RESTAURANT REVIEW : Eschew the Fat : Although Gangadin has bowed to modern tastes for less oily North Indian food, little pleasure is sacrificed in the process.

Gangadin is a small, elegant room that makes the most of limited resources. It’s easy to see why the restaurant has stayed afloat for eight years.

The smooth operators who run this place haven’t had to change much, but one sure bet is that their food has become progressively less oily over time. Health-conscious East Valley dwellers would never tolerate the scandalous amounts of butterfat most North Indian dishes call for, and the food here has clearly evolved accordingly. But has a certain amount of pleasure been sacrificed in the process?

I don’t think so. This is a charming place to eat. A red awning in front of the restaurant hangs down over the all-glass front entrance, so that when you are seated at your table in the narrow dining area, the effect is that of being in a sultan’s tent. The walls are filled up with glittery mirrors and Indian classical paintings, a nice complement for the sitar music filtering through on the restaurant’s sound system.

And the tables are set with flickering candles, just as they might be during Diwali, the Indian festival of lights that lasts nearly all of October. If Gangadin would just ditch the glass tabletops and paper place mats, the place would be a real jewel.

Genteel service helps. This is a restaurant with an attitude, all right, but the attitude is gracious, something from the days of the Raj.

The food here has its ups and downs--most of the ups being tandoori meats, the downs being the rather lifeless vegetarian dishes. The one real letdown is the three sourish chutneys (mint, tamarind and chile), which are not nearly as fresh or zippy as they should be.

Well, let’s go further and say something about the restaurant’s pickled mango and lemon rinds, flavored with turmeric and oil. They’re somewhat dreary, when they should be symphonically pungent. The menu proclaims these pickles are specially imported from India; big deal. A few local Indian restaurants put up mangoes and lemons themselves, rather than using canned pickles, and the results are spectacular.

But speaking of spectacular, how about this chicken tikka ? It’s chunks of white meat marinated in yogurt and spices, then seared on a skewer at the bottom of a clay oven. The chicken chunks are Gargantuan, with a crusty exterior and a steamy, tender inside. It’s best eaten with a good tandoori bread such as garlic naan or onion kulcha , two unleavened flat breads ever-so-gently kissed with melted butter.

Lamb boti kabab is the tikka’s politically incorrect counterpart, equally oversized pieces of lean lamb loin with a ruddy, crumbly exterior. The meat is not quite as tender as it might be, but it manages to be wonderfully gamy and flavorful. Both these dishes make satisfying, substantial appetizers, served as they are with piles of sizzling onions.

Aloo chat papri is probably the best appetizer for those who don’t eat meat. It’s Indian street food, really--a mixture of garbanzo flour wafers, hunks of potato, chopped tomato and a creamy yogurt sauce, unceremoniously mixed together and dumped into a metal dish. The worst starter would be the onion pakoras. When we ordered them, the onion slices (dipped in lentil flour batter and deep-fried) came up hot on the outside, cold on the inside, as if reheated. When I told the waiter, he merely wagged his head and vanished. It was the only service lapse we experienced here.

If you are going for one of the meats cooked in a sauce, try chicken korma. It’s delicious, but dieters should take note: Though there isn’t much butterfat in this dish, there is a fair amount of the cream and nuts a proper korma calls for. Lamb vindaloo , flavored with potatoes and vinegar, isn’t bad either. Ask for it spicy, though, or the kitchen will prepare a bland version.

The vegetarian dishes tend to be admirably low in fat, but they’re pretty bland themselves. In principle, channa masala should be a snappy dish of chick peas, tomatoes and onions, but Gangadin’s version is mushy. In saag aloo , a dish of spinach leaves cooked with potato and aromatic spices, spinach is supposed to be chopped, not mulched.

And eggplant bharta should have a smoky flavor from roasting the eggplant in the tandoor, but this bharta is pulpy, without much of any flavor at all. Maybe if they would just cheat a little and add a drop of that forbidden butterfat . . . .

Where and When Location: Gangadin, 12067 Ventura Place, Studio City. Suggested Dishes: aloo chat papri , $3.25; chicken tikka , $8.25; lamb boti kabab , $8.95; chicken korma , $7.50. Hours: Lunch 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m Monday through Friday, dinner 5:30 to 10 p.m. Monday through Saturday, 5:30 to 9 p.m. Sunday. Price: Dinner for two, $25 to $40. MasterCard and Visa. Beer and wine only. Street parking. Call: (818) 509-0723.