RESTAURANT REVIEW : It’s Bistro Gardening Season : * A colorful place to ring out the old, ring in the new, unless one is referring to the menu.

If April is the cruelest month, December is the month you dine in the Bistro Garden at Coldwater.

The initial impression here is, if you will, Walt Disney meets Merrie Olde England. There’s a huge Christmas tree in the airy main dining room right now, adding to the seasonal charms of French windows and curtains brightly festooned in red ribbon, dozens of potted poinsettias and several Christmas wreaths. The restaurant’s trademark light-strung trees, which shimmer throughout the dining room all year long, are strangely tasteful now. It is only during this season that I don’t find them intrusive.

You don’t have to eat in the main dining room, though. The Fireside Room is all warm wood and cozy appointments, warmed physically by a fireplace and aesthetically by lovely hand-painted flowers on the ceiling. Meanwhile, back in the main salle , the comforts tend to be maximal: elegant pink tablecloths adorned with fresh azaleas, the world’s most comfortable wicker chairs, snappy waiters who descend upon you with the grace of Baryshnikovs.

Dine here any time in December and you see huge numbers of ladies-who-lunch exchanging presents, an incessant parade of small office parties and a well-dressed crowd generally in the mood to celebrate. Perhaps we really are in a down economy, but you won’t feel that if you come to dine here. Bistro Garden at Coldwater is a place to feel rich and prosperous, a place to ring out the old, ring in the new.

Unless, of course, we refer specifically to what you are going to eat.

Because the well-worn Continental menu overseen by Executive Chef Francois Meulien offers almost no innovation and only occasional surprises. You may notice that steamed pig’s knuckle, once the best dish on the menu, is no longer served, perhaps because the current chef has moved the kitchen more in the direction of France. But since the food here is quite a bit more polished than it was, say, two years back, we’ll call it a fair trade-off.

The best starters are steamed artichoke, Caesar salad and tuna tartare , with chilled eggplant salad and a fine home-cured gravlax running a close second. The tuna tartare is a tasty, finely minced version with anchovy and caper mixed into the fish. The vaguely Japanese aftertaste comes, perhaps, from a touch of sesame oil. The Caesar is fresh and crisp, like the prototypes at the Bistro or Bistro Garden in Beverly Hills, and the dressing is properly robust, thanks to more anchovy than before.

Chilled eggplant salad is served almost as if it were en terrine : a little mound of flavorful eggplant bound with (another Asian touch) a light sesame oil vinaigrette. And before you grumble about having to pay $9.25 for a steamed artichoke ($7.75 at lunch), consider this: The firm, meaty artichokes the restaurant serves are the best that money can buy, and the Hollandaise that chef Meulien prepares is utterly classic.

I wish I could be equally enthusiastic about the main dishes, but I can’t. They’re all good, but at an average price well over $20 a pop, good just isn’t good enough. Take, for instance, cassoulet, the hearty bean dish from southwestern France, available as a special. It’s a homey mixture of duck confit , sausage, smoked pork and other goodies, served atop baked white beans. The problem is the meats (and beans, for that matter) taste as if they were cooked separately, then assembled for presentation.

Meulien proves his mettle with fish dishes. One evening, sea bass was right on the mark with a light curry sauce. Another night, Meulien’s rich, intense bouillabaisse, full of fish, clams, mussels and scallops in a burnt ocher stock, outdid everyone’s expectations.

There are a lot of non-fish favorites on this menu too, such as full-flavored osso buco with linguine, the deservedly popular broiled shrimp with mustard sauce and tender calf’s liver with crispy onions on a small mountain of mashed potatoes.

I do find it disconcerting to be asked whether I want to order chocolate souffle when the waiter is taking my dinner order. Who can think about dessert after braving rush-hour traffic on the Ventura Freeway?

WHERE AND WHEN

Location: The Bistro Garden at Coldwater, 12950 Ventura Blvd., Studio City.

Suggested Dishes: tuna tartare, $11.25; steamed artichoke, $9.25; bouillabaisse, $18.25; osso buco with linguine, $22.50; broiled shrimp, mustard sauce, $23.50.

Hours: Lunch 11:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. Mondays through Fridays; dinner 6 to 11 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays, 5 to 10:30 p.m. Sundays.

Price: Dinner for two, $60 to $95. Full bar. Valet parking in rear. All major cards.

Call: (818) 501-0202.