RESTAURANT REVIEW : Cafe Med Speaks Light, Clean Italian

It’s a balmy Sunday autumn night at Cafe Med. We’re inside, at a table by an open door. Mere yards away, Sunset Boulevard traffic champs at the stoplight and hurtles on. Down the hill, the city twinkles. Cafe Med is bustling. A large table of models looks like men in a Banana Republic ad. An older man dining with his wife is trim, courtly, quiet: an esteemed Hollywood literary agent. Giorgio perfumes the air. At a sidewalk table, two men kiss passionately. Across from us, a handsome Italian man cuddles his striking blond sweetheart; is she actually sitting on his lap?

It is, in other words, a typical Sunset Plaza crowd that has swirled quickly and buoyantly into Cafe Med. Brought to us by Roberto Ruggieri, owner of the now-closed Bice, this is the first L.A. franchise of his Milan restaurant chain.

It’s no wonder the place is humming. The room is a lovely swoop of lemon-yellow walls trimmed in a dark foliage-green. Tables are garnished casually, with crinkled orange glass candle holders and dried bouquets in discarded blue Tynant water bottles. Service is classy, friendly, blissfully free of attitude. And the food’s about as good as moderately priced Italian cooking gets in this city. My main complaint is that the tables are so jammed together that moving through the restaurant is a squeeze.

One misstep--a friend receives tagliatelle with meat sauce instead of tagliolini with shrimp. But the mistake is promptly, graciously corrected.

The menu will surprise no one who eats out in Los Angeles Italian restaurants: carpaccio, pasta, wood-fired pizza, roast chicken, grilled fish, veal. But the food itself is surprisingly good: well-prepared, nicely presented, sparkling with flavor.

Appropriately autumnal, smoked carpaccio with truffle oil and shaved Parmesan is redolent of wood smoke and bosky forest flavors. Utterly different is luscious house-smoked swordfish carpaccio--thin slices of pale pink fish topped with a small scoop of diced slightly hard potatoes in a rich yellow mayonnaise.

My favorite salad is a heap of lightly dressed Belgian endive, a pile of fresh whole walnuts and slices of creamy, sharp Gorgonzola cheese; you assemble each bite as you wish. The tricolore and warm goat cheese salads, both expertly made, seem prosaic in comparison.

Pizzas have a good thin crust and lightly applied toppings, which keeps the flavors clear, distinct. For onion lovers, the Magherita with fresh chopped tomato and red onions is simplicity itself.

A number of the pastas are homemade, among them a wonderful plate of big, flappy, chewy hand-cut ravioli stuffed with spinach and ricotta drizzled with sage-scented butter. The homemade tagliolini with sweet shrimp and fresh baby artichokes has a light tomato sauce brightened with wine. Gnocchi are pillowy, addictive in a satiny tomato-based wild-mushroom sauce.

One night’s special had beautifully cooked pieces of striped bass and salmon on a bed of fresh hot tomatoes and green beans in a warm balsamic vinaigrette. Roasted chicken is tender, juicy and served with crusty oven-roasted potatoes and a salad of baby greens.

Portions are generous, but the food is light and clean. With only mild restraint, it’s possible (and desirable) to save room for dessert.

We’re reading the dessert menu trying to decide what to order when one friend peers over rather too obviously to see what dolci the Italian man and his blond girlfriend are eating. “ Tiramisu !” the young man cries. “Delicious!” He loads his fork, detaches from his girlfriend and delivers it to the mouth of my curious companion. After our happy, good dinner, this sort of ebullience does not seem in the least out of place.

The tiramisu is pretty good--too many ladyfingers, perhaps, but still as light in volume as it is dense in butterfat. Later, when our own desserts arrive, we return the favor, trading back tastes of ricotta cheesecake and chocolate cake. The cheesecake is only average, but the chocolate cake is so intensely, purely chocolate, it’s more dark mystical substance than baked good--apt to induce swoons and forgetfulness. Best chase this indulgence with a demitasse of excellent, equally intense espresso.

* Cafe Med, 8615 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, (310) 652-0445. Lunch and dinner served. Beer and wine. Parking in rear. Major credit cards accepted. Dinner for two, food only, $29-$56.