Broadway! Italy! Encino?

Lately, it seems that every restaurant that opens in the San Fernando Valley is a brand-name restaurant, a successful L.A. spot looking for fresh dollars in a relatively underdeveloped market. Recent arrivals include branches of Versailles, Chin Chin, Cha Cha Cha, the Bistro Garden, even the Thai restaurant Arunee.

With the opening of Encino’s fashionable new complex, Courtyard Shops, two more have joined the neighborhood. Broadway Deli doesn’t have the terrific market or wine shop of the Santa Monica original, but there is a deli case stocked with a greatest-hits assemblage of products sold in at the other location. The dining room seems smaller too, but it’s a light-filled, good-looking place to eat everything from a pastrami sandwich to macaroni and cheese to steak.

Terrazza Toscana (Tuscan Terrace) is the latest from the people who opened Toscana and Rosti in Brentwood and Oli Ola in Pacific Palisades. Walk into the already crowded, beautiful dining room put together by New York designer Sam Lopata, and you’ll find a restaurant that is trying very hard to bring Italian restaurant traditions to Southern California.

As in many restaurants in Italy a table in the middle of the room holds some of the kitchen’s most appealing food--at night, desserts; at lunch, antipasti . “Would you like some water?” asks your waiter, standing ready with a tall, open bottle of Pellegrino. “Yes,” you say, savvy enough to know that, as in Italy, this is not a free service. Later, another bottle appears when you’re not looking--your bill will reflect such efficiency.

Still, much of the food is terrific. There’s fine pasta and pizza and chicken and fish. But stick to meat--filet mignon in a wild mushroom sauce, a giant T-bone or rib steak wonderfully charred in a wood-burning oven and served with good white beans--and you’ll do very well indeed.

* Terrazza Toscana, Courtyard Shops, upper level, 17401 Ventura Blvd., Encino. (818) 905-1641. Pasta, pizza and entrees $7.25 to $20 (and up for seasonal items).

* Broadway Deli, Courtyard Shops, upper level, 17401 Ventura Blvd., Encino. (818) 905-5595. Sandwiches, pasta and entrees $5.50 to $15.50.