RESTAURANTS : Modesty Becomes Meals of Danes, Greeks

After the holidays, many of us feel like economizing, which makes two of our newer small ethnic restaurants look particularly appealing right now. You won’t find much in the way of atmosphere in either of these locations. But you will get solid home-style cooking at prices almost too good to be true.

Viking Cafe and Coffee House belongs to Danish baker Bjarne Konradsen and his American-born wife, Denise. Bjarne is from Elsinore--not the lake just over the Riverside County line from here but the home of Hamlet’s castle. At 5 a.m. he begins baking his wonderful wienerbrod (that’s the Danish name for Danish pastries; ironically, the Danes call them Viennese pastries), and on weekdays he opens this small, pleasant Irvine place at 6 sharp.

This is a very modest setting: a glass counter, a white specials blackboard and a small pile of dominoes and backgammon and chess boards perched on a back shelf, in case anyone needs an excuse to linger over cappuccino and a buttery Danish. A breakfast here would center on one of Konradsen’s pastries, the flaky hand-rolled dough embellished with a splotch of fruit or cheese in the center. They are simply the best Danish pastries in the area, a big cut above commercial Danish.

At lunch, there are more surprises. First off, Konradsen cures his own salmon and serves what may be the least expensive ($3.50) gravad lax in America--undercutting Ikea’s by almost a dollar. The salmon comes on toast points of grilled rye bread, brushed with a dill-and-honey mustard sauce, and it’s a generous serving, about 2 1/2 ounces.

Sandwiches, with toppings like Danish ham, come on the same rye bread with Havarti cheese. Ask Denise nicely and she’ll make you her husband’s shrimp salad sandwich, a wonderful blend of shrimp, mayonnaise, celery and spices, also served on grilled rye points. There’s a hearty homemade soup du jour too, perhaps a potato chowder (without leeks) or homemade vegetable.

Sometimes Konradsen makes a terrific three-cheese and spinach pastry, a Scandinavian take on the Greek spinach pie known as spanakopeta. Of course, this isn’t a phyllo pie but a round pastry made from Konradsen’s own butter dough, stuffed with a mild cheese and spinach mixture.

Now, and probably throughout this month by popular demand, Konradsen will feature kringle , taken from his grandmother’s own recipe. This Danish Christmas treat is an egg-rich raised cake made with candied fruits, raisins and cardamom. Try a slice with the Viking’s eggnog cappuccino and it will seem as if the 12 days of Christmas have stretched out ad infinitum.

Viking Cafe and Coffee House is inexpensive. Pastries are 85 cents to $1.95. Soups are $1.50 and $2.50. Sandwiches are $3.50.

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Athens West, a Greek market and cafe, is on a portion of Anaheim’s West Lincoln Avenue already rich with Indian, Vietnamese and Hispanic venues. Half the market’s space is stocked with essentials for the Greek kitchen--olive oils, Greek wines, sweet jams made from figs or pears, biscuits, assorted dry goods. The other half is devoted to food service, casual dining in the extreme.

Between the deli counter and the small grill area there is a rotisserie, where leg of lamb, whole chicken and often pork roast turn slowly on spits. Come between noon and 5 for the best shot at buying some of this wonderful roast meat, which you can eat there, on tables decked out in blue and white oilcloth under an ersatz grape arbor, or take out. The cafe was out of the roast lamb on my last visit. (What do you expect, at $4.49 a pound for spit-roasted lamb? “When I’m out, I’m out,” the counterman said, shrugging.

When the lamb is available, grab some. It’s juicy and tender, browned perfectly at the surface, redolent of garlic and oregano. The chefs will serve you a portion with soup or salad and fine roast potatoes for only $5.99. For the same price you can have half a chicken, cut from one of the tastiest rotisserie chickens around.

The egg-lemon soup is rather ordinary, but the Greek salad is not. It’s $1.99 a la carte and though it’s small, it will satisfy three as an appetizer course, thanks to an abundance of feta cheese and Kalamata olives, along with the usual peppers, onion, cucumber, tomatoes and lettuce, all in a good oregano-dosed vinaigrette.

From the big appetizer list, choose dolmades , skordalia or keftedes , if the chefs have made them that day. Dolmades --grape leaves with a rice and meat filling, accompanied by a cup of cooling cucumber yogurt for dipping--are eight to an order. Skordalia is called a potato puree, but be warned--it’s about equal parts potato and garlic. Keftedes are simply fried Greek meatballs. Their addictive flavor is due to the addition of fresh mint.

You can also get two popular, extremely filling Greek casseroles. Moussaka is layers of ground meat and eggplant, baked in the oven topped with bechamel sauce. Think of pastitsio as macaroni and cheese, plus ground meat, tomato sauce and more bechamel. If you’d put out either of these for Santa, he wouldn’t have been able to climb back into that sleigh.

Athens West is inexpensive. Starters are $2.99. Salads are $1.99 to $4.99. Dinners are $4.99 and $5.99. Whole rotisserie chicken, to go, is $5.99; $9.49 for two.

* Times Line(tm): 808-8463. To check an Orange County restaurant by name to see if The Times has reviewed it recently, call TimesLine and press * 6170 For other weekly recommendations from Max Jacobson, press * 6160

* VIKING CAFE AND COFFEE HOUSE

* 5325 University Drive, Irvine.

* (714) 262-0404.

* Open 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 6 a.m. to 11 p.m. Friday, 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.

* Cash only.

* ATHENS WEST

* 2663 W. Lincoln Ave., Anaheim.

* (714) 826-2560.

* Open 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday, till 8 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday.

* Cash only.