RESTAURANT REVIEW : Japanese Cuisine With a Magical Touch : Piranha’s menu combines basics with the best of California ingredients and exotic flavors of the Pacific Rim.

It’s been a treat to watch (and watch) the evolution of Piranha over the past six years. Initially called Godzilla’s, the restaurant is the creation of a young couple, Heather and Koji Nomura, who met each other in a Japanese language class at UC Santa Barbara. From the beginning it has offered a refreshing take on the rigidly standard fare found at traditional Japanese restaurants and sushi bars.

As the restaurant prospered, it acquired a new location on State Street as well as a new name. Now decorated in a cleverly designed, arty, high-tech sensibility, the restaurant has a long, convivial sushi bar, a number of strikingly high tables and chairs and a secluded balcony for private dining.

The menu has evolved too, especially after Koji Nomura joined forces with a California Culinary Academy-trained chef, John Perreault. While still faithful to its Japanese roots, the restaurant demonstrates what can happen when two creative collaborators take standard Japanese flavors: soy and vinegar, sesame and ginger, fish and seaweed, and add enough spin on them to fling them into the broader geography of the Pacific Rim.

I have always enjoyed the salads here, which merge Japanese flavors with delectable California ingredients. Noteworthy is the ocean salad ($3.95) with its assorted seaweed, some crisp, others with the texture of firm glass noodles, tossed with cucumber, daikon, pickled carrots, spicy sprouts and chewy octopus. A selection of classic Japanese grilled meats and vegetables, called robata, create an array of light healthy selections--my favorite being the scallions ($1.75), which they grill to a soft sweetness.

One of the specialties of the restaurant is the bamboo-steamed gyoza : thin, slippery, doughy wraps filled with whole shrimp, or savory mushrooms, or scallops with crab, ginger and scallions ($7.25). Two dipping sauces, a citrus vinegar spiced with chili oil and a sweet, tangy garlicky ponzu sauce, compete with each other for popularity.

Another specialty, seared noodles, which sounded kind of drab, turned out to be an intriguing mixture of crispy noodles served on a tomato-soy-smoky sauce, topped with a choice of duck, calamari or tofu.

A Piranha shooter ($3.25), consisted of a raw oyster paired with quail egg. It went down with a wasabi sauce having the effect of a slam dunk on the taste buds. Kimchi cocktail ($3.95) perfectly mimicked that classic Korean condiment of fiery pickled cabbage but was tempered with sweet crab.

While you’ll find familiar sushi rolls here, along with traditional nigiri sushi, the specialty sushi rolls are another tasty example of adventurousness. New Zealand rolls ($5.25) had delicious smoked mussels rolled in rice with cucumbers, onions and avocado. The very veggie Mediterranean roll contained grilled eggplant, sun-dried tomatoes, red bell peppers, basil and pine nuts for crunch. Manzano roll ($4.95) had been contrived from a weird combination of grilled eel and fried banana, reminiscent of Caribbean flavors. I thought it odd, but it made my dining companion moan with pleasure.

The entrees continue the diversity at work--and play--here. A classic, traditional, generous yosenabe ($15.95)--noodles, seafood and vegetables in a sweet broth--was basic, academic and very good. Spicy “woked” chicken with noodles (spicy indeed) was a better Chinese dish than can be found in most Chinese restaurants.

And chicken breast, stuffed with crab and topped with an avocado-roe salsa, made all the other chicken I’ve ever eaten seem utterly boring.

G yu ninniku yaki ($10.50) turned out to be highly marinated, thin-sliced beef served with pin-thin vegetables. It came with zucchini pancakes with a red pepper sauce that I wanted to eat everyday for the rest of my life.

Best of all, I thought, was the Chilean sea bass ($12.95) with a garlic black bean sauce and fresh vegetables. When you can take such basic ingredients and turn it into magic, that’s cooking.

The restaurant can be noisy when the sushi bar is in full weekend revelry, and the chairs can seem precarious. But this is the only Japanese restaurant I’ve ever eaten at with desserts that could make a French chef weep: white chocolate cheesecake with a hint of ginger and a dark, crisp, crumbly crust; plum cake, laden with strawberry sauce; and three kinds of dense, moist, chocolate pound cake--white, milk and dark--delicious, delicious and delicious.

It’s always a coup to introduce someone new to Piranha, because it brings such raves: “This is the most creative meal I’ve had in a long time,” said one. “So many dishes I never had before, and so many I can’t wait to have again,” said another. It makes me feel like a brilliant matchmaker every time.

Details

* WHAT: Piranha.

* WHERE: 632 State St., Santa Barbara.

* WHEN: Open for lunch 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday; dinner 5:30 to 10:30 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday and Sunday; 5:30 to 11:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday.

* COST: Dinner for two, food only, $27 to $55.

* ETC.: Wine and beer. Call 965-2980.