Plates Await : If the dish runs away with the spoon or you otherwise come up short of place settings for your holiday table, an answer is at hand.

If a detailed dish count for your holiday table comes up short, help is near. About two months ago, The Dish Factory, a res taurant supply store, opened a location in the San Fernando Valley where restaurateurs and consumers alike uncover some extraordinary deals on cookware, dishes, glasses and flatware. For those occasions when the place settings of the good stuff don’t add up to a uniform table, this is the perfect solution.

To mix and match china patterns, plain white china usually works best. The prices here on vitrified china (similar to porcelain with the moisture removed) are affordable and even cheaper by the dozen. For a dozen 10-inch plates, the price is $19.99. A dozen seven-inch salad plates are $9.99, six-inch bread-and-butter plates are $4.99 per dozen, and 12 nine-inch soup bowls are $14.99. Platters are priced by the dozen at $28.99 but not many of us need 12. For just one, it’s $2.99. But individual casserole dishes are another story: For $5.99, you can purchase a dozen, and it’s a lovely luxury to know that you’ll have 12 that match.

If you’re short a chafing dish, a stainless steel model with stand in the industrial size (12 inches by 20 inches by 2 1/2 inches), which the manufacturer lists at $105.36, is priced at $49.99.

Should the stemware supply be depleted, plain glass goblets go for $25 a dozen. For handblown wine or champagne glasses, the price is $49.99 for a dozen.

Stainless steel flatware is also sold by the dozen, and the designs aren’t bad at all. A basic service for 12, consisting of a knife, fork and spoon setup, comes to $10.94.

But it’s not just the prices that make this shopping experience fun. It’s the availability of merchandise made for restaurants: individual ramekins, rarebit dishes, creamers and industrial-size pots and pans--items usually not available in housewares departments. Of course, you’re not buying instant heirlooms here. I found one item, however, that my great-granddaughter will probably cherish as a relic--an old-fashioned iron hand chopper/meat grinder--and it was only $30.

Some last-minute gift suggestions that only involve a phone call:

* At Your Service, in business since 1984, offers the perfect combo. Imagine getting a massage while the house is being cleaned. A $75 gift anyone would love. (213) 893-1475.

* Detail Time, a mobile auto-detailing service, has a gift certificate for slicking up the car. For $50, they come to you and wash, wax the exterior and vacuum the interior. For $75, interior leathers are cleaned and conditioned and the carpets shampooed. (310) 280-3553.

Where to Shop Location: The Dish Factory, 21109 Oxnard St., Woodland Hills. Hours: 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Mondays-Fridays and 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturdays. Cards: MasterCard and Visa. Call: (818) 888-3474.