RESTAURANTS : WEST BEACH BINGO : Venerable and Hip, West Beach Cafe Still Has Quintessentially California Comfort Food

“As soon as I pick up my girlfriend and she’s had time to unpack, I want to drive her down Sunset Boulevard, all the way to the Pacific,” my nephew tells me. “She’s going to go crazy when she sees all that ocean!” New to town, he shyly asks me where he can take her to eat near the beach, someplace very Californian.

I know what he wants. Someplace like the little seafood restaurants by the harbor in Barcelona, where the beach is so close that tables are sometimes set under awnings right on the sand. After eating, people simply stroll out and nap on the beach. No, there’s nothing like that here, I tell him. (And restaurants with an ocean view, or any other view, are the last place you expect to eat well.)

But there is one place I think she’ll like: West Beach Cafe in Venice. Less than a block from the beach, it is a plain, unfussy space, scrubbed with sun from skylights. On fine days, the patio, enclosed by a high wall, lets in the salty breeze. It has a fairly clean-cut crowd of local artists, architects and beach residents, with a couple of visiting cowgirls (from Minnesota!) thrown into the mix one night. The bar is still a scene, but nothing like the frenzied one at Rebecca’s across the street.

West Beach Cafe was an early California cuisine pioneer, but compared to the wacky dishes offered at Parkway Grill or Vida, say, the menu toes a conservative, almost classic, line. While there are some excellent dishes in the California comfort-food vein, the service can be annoying. Our waiter one night, distracted by a private party in the patio, forgets to bring us menus for so long we begin to wonder if we’ve become invisible. Finally, he takes our order. No pad, no notes. Wow, good memory, we think. But he’s back minutes later to sheepishly verify the dishes.

He does remember bread--thick, crusty slices sawed off a big, flat loaf. Those warm, fragrant slabs keep us company until first courses arrive. The Caesar is first rate, everything it should be--crisp hearts of romaine, anchovy-assertive dressing, good Parmesan, homemade croutons. The hot seafood salad, though, is a disappointing collection of mussels, clams, squid and shrimp served without a smidgeon of sauce or dressing.

Pasta is exuberantly Californian, made with lots of seemingly unrelated ingredients. Like spaghetti with scallops, flageolets and chanterelles in a sauce of garlic and roasted sweet peppers. A light, flavorful lasagna layered with ricotta and spinach leaves with sun-dried tomato sauce is wonderful one night, but a giant ravioli stuffed with butternut squash the texture of baby food, draped over limp spinach and shiitake , misses altogether.

“Roasted free-range French organic herb lemon chicken” left me wondering which was French, the bird or the herbs? The crisp-roasted chicken came with a pile of West Beach’s terrific fries. The dry-aged steak (with parsleyed mashed potatoes) is a handsome, flavorful piece of beef. Even better: a special grilled veal flank steak, served sliced in its natural juices, and grilled swordfish with squares of polenta and a perky, fresh corn-tomato relish. But grilled whitefish with steamed vegetables and mashed potatoes is disappointingly bland.

Desserts go straight for the kid in every one of us: A warm chocolate brownie slathered with thick fudge sauce set down in a pool of creme anglaise. Or impossibly rich chocolate bread pudding. Patient sorts can order a chocolate souffle, too, made with good chocolate. “May I?” asks the waiter as he pokes a hole in the top to pour in cool whipped cream. You may.

The big disappointment is what remains of West Beach’s once-lauded wine list. Formerly a fat book, deep in Bordeaux and fledgling California wines, it is now reduced to a single page, though the after-dinner list, with its great old Armagnacs and rare Calvados, is still around. (More wines are available on request, but who’s to know, if the list doesn’t mention them?.) One find here is Vintage Tunina from the Friuli producer Jermann, 1985

vintage ($30).

The cafe is a great spot for weekend brunches, too, if you like things like soft-scrambled eggs with smoked salmon or Belgian waffles heaped with berries. Good news: after a hiatus of several years, lunch at the West Beach is back. That means one of the classiest burgers in town is back, too; this is cause for celebration. And if you do fall for that warm, rich brownie, why, you can ride it off: Bikes can be rented on the boardwalk around the corner. A postprandial bike ride sounds much more Californian than a nap on the sand.

West Beach Cafe, 60 N. Venice Blvd., Venice; (310) 823-5396. Lunch and dinner served daily, brunch on weekends. Closed Mondays. Smoking permitted in bar and on patio. Dinner for two, food only, $60 - $90. Corkage, $10.