Early birds at L’Affair Cafe can soon take advantage of great prices on regular menu fare.

Look for the upscale L’Affair Cafe in Mission Hills to begin offering an “early-bird” weeknight dinner menu in the coming weeks, along with a Sunday brunch.

The salmon topped with a mustard sauce, for example, will sell for $10.95 during early-bird hours, from 5 to 6:30 p.m.; it goes for $16.95 on the regular dinner menu. Chef Michel promises similar savings on other items.

L’Affair Cafe is open for lunch weekdays from 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. Dinner is served beginning at 5 p.m. seven nights a week. The restaurant is at 11024 Sepulveda Blvd., Mission Hills, (818) 365-5939.

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Le Petit Chateau, a North Hollywood landmark for more than three decades, will offer a seven-item special menu for St. Valentine’s Day next week.

The offerings: Lake Superior whitefish in a piccata sauce, a breast of chicken stuffed with wild rice and shiitake mushrooms, braised lamb shanks, Long Island duckling in an orange or bing cherry sauce, veal scallopini in a Marsala sauce, prime rib, and bow-tie pasta with scallops, shrimp and mushrooms in a white wine sauce.

The meal will include an appetizer of salmon mousse followed by a salad of mixed greens or a cream of watercress soup, plus a dessert of cherries jubilee. The price: $32.50 per person.

Some of the St. Valentine’s Day specials will also appear on the restaurant’s regular menu, on which prices range from $18.75 to $26.

Le Petit Chateau is at 4615 Lankershim Blvd., North Hollywood, (818) 769-1812.

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The Bistro Garden at Coldwater in Studio City has new winter lunch and dinner menus and an expanded wine list.

The new lunch menu includes such items as broiled whitefish remoulade, roasted salmon with a green peppercorn pesto, a spinach and mushroom frittata, Hungarian goulash with spaetzle (coarse egg noodles or dumplings), and a grilled veal chop with chanterelle mushrooms. Prices range from $12.50 to $24.75.

Many of the lunch dishes also appear on the dinner menu, which has prices that range up to $28.

The new list of red wines, meanwhile, includes a number of fine French vintages, among them a 1993 Chateau Greysac Medoc at $24, a 1992 Chateau Pichon Longueville at $48 and a 1992 Chateau Latour at $98.

The really flush can choose one of the great wines of our times, a 1966 Chateau Mouton Rothschild magnum at $750.

The Bistro Garden is at 12950 Ventura Blvd., in Studio City, near Coldwater Canyon Ave., as you might surmise, (818) 501-0202.

Juan Hovey writes about the restaurant scene in the San Fernando Valley and outlying points. He may be reached at (805) 492-7909 or fax (805) 492-5139 or via e-mail at JHovey@compuserve.com