RESTAURANT REVIEW : Change for the Better : * A new chef at Canyon bistro dramatically improves an ailing menu.

Canyon, a new American bistro, got off to a rather shaky start, but today it’s back on track. Here’s how the story went down.

It seems that the original idea was to bring the foods of David Slay, proprietor of the still-hot La Veranda in Beverly Hills, to the San Fernando Valley. So Slay came into the Canyon project as consulting chef, providing several of his more popular dishes, such as toasted ravioli, peppered rib steak and leg of lamb with white beans and a mint au jus . Slay’s place in Beverly Hills has been wildly successful, and the hope was that the magic of his name would drum up crowds of customers.

It didn’t. So now Canyon’s head chef Mark Baida, a talented young man with Trumps and Posto on his resume, has taken several of Slay’s dishes off the menu and substituted dishes from his own repertoire. I must say the improvement has been dramatic.

This is not meant as any slight to Slay. A chef is understandably better off cooking the dishes he is most comfortable with, and that appears to be just what Baida is doing.

One Wednesday evening before the Great Change, my group of five constituted the only table in the restaurant, except for the one occupied by football-player-turned-actor Fred Dryer (“Hunter”), who was keeping himself company at one of the snazzy cloth-upholstered booths. When I returned with friends the following Saturday, though, the Great Change had taken place. The restaurant was crowded, and the kitchen was running more smoothly than expected. I’ll bet you can guess which meal was better.

Anyone who visited Canyon in recent months may have noticed that five of the eight appetizers revolved around cheese. On the new menu, it’s more like two out of seven. (Oddly, though, the acclaimed toasted ravioli didn’t contain cheese before. These ravioli, a Slay specialty, now have a three-cheese filling instead of the minced chicken and veal of the original recipe.)

Today you might start a meal here with crisp calamari astride a smooth pesto-chile aioli or grilled Portobello mushrooms with a citrus sauce. And there is still the option of ordering the chef’s delicious thin-crust pizzas, with exotic toppings ranging from pancetta with black olives, sun-dried tomatoes and Gouda cheese to a more recognizable pepperoni pizza, with good roasted red and yellow peppers thrown in for good measure.

That could explain why the pastas also work well. I’ll miss Slay’s penne with duck, but the excellent rigatoni in garlic marinara makes up for it.

The main courses, too, seem a little less overboard now. It’s a pity that Baida had little success with the thin-sliced calf’s liver with sherry vinegar onion marmalade and mashed potatoes. The liver was hardly sliced thin; the potatoes were gummy, and the marmalade, too sweet for the meat. But he’s quite sensibly removed it from the menu, retaining the roasted pork tenderloin.

The chef has also added a terrific sesame-studded catfish with black bean sauce, a dish that manages to seem Chinese and Japanese at the same time. There’s also a fine north Atlantic salmon with wild rice.

Desserts are in the process of being upgraded. At the earlier meal I was distressed to find my peach and blackberry cobbler broiled (practically welded) onto the dish, and our chocolate mousse cake with chocolate glaze seemed tired. But on the return visit, there was a tasty pear mousse cake of a vaguely Japanese pastry shop bent, plus good homemade ice creams.

WHERE AND WHEN

Location: Canyon, 12001 Ventura Place, Studio City.

Suggested dishes: crispy three-cheese ravioli, $3.95; pepperoni pizza, $8.95; penne with asparagus, $8.95; sesame-seeded catfish, $10.95.

Hours: Lunch 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Monday through Friday, dinner 6 to 10 p.m. Monday through Saturday.

Price: Dinner for two, $28 to $45. Full bar. Valet parking. All major cards.

Call: (818) 508-1177.