RESTAURANT REVIEW : All Prime Rib Houses Should Be Varied, Competent as McCarthy’s : The Camarillo eatery’s strongest suit is in the meat department--and desserts are memorable too.

Friday night, full tilt: The dining room at McCarthy’s is jammed, the tufted turquoise banquets full, tables in the main room pushed together to accommodate parties of 14, the bar area hopping with the soon-to-be-seated, the house organist bouncing his way through so many Easy Listening tunes.

All of the above spell culinary danger. But that’s where McCarthy’s--a sweet, comfortable place midweek and a Ramada-like convention of activity on weekends--acquits itself honorably.

While you may in fact wind up alongside a table full of businessmen caught in the hysterical grip of Notre Dame football, you will also find that the food is for the most part well-conceived and, barring a few failures, well-executed.

The kitchen’s prominence is touted at the door, where specials are announced on a lighted board: fresh roasted pork loin, grilled sea bass with a citrus salsa, a bold Caribbeanesque seafood bisque. This, despite the fact that McCarthy’s would like to be known for its prime rib, house specialty.

For my money, though, all prime rib houses should be so eclectic, so varied, so competent in delivering alternate entrees that don’t look like also-rans.

Start with soup. If it’s seafood, it will bear the bright briny scent of salted broth and loads of properly under-boiled shellfish; if it’s lentil, the beans will remain al dente and be lent edge by smoked ham--simple and restorative.

Though the house salad is a pallid bore, the Caesar, available as a stand-in for $3.95, bears a bracing, authentic dressing. Spinach ($3.95) salad is abundant in fresh leaves, generous in the egg, but wanly genericized by a too-sweet prefab bacon dressing.

Among appetizers, the sauteed mushrooms ($4.95) are best. Enough for three to share, they arrive whole, fresh and sauteed lightly in a brandied herb butter.

McCarthy’s strongest suit is, indeed, in the meat department. Prime rib ($13.95 for the regular cut), the most hyped of restaurant foods and so often a stale disappointment, is excellent: rosy in color, trimmed of excessive fat and concentrated in fresh-roasted flavor. Top sirloin ($13.95) arrived flame-broiled, charred outside and pink (as ordered) within, bursting with juice and deep flavor.

Roasted fresh pork loin ($11.95), while cooked more than necessary and a tad dry, was nonetheless tender, flavorful, and sauced wonderfully in sauteed apples and brandy. Simple broiled chicken ($9.95) was as it should be: plain, charred outside, but filled with juice and tenderness within.

Salmon ($16.95), a bunker-sized fillet of it, arrived perfectly seared (as requested) on the outside and succulent within, topped in a caper-studded Champagne cream lighter than it sounds. But a sea bass fillet ($15.95), grilled and topped with citrus/tomato salsa, was strangely wanting for flavor.

Pasta flopped, sadly. Cappellini ($11.95) tossed with scallops, scallions, mushrooms, tomato, basil, garlic and brandy with olive oil was, well, just as it sounds: an unfocused overwhelming heap of ingredients on delicate noodles that, in this instance, were mush from overcooking. Such a dish is an apparent concession to those tagging along with the real meat-eating crowd, a menu attempt at being bistro-hip. Avoid it. A better way to go is an entree-size Caesar salad with large slices of perfectly grilled chicken breast ($10.95).

For all the care given to most things at McCarthy’s, a dramatic improvement would result from the slightest change: fresh vegetables in the place of baby carrots that are orange rubber.

Desserts are crowd-pleasing and outsized, if not memorable, with Boston cream pie the most successful.

The wine list here is extensive and well-chosen, with one of the best and most generously poured offerings of by-the-glass wines in Ventura County. Among reds, try the supple Fetzer Eagle Rock Merlot (Mendocino County) for $5.50, and one of the more full-bodied, oaked-up Chardonnays around, the Kenwood vineyard-designated (Sonoma County) for $7.50.

Details

* WHERE AND WHEN: McCarthy’s, 1101 E. Daily Drive, Camarillo, 388-5552. Open seven days 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Major credit cards accepted. Dinner for two, food only, from $25 to $50.