RESTAURANT REVIEW : Cafe Puts Brazilian Accent on Grilled Meats and Zesty Sauces : Specialties at Galletto include garlicky roast chicken, lively pastas and mesquite-roasted items on skewers.

Despite the bounty of south-of-the border restaurants in Southern California, I’ve always felt there are far too few Brazilian establishments here. I grew to love the dishes from the regions of Rio, Fortaleza and Sao Paulo when I lived in New York City because I had easy access to a vibrant Brazilian enclave bordering West 42nd Street in Manhattan.

So you can imagine my delight when I learned that a Brazilian restaurant, Galletto Caffe & Grill, opened recently in Westlake Plaza. More specifically, the cuisine served here is what is cooked in Sao Paulo.

The intense rivalry between Sao Paula’s business-oriented Paulistas and the fun-loving Cariocas from Rio de Janeiro is legendary, and it’s always been my opinion that the food of Sao Paulo is far more diverse and interesting than the cuisine of Rio. Sao Paulo is certainly more cosmopolitan in its ethnic makeup, with a gigantic population of citizens of Japanese and Italian descent. The latter influence is apparent at Galletto, with its wide array of pastas.

Galletto is long and relatively narrow with the giant arched windows and French doors found throughout the shops and restaurants in Westlake Plaza. The wooden chairs and tables are attractive but crammed too closely together. There’s a nice outdoor area with heat lamps, but I prefer eating indoors because the huge tile-and-steel open kitchen emits the lusty aromas of garlic, onions and grilled meats. And I love the taped Brazilian jazz mixed with Sinatra standards.

The affable staff offers a few nice, easy-priced wines from California and Italy. I suggest the smooth and fruity Marcus James Merlot ($11 bottle, $3.50 glass) from the Aurora Valley in Southern Brazil. Also worth trying is an unusual soft drink from the Amazon rain forest called Guarana ($1.50).

Among the starters, I like the charred, spicy Italian sausage ($4.75) served in contrast with a bland but grainy yucca flour and tomatoes, crunchy fried yucca and baked polenta ($5.95) accompanying a garlicky tomato sauce, and a dish of puckery Brazilian ratatouille called campanha ($7.50) topped with goat cheese.

Black bean soup (cup $2.75, bowl $3.75) is thick and hearty while the vegetable soup (cup $2.95, bowl $3.95) is watery and indifferent. A large Constantino salad ($7.75) with lettuce, red onions, calamata olives, tomatoes, peppers and feta cheese in a lemony dressing is enough to feed a table of four.

The house specialty, a half-roasted chicken ($7.95), is juicy and redolent of enough garlic to preclude you forever from interviewing a vampire. Juicy breast of chicken ($6.95 or $8.95 for a double breast) is pounded thin, marinated in garlic and tarragon and lightly grilled. If you’re interested in a steak, go for the extra thick T-bone ($14.95) served with a rich Barolo wine sauce; the thin T-bone ($9.95) was tasty but had too much gristle.

The highlight of the menu is the southern Brazil specialty of xixos (pronounced “she-shoes”), which is marinated meats and vegetables on skewers that are mesquite-grilled. All contain chunks of green pepper, onion, mushroom and tomato. I liked the versions with tender beef and chicken ($8.95), large moist chunks of turkey wrapped in bacon ($8.95), and exceptionally tasty (and mercifully not overcooked) shrimp ($9.75).

All of the entrees come with either zesty black beans and rice, potatoes roasted with shallots, or great potato salad made with lots of sharp mustard. I really liked what the Brazilians call molho --a salsa-like relish of chopped tomato, red onion, parsley and lots of garlic--that zestily garnishes every main dish.

The pastas are mostly extraordinary, with my particular favorites being the pennette with roasted eggplant and mozzarella ($8.50), linguini with fat shrimp in a garlic sauce ($9.50), rigatoni with grilled chicken and broccoli ($8.95). Penne putanesca ($8.50), with capers, garlic and olives, needed more punch while the rotelle , or corkscrew noodles, with spinach, sun-dried tomatoes and pancetta ($8.75) was a dish weighted down with a too-thick cream sauce.

Desserts (all $4.50) are made especially for the restaurant and include an average creme brulee , overly rich layered cake, known as marjolaine, and a so-so passion fruit cheesecake. Instead of the sweets, I think you should finish with a double caffe latte ($2.60) and listen to the bossa nova beat to discover why Brazilians are such basically happy people.

Details

* WHAT: Galletto Caffe & Grill.

* WHEN: 11:30 a.m to 2:30 p.m. Monday through Saturday, 5:30 to 9 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 5:30 to 10:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday, noon to 2 p.m. and 5 to 9 p.m. Sunday.

* WHERE: 982-2 Westlake Blvd., Thousand Oaks.

* HOW MUCH: Meal for two, food only, $25 to $35.

* CALL: 449-4300.