyler, Texas Barbecue, and in Texas, barbecue means beef brisket, hardwood smoked and served with a cumin spiked tomato sauce. The brisket here is soft and lean. It falls apart if you look at it. There are also great hot links, pork sandwiches and spareribs, to go with an array of above-average side dishes. The crowd in here, as you’d expect, is pure Americana.

8136 Sepulveda Blvd., Van Nuys. (818) 782-2480. Inexpensive.

9 ART’S: Art’s has a shiny new menu, but fear not. Almost everything on it, except for a couple of omelets and sandwiches, is exactly the same as before. Owner Art Ginsburg is a deli legend who never misses a beat. You still have to fight for a seat at lunchtime in his bright, boxy restaurant. Platters of smoked fish, pricey deli meats like peppery, soft steamed pastrami and Jewish comfort foods from stuffed cabbage to chicken-in-the-pot bring in schmoozers, industry types and serious fressers . Waitresses are battle-ready and frighteningly efficient. You’d better know what you want when they unfurl their order pads.

12224 Ventura Blvd., Studio City. (818) 762-1221. Inexpensive. 10 LA LOGGIA: La Loggia is steady but a consistent surprise, since the menu changes frequently here. The quasi-elegant dining room is crammed full of conceptual art and a chattering Valley crowd, with a decibel level bordering on ear-splitting. Primi , appetizers and pastas, are superb, piatta mistura, a combination of zucchini stuffed with artichoke and capers, baked mushrooms and crisp crab cakes, carrot gnocchi, chicken lasagna, fettuccine with porcini mushrooms and wonderful shrimp linguine. Solid but uninspiring main courses and desserts, but who’s hungry by then anyway?

11814 Ventura Blvd., Studio City. (818) 985-9222. Moderate.

11 KIX: Glendale’s Kix, on the site of the former Phoenicia, rings with originality. Ara Kalfayan has redone his old restaurant completely; the walls are a soft salmon, the kitchen features young American chef Mark Salonsky, a New York refugee. Sumptuous appetizer platters wow you with tabbouleh, grilled shrimp, minced chicken egg rolls, oysters in cornmeal and dill sauce and asparagus Nicoise, diced olives and capers on fat spears. Wild entrees run to coconut shrimp with pineapple salsa and crackling salmon. The good breads come from Pasadena Bread Co. Remarkable mini-wine list, full of holdover Cabernets from the old restaurant at bargain basement prices.

343 N. Central Ave., Glendale. (818) 956-7800. Moderate.

12 MANDARIN DELI: Mandarin Deli began as little more than a Chinatown storefront. Today, it’s practically a cottage industry. This is the house that dumplings built, steamed boats of pinched dough with juicy meat fillings, crispy fried dumplings, round soup dumplings, but it only begins there. Exquisite cold dishes include peanuts boiled in anise, soft, greaseless aromatic sliced beef, lu dan, preserved egg and cold shredded tofu. This newest North Valley location is a roomy foursquare building, done up in a variety of soft green hues. It’s no coincidence that green also happens to be the color of money.

9305 Reseda Blvd., Northridge. (818) 993-0122. Inexpensive.

13 BROTHER SUSHI: The Valley abounds with sushi bars, good ones like Teru Sushi, Nozawa and Shihoya, and to tell the truth, most of them have good fish and skilled sushi men. I like Brother’s Sushi because it is eccentric. Goto-san, the sushi master, is a creator, but his creations have an edge. House special roll uses shrimp, avocado, cucumber and white fish in a seaweed cone. Sauteed shiitake are brilliant, butter-rich mushrooms with shavings of bonito and bits of minced garlic. Try ankimo, a salmon-pink monkfish liver pate no Frenchman would go near.

21418 Ventura Blvd., Woodland Hills. (818) 992-1284. Moderate to expensive.

14 MISTRAL: There are plenty of places to get a good steak frites on the Boulevard, but this friendly bistro, which feels as though it was yanked from a Paris side street, is the most reliable of them all. Mistral’s dark wood walls, octagonal tile floor and crisp white linen tablecloths sparkle with Gallic charm. Chef Richard Flannigan puts out classic bistro cooking, impeccable salads vinaigrette, perfect onion soup, New York steak on a bed of sauteed shallots and crusty fruit tarts. Who needs Paris?

13422 Ventura Blvd., Sherman Oaks (818) 981-6650. Moderate to expensive.

15 JITLADA WEST: This modest offshoot of Hollywood’s excellent Jitlada remains the Valley’s best for this fiery cuisine, despite the fact that the two restaurants are no longer directly related. Larb , ground meat, rice powder and chili eaten inside cabbage leaves, a rich coconut chicken soup and the consummate pan-fried noodle dish, the menu’s No. 62, are just a few of the attractions here, but it’s an effort to find a dish you won’t like. Atmosphere is drab at best, and you won’t care.

11622 Ventura Blvd., Studio City. (818) 506-9355. Inexpensive.

16 BALALAYKA: Russian restaurants are proliferating, and this unassuming bistro/nightclub has the best kitchen of the lot. Owner Robert Chargchian is an Armenian who learned to cook in the Ukraine, and he is the master of several cuisines. His cold meats and smoked fish platters are delicate and alluring. Magnificent dumplings like Georgia’s khingali , oblate dough balls with a garlicky meat filling, can help you get through that cold winter. Don’t miss lamb Pokarsky, bone-in chops marinated in pomegranate juice, garlic and coriander, tasty enough to make you weep for Mother Russia.

19655 Sherman Way, Reseda. (818) 349-5300. Moderate.

17 MARIX TEX-MEX NORTE: Since there is no shortage of corner Mexican cafes around here, bypassing them in favor of a yuppified, sanitized Tex-Mex cafe may cause some quibbling. But I love Marix Tex-Mex Norte, a spiffy, sky-lit space with primitive cane chairs and lots of Southwestern art, because it’s fun. Great grilled corn on the cob, handmade tortillas and c harra beans, plenty of heart-smart entrees low in fat, sodium and cholesterol that don’t sacrifice taste in the process. The house desserts, definitely verboten to the American Heart Assn., include restaurant-made banana cream pie with vanilla bean custard and a brownie sundae with Haagen-Dazs and bittersweet hot fudge.

16240 Ventura Blvd., Encino. (818) 789-5400. Moderate.

18 GOLAN: The Wizgan family is Moroccan by way of Israel, which goes a long way toward explaining their cooking, Jewish Moroccan with Middle Eastern overtones. Golan, their restaurant, has just moved next door to a bigger space, but still boasts an unadorned ambience and laughably low prices. Mrs. Wizgan’s tahini , a sesame paste appetizer, is the richest, creamiest one anywhere. Moroccan cigars look like little taquitos, rolled cylinders of fried strudel dough with an aromatically spiced meat filling. Jewish couscous employs soft slices of brisket, melting in a thick tomato gravy.

6361 Woodman Ave., Van Nuys. (818) 989-5423. Inexpensive.

19 MOONLIGHT TANGO CAFE: Singing waiters, ‘20s Art Deco ambience and swing era entertainment notwithstanding, this mondo bizarro, only in L.A. supper club serves respectable, even imaginative food. Owner Ernie Criezis is as much impresario as restaurateur. He’s the man responsible for the Great Greek down the street, and Santa Monica’s superb Cafe Athens. Food like Opelousas black roux seafood gumbo, Greek salad, Texas gulf crab cakes and lamb loin with peppercorn sauce show just how versatile this kitchen can be. If you’re not hungry, come anyway, to gawk at the frosted glass chandeliers.

13730 Ventura Blvd., Sherman Oaks. (818) 788-2000. Expensive.

20 TRULY YOURS: These places (there’s one in Tarzana, another in Northridge) snuck in on good faith. Chef Lance Katcher has left to do his own restaurant--Coral Reef in Santa Monica--but the menu he put together is still a winner. Look for eclectic fare such as Oriental crispy duck breast, Basque beef stew and the daily selection of fresh fish, prepared in any of 19 styles (like Jamaican-banana and pineapple, flamed in rum). Fine omelets, sandwiches and desserts, too. Fresh squeezed lemon-lime pie and chocolate Bavarian delice , exemplary sweets created by Katcher’s pastry chef wife, Dawna, highlight a list of killer desserts.

18588 Ventura Blvd., Tarzana. (818) 996-3131. 9725 Reseda Blvd., Northridge. (818) 993-4714. Moderate.