RESTAURANTS : BARGAIN ABUNDANCE : At Ca’Brea,Abbondanza Only Occasionally Equals Buon Appetito

The plaster-dipped conceptual laundry that hung from Ca’Brea’s high ceiling, each piece stenciled with a mysterious number, has finally come down. I always wondered about that. Did the entire staff come in one night and offer up their old clothes to make the cavernous, tall space seem a little less bare? Whatever the laundry’s fate, Ca’Brea still feels urban and slyly hip, thanks to the big bold painting of espresso cups and saucers in the colors of the Italian flag and the comfy banquettes. It’s also just as raucously, excruciatingly noisy as ever.

When Ca’Brea opened three years ago, this offshoot of Locanda Veneta seemed like an astonishing bargain: big plates of hearty Italian food at prices so low you could afford to come again and again. Prices have since gone up, but not all that much. Chicken was $12.50; it’s $13.95 now, while osso buco, $10.50 when the restaurant opened, has crept up to $13.95. Among the secondi , only the grilled veal chop and the fish of the day top $15. But Ca’Brea continues to serve up big portions. Outside, almost everyone waiting for a car holds a packet of leftover food. What it means is that you can almost order family style here. Not everybody at the table needs an antipasti and a main course. And forget about an intermediary pasta course: The abbondanza would stagger all but the hungriest.

Antipasti belies the name; any of them would just about make a meal on its own. I would be perfectly happy ordering a salad and the pork riblets with wonderful sage-scented brown and white beans or the juicy, browned chicken-and-pork sausages on a bed of braised cabbage. Or a Caesar and a bowl of chicken, corn and potato soup, both specials one night. Shrimp and crab cakes, however, turn out to be tough little rounds garnished with an unappealing, vinegary onion confit. And the clams? Rubbery. It’s a wonder these two dishes are still on the menu.

Pasta has never been Ca’Brea’s strong suit. Stuffed pastas are gummy, the sauces often incredibly oversalted. The popular bigoletti (Venetian spaghetti) is a big bowl of shrimp, clams and cut-up lobster in a tomato-and- porcini sauce that has far too much going on. The home-style linguine with clams, white wine and garlic is just right--except for the clams, which are big and chewy instead of small and tender.

Not always, but often enough, I get the feeling that the cooks are dozing behind the stove; they’ve made the lamb chops with mustard and truffles, the osso buco and the chicken so many times, they’re bored to death. When the kitchen is on, the schiacciata di pollo novello --boned, flattened little birds marinated in white wine and herbs and then grilled to a golden crisp--are terrific. Served with rough-cut, pan-roasted potatoes and a mound of fresh, sauteed spinach, this is an earthy and uncomplicated plate of food. At times, though, the chicken arrives at the table tired and overcooked, with soft, mealy potatoes and spinach that resembles the limp, khaki stuff Popeye tried to foist on us when we were kids. Sometimes the osso buco ‘s “hearty” sauce is oily and reduced to a thick paste of braised vegetables. Saltimbocca of veal, chicken and pork is so salty one night, it’s inedible.

The wine list is more consistent. There are a few good California and Italian wines for less than $20, such as the always-reliable Santa Cristina Chianti from Antinori and the sturdy Salice Salentino from Apuglia.

Dessert? Opt for the lovely light tortino alla Veneziana, an individual cheesecake served naked in a puddle of blueberry puree. When we ordered the tiramisu and the crema di vaniglia , out came two bowls, one matte, one glossy. The cocoa-dusted tiramisu was old-tasting, sodden. We pushed it away. But our spoons kept dipping into the vanilla pudding covered with caramel sauce, a real kids’ dessert. Next thing we knew, the table close by had ordered the same dessert. “We watched to see which one you kept eating, and that’s what we ordered,” one of the foursome giggled.

The place is fun, the service is congenial. If only the food were better. Antonio Tommasi, who started his first restaurant at Locanda Veneta, can cook, this I know. But he may be spreading himself too thin trying to supervise not only this and Locanda but also the two new restaurants he and his partners opened this year, Il Moro in West Los Angeles and Ca’ del Sole in North Hollywood. At Ca’Brea, it feels as if nobody’s home anymore. The informed passion for northern Italian cooking that once made this restaurant so appealing has gone missing.

Ca’Brea, 346 S. La Brea Ave., Los Angeles; (213) 938-2863. Closed Saturdays at lunch and all day Sunday. Full bar, but no smoking anywhere. Valet parking. Dinner for two, food only, $36-$72. Corkage, $12.