RESTAURANT REVIEW : Where Food and Mood Convey the Right Flavor : Paul’s Italian Villa is a Simi Valley eatery where pleasant surroundings and good food have been bringing back customers for years.

One of my regular dining companions keeps telling me that restaurant reviews should always include an assessment of the “vibes.” Though fairly intangible and highly subjective, he claims vibes are an essential component of the appeal (and success) of a restaurant which, of course, depends precisely on the good will of its patrons to survive.

He accompanied me recently to Simi Valley and Paul’s Italian Villa, a restaurant that has been serving meals with an Italian flavor since 1961. The two of us slid into a well-worn booth and I watched him look around, take a deep breath, throw his head back and let the vibes wash over him.

“Good,” he pronounced. And I had to agree. A clattery, chattery, cheerful sound formed a pleasant backdrop here; the waitresses moved with brisk energy, and the diners looked happy.

The food is reasonably priced, generously portioned and sometimes quite good. It may be more “Eyetalian” than Italiano, but I get the feeling the regulars don’t mind. This place has been making people happy for a long time.

High on the list of the charms of the restaurant is a veritable riot of murals, tromp l’oeil extravaganzas and architectural facades. A walk through the restaurant is somewhat like a kitschy travelogue. One entire room was done up in arches and lush gardens. Elaborate faux windows graced one wall, while on another, a vibrant mural of Venice made the canal look like a giant green swimming pool. We sat under an impressive three-dimensional miniature of a Venetian palace with rows of lit-up columns and arches.

On our first visit, the soup was scalding hot and the salad icy cold. The soup was a decent minestrone made with a tomato broth. The Italian dressing on the salad was excellent. On a later visit, however, the salads were literally drowning in dressing, with the croutons floating on top. This may have been the fault of our waitress whose eagerness was startling. She even responded to our orders with a cheerful, “Awesome, I can handle that.”

An appetizer combo ($6.95) presented the entire range of fried appetizer choices. They do a good job with their frying, though it can’t be described as light. Best were the fried zucchini, while the worst were the pizza sticks that resembled miniature hot dogs and tasted like warm crackers. Fried calamari rings had a cookie-cutter perfection and could have passed for onion rings. Fried mozzarella was salty, somewhat rubbery and as addictive as potato chips.

The menu seemed deceptively simple, though it offers an exponential range of choices among its five basic food groups: pasta, pizza, veal, chicken and seafood. For instance, choosing between butter or oil doubled the number of pastas, which in turn came with mushrooms or spinach or broccoli--and eight different kinds of pasta.

The offbeat spinach proved to be a good choice with pasta. The spinach had all the salty, garlicky flavor, while the capellini had a slippery, satisfying texture.

Chicken Florentine ($11.95) also made good use of the virtues of fresh spinach. A huge platter of moist chicken breast, well-flavored by a sauce of garlic, wine, lemon, and mushrooms all nestled, along with the greens, under a blanket of melted cheese.

This dish, like most entrees, came with a small side dish of capellini , smothered by a somewhat pedestrian, sweet tomato sauce. Since the entrees have such distinctive sauces of their own, you would be well advised to ask for the side dish of capellini plain, so not to strike a jarring note with the entree.

Veal Marsala ($13.95), for instance, had a marvelous sauce, sweet and tangy and full of mushrooms and onions. And Mediterranean scampi ($15.25) consisted of a plate full of large solid shrimp in a fine garlic wine butter sauce with dried Italian herbs.

That tomato sauce went better on a dish such as baked ziti ($9.25.), a meal in itself and a comfortable marriage of various cheeses, big soft noodles and sauce.

For my money, the pizza was better when we ordered our own toppings. “The works” (medium $14.35) was massively fabricated with four kinds of meats, including one that resembled sliced canned meat. I thought we came up with a better pizza when we chose mushrooms, olives, onions, fresh crushed garlic, fresh tomatoes and anchovies. At Paul’s, choice is king and variety its consort.

For dessert we tried the tiramisu ($3.25) and the cannoli ($2.50). Though the tiramisu was the better, don’t bother. Both were as close to the authentic Italian as Kool-Aid is to milk.

Details

* WHAT: Paul’s Italian Villa.

* WHERE: 1951 Erringer Road, Simi Valley.

* WHEN: Open for lunch and dinner, Tuesday through Saturday, 11:30 a.m. to 10 p.m.; Sunday, 3 to 9 p.m.

* ETC: Wine and beer. Dinner for two, food only, $15 to $56. Call 526-5360.