RESTAURANT REVIEW : Tiny but Terrific : Half Moon Cafe, an espresso bar tucked away in Encino Town Center, does wonders with limited ingredients.

The best restaurant in the big, showy Encino Town Center is the last one you’d be apt to notice. Half Moon Cafe is an inauspicious-looking espresso bar with a terrific menu of soups, salads, sandwiches and pastas. But because it’s in the rear of the mall, it hasn’t quite been discovered. Yet.

From the front, it looks like the typical college-town coffee house, colorful and tiny. Someone has painted the floor sky blue with little golden stars, stained the pint-size tables russet and stocked the dessert counter with at least a dozen gorgeous-looking tarts and cakes. No one really eats inside here, though, except a quiet few who come to nurse an espresso and read a counterculture periodical purchased at the adjacent Super Crown.

Most of the seating is outside, on a quiet patio overlooking a trio of fountains producing sprays nearly reaching the upper level. The tables are plastic out here, under blue canvas umbrellas that blot out the bright afternoon Valley sun. If you have time for a leisurely lunch, a waiter will come by to take the order. If you’re in a rush, go inside and order directly from the counter.

Chef Mark Brown has big-time credentials for a small-time cafe owner. He was graduated from a chef’s school in Paris, the Chambre de Commerce et d’Industrie, and has done stints at Los Angeles’ Palm Court and as a private chef for such luminaries as Wayne Gretzky, Ivan Reitman and Kirstie Alley.

But the really impressive thing about Brown’s cooking is his ability to make magic out of a limited number of ingredients. I’d call most of what he does Southwestern, with a few Italian and California-inspired creations along for the ride.

His chicken, for instance, is often marinated in achiote (annato), a reddish spice widely used in southern Mexico, before being placed atop salads, chopped into a pasta, or placed inside a cheesy quesadilla. The chef also makes good use of tiger shrimps, guacamole, chipotle mayonnaise and poblano chile cream sauces, all of which add exotic touches to otherwise mundane fare.

By all means start with his wonderful fire-roasted tomato soup, a meal in a bowl containing strips of the achiote chicken, tortillas, bell peppers, cilantro, roasted corn and big daubs of guacamole and sour cream. You can request to substitute tiger shrimps for the chicken. Tiger shrimp are served all by themselves Yucatan-style, in a nice marinade with shredded jicama and an oddball papaya-kiwi mint salsa.

One strange but strangely appealing appetizer is saffron risotto cakes. The cakes turn out to be three yellow discs of glutinous rice, grilled on the outside like Japanese onigiri and topped with a pile of grilled red onions. Smear them with the rich, delicious chipotle chili mayonnaise that comes on the side. Another one that turns out to be an aerobic instructor’s nightmare is full moon torte: layers of guacamole, black bean salsa, Tillamook Cheddar, sour cream and tortilla chips.

The salads and pastas are far more in line with what most Valley shoppers want for lunch. All the salads are made with a terrific mixture of field greens, topped with a great, grainy mustard vinaigrette. The pastas, all resolutely al dente , are the blandest offerings on this menu. Fettuccine gets mixed up with achiote chicken and a “spicy” poblano chile cream sauce that needs a bit more zip. Cappellini comes with the standard checca topping--fresh plum tomatoes, basil, garlic and olive oil--that is all the rage at any of our more modern Italian restaurants.

Half Moon serves its sandwiches with the same good field greens, making them balanced little meals. Brown’s famous chicken gets gussied up with grilled onions, guacamole, and chipotle chile mayo on the crusty house olive bread, while a squeaky-fresh chunk of albacore tuna steak gets the same treatment on a sesame seed bun.

I’m not enamored of the turkey sandwich, because it’s plastered with a sweet-tart cranberry chutney that calls to mind some of the forgettable “creative” Thanksgiving meals I have experienced. But everything else that is sweet or tart here is wonderfully memorable, such as a springy light flourless chocolate cake, an unctuous mixed berry crumble and an elegant, flaky citron meringue tart.

Anything in this dessert case, really--be it apple tart tatin; zucchini, cranberry or banana bread; even a homey tasting carrot cake--makes a perfect foil for the coffee selection: cappuccino, great espresso, foamy caffe latte . They all are poured, incidentally, into earth-toned ceramic cups. Make that, er, moon-toned, and pass the sugar.

WHERE AND WHEN

Location: Half Moon Cafe, 17200 Ventura Blvd., No. 202, Encino.

Suggested Dishes: Fire-roasted tomato soup, $4.25; Yucatan tiger shrimps, $8; mixed winter field greens, $4; albacore tuna sandwich, $8.75; desserts, $3.25.

Hours: Lunch and dinner 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday, 11 a.m. to midnight Friday and Saturday, noon to 10 p.m. Sunday.

Price: Lunch for two, $15 to $24. No alcohol. Parking in Encino Town Center lot. MasterCard and Visa.

Call: (818) 907-1640.