RESTAURANT REVIEW : Best of Cuba : Glendale’s La Cubana serves great, homey meals in a slightly hokey atmosphere.

Some weeks back, a review of an Encino restaurant called Versailles appeared in this column. To recapitulate, the place happens to be a recently opened branch of the L.A. Versailles, a wildly popular casual dinner spot that earned its reputation largely on the merits of one Cuban dish: roasted garlic chicken.

I subsequently heard from a Cuban doctor acquaintance whom I know to be serious about good cooking. “Your article on Versailles was fine,” he told me, “but the food at La Cubana in Glendale is much better.” I dropped everything and rushed right over, and found I agreed. Versailles is a consistently solid performer, but La Cubana is better.

It has been around for a long time, but it’s not the sort of place you’d notice. It’s a lot less hip than Versailles, and you won’t find that fabulous chicken on the menu. What you will find is some of the homiest, most addictively good cooking around, in a slightly hokey atmosphere intended for families with children and casual noshers.

Saturday nights are a madhouse at La Cubana, the only immediate clue being the chaos in the restaurant’s private parking lot. Most of the liveliness in this quiet Glendale neighborhood goes on indoors. It’s dark after 5 p.m., and there is rarely anybody prancing around on the street.

It’s different inside. The restaurant’s modest exterior is drab stucco, with almost no light emanating from the dozen or so ersatz stained glass window panels that make the place look like an Elks Club in Fort Wayne.

On the other side of the door is a large, airy room with brick walls, photographs of grand buildings in Cuba and the music of the Spanish language rising above the din of clattering dishes and festive music. It’s lively in the way Havana must have been in the ‘40s.

Sandwiches and potajes (soups) are found at the top of page one of the restaurant’s two-page menu, and that’s exactly where they belong. Sandwich Cubano , an entire meal at $3.95, is so good it deserves to be enshrined somewhere. Here’s what’s inside: thin sliced ham, lechon (succulent roast pork cut into equally thin slices), Swiss cheese, mustard, mayo and butter.

All this goes in butter-grilled Cuban bread, a sweet, dense and rather dry cousin of the French baguette that was invented for this sandwich. By the way, replace the Swiss cheese with homemade pickles and you’ve got a sandwich called media noche --literally “midnight”--the perfect midnight snack. Both sandwiches are amazing.

These soups are fantasy stuff too: thick, trencherman-quality potages employing various types of beans. Favada Asturiana , named for the Spanish version of cassoulet , is made with yellow fava beans, chunks of spicy sausage and plenty of garlic. Potage de frijoles colorado looks like an ordinary bowlful of red health store pinto beans . . . until you taste it. It’s subtly flavored with cumin and pork fat, making a dream peasant soup so substantial you probably won’t finish it all.

There isn’t much in the way of appetizers, salads or side dishes at this restaurant, mostly because the main dishes are substantial. Insist on tamales con mojo though, even if they are going to wind up in take-out boxes. La Cubana’s tamale is just a simple cylinder of masa without a filling, but it has a soft, perfect texture and deliciously vinegary tang.

Ensalata de aguacates is a salad you should insist on. It consists of chunks of luscious, ripe avocado, a blanket of shredded onion and a dressing with that same irresistible tang.

Most of the hearty main dishes come with rice and black beans, both staples of the Cuban diet. You can substitute other starches such as yuca , fried plantains or a plateful of soggy French fries for the rice and beans, but I wouldn’t. Apart from being the perfect complement to these dishes, the fragrant, fluffy rice and majestic black beans are the best prepared of the restaurant’s side dishes.

Lechon (roast pork), my favorite dish here, is unfortunately only available on weekends. During the week, meat-eaters can choose between good grilled steaks, ropa vieja (shredded beef in a piquant tomato sauce), the breaded steak known as bistec empanizado, pork chops sizzling with garlic and several sea food specialties.

I must report that zarzuela de mariscos , at $17 per person (minimum two orders), is one of the least satisfying dishes here: crab claws, shrimp and halibut lumped together in a casserole with tomato sauce, losing their individuality as a result. Paradoxically, the simple breaded snapper filet (filete de pargo ) is a delight at only $6.50, and there’s no ambiguity whatsoever about what you are eating.

Where and When Location: La Cubana, 720 E. Colorado St., Glendale. Suggested Dishes: favada Asturiana , $1.75; tamales con mojo , $1.25; sandwich Cubano , $3.95; lechon , $7.95; filete de pargo , $6.50. Hours: Lunch and dinner noon-9 p.m. Tuesday-Sunday. Beer and wine only. Parking lot. Price: American Express, MasterCard and Visa. Dinner for two, $17-$40. Call: (818) 243-4398.