RESTAURANT REVIEW : Mario’s--Stylish Addition to the Mall : Shoppers at The Rose can bag fragrant bruschettas and primo pizzas. But some of the basics will disappoint.

Dining at a shopping center has always been a dicey proposition. Mall food is so often just a string of franchises. And larger restaurants strategically situated near outdoor shopping plazas tend to be chains themselves.

Now comes Mario’s Bistro, which sits in a small building in a huge parking lot facing Wal-Mart, Comp USA, Vons, Sportmart--all part of The Rose Shopping Center in Oxnard. Mario’s manages, happily, to break the mold in many ways, although dining here also involves some baffling disappointments.

The good news is that Mario’s Bistro is light years better than shopping center food: Wood-fire pizza ovens ensure deep flavor and excellent crust, and a modern, stylish take on classic Italian cooking offers the promise of super fresh, original meals.

But the bad news is that Mario’s is inconsistent--taking too many chances in the kitchen, overreaching its abilities and thus spiking rich potential with some plain failures. Sadly, it’s too early to cite this new bistro as a destination in its own right. But do think of it as a fine solution if you’re at The Rose or nearby.

There are two key influences at work here.

One is the bistro’s parentage by Mario’s Ristorante at Harbor Landing, in Channel Islands Harbor, a rather formal classic Italian restaurant. The menu thus features a foundation of such things as handmade pastas, chicken Milanese, bruschettas and rustic soups. The second is the highly individual chef, who is of another, more eclectic world. He brings a fresh California spin to things.

Instead of plain grilled salmon with black olives and tomatoes, for example, Mario’s Bistro will serve up a seared boneless salmon steak topped with lemony parsley-walnut pesto and placed on a bed of brown and wild rice tossed with baby peas--a bracing and brilliant melding of textures, flavors and ingredients. And instead of cannelloni filled with cheese and herbs and awash in tomato sauce, Mario’s Bistro will serve up the genuine crepe-like tubes stuffed with fresh seafoods and topped with a confetti of avocado / onion salsa. The result is deeply satisfying, original, a picture to behold.

But certain dishes, both classic and daring, bombed horribly in recent visits. Italian turkey sausage, served with sweet peppers and polenta ($7.25), arrived piled up in a bowl rather than presented on a plate. Flavorless sausage was in an overwhelming brown gravy moat, which promptly flooded overcooked polenta and made red-pepper retrieval quite the trick. A simple bistro classic--roasted half-chicken ($7.25) stuffed with garlic, lemon and rosemary--arrived dry, overcooked, flavorless. Its accompanying oven-roasted vegetables had lost all differentiation of individual flavors.

So consider some of the sure bets.

Start with a Caesar salad ($3.25 for half); it is sparklingly fresh, tart, clear, the original version without goop. Or try a Mario’s salad ($2.75), which successfully incorporates romaine, mushrooms, black olives, artichokes and a balsamic-edged vinaigrette. Caprese ($4.75), or sliced tomato, fresh mozzarella and fresh basil leaves, is the real minimalist thing, although out-sized in portion.

To experience the kitchen’s best forward spin on a classic, order bruschetta ($5.50): It not only features chopped tomatoes and garlic and basil but mozzarella, grilled eggplant fillet and Gorgonzola cheese. It works marvelously.

The pizzas are uniformly good to excellent. Always the acid test, the simple margherita, or sliced tomato and fresh mozzarella ($6.25), arrived in perfect shape: fragrant, sweet, pungent in its elastic crust. Bistro chicken pizza ($7) seemed less sparkling but was perfectly satisfying in its generous smear of goat cheese and array of dark- and white-meat chicken.

Pastas were a problem every time. Penne arrabiata ($6.50), spiked with chilies, oregano, tomatoes, garlic and basil, was mushy and overcooked in the noodles and far too spiced in the sauce, barring any real enjoyment. And handmade cheese tortellini sauteed with sage and brown butter ($6.75) was left uneaten: There is just no piling through gummy dumplings literally immersed in a rich sauce whose best and only chance is in the lightest coating.

For entrees, try the superb salmon ($8.75) or one of the simpler of the fish specials (price varies). Seared halibut recently was expertly handled, succulent and fresh.

Desserts, like everything here, cut both ways. Creme brulee ($3.50) was densely flavorsome and perfectly caramelized on top. But a mixed berry cobbler ($4)--mostly blueberries and strawberries--was in fact a crock of blurry compote topped by warmed cake, pleasant enough if your palate is English. Coffees, particularly the creamy yet smoky cappuccino ($2), are excellent.

Mario’s Bistro has some shaking out to do. It will be interesting to see which way the kitchen veers: to the simpler, differentiated conceptions, or the high-risk stuff that seems, so far, to alternately enchant and repel. In any event, the bistro is happy news for shoppers at The Rose and workers nearby. It is so much more than mall food and promises to be a smart destination in its own right.

Given that, allow me one final and niggling complaint: bread. There is none. Instead, the bistro conception here is so Pellegrino-serious that only bread sticks--some hard and unsalted, others soft and buttery--are served. As bread sticks go, they are excellent. But only a good bread can fill out the culinary cracks in a house that’s still being built.

Details

* WHAT: Mario’s Bistro.

* WHERE: 2121 N. Rose Ave., No. 440, Oxnard.

* WHEN: Lunch 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily, dinner 4 to 9 p.m. daily.

* COST: Dinner for two, food only, $20 to $30; major credit cards.

* FYI: Reservations unnecessary.

* ETC.: Call 983-1323.