An Accent on Value at Andreas

If Andreas had opened three years ago, the prices might have been a third higher and the food would certainly have been more complicated by half. This year, in the midst of the downscaling of L.A. restaurants, owner Andreas Tessi (former publisher of the “Epicurean Rendezvous Restaurant Guide”) opened a comfortable bistro-style restaurant with good, homey Swiss-Continental cooking--and so far nothing costs more than $14. The only excess here: French accents.

Where before, a place like Andreas might have offered its customers pricey fillets of veal, the veal dish on this menu is eminces de veau , a French dish originally devised as a nifty way to use leftovers. Chef Eric Cuenin makes a Swiss-French version with thin slices of veal and veal kidney cooked in a mushroom-cream sauce and served with crisp-edged potato dumplings.

Another Swiss dish: bunderfleisch , Swiss air-dried beef, served with artichoke salad. And on special last week there was a fine boar stew served on a bed of polenta. Escargots, stewed with mushrooms, comes to the table in a tiny copper saucepan.

Andreas also serves the sort of food familiar to anybody who dines regularly in L.A. restaurants: grilled salmon, sea bass, chicken; steak; lamb shank with mashed potatoes; a vegetable plate that’s far more interesting than the usual forests of steamed broccoli.

Recession dining doesn’t have to be painful.

* Andreas, 8115 Melrose Ave., Los Angeles, (213) 653-7351. Pasta and entrees $6.50 to $13.25.