French Accent : Bistro Garden has charm and a menu with both hits and misses.

The original Bistro Garden in Beverly Hills was one of those seminal industry hangouts that helped make “power lunch” a household expression. Bistro Garden at Coldwater, its Valley descendant, is partly for, well, the householders themselves.

It’s a gorgeous place. At midday, when the business-lunch crowd in the huge, sunny dining room could pass for one of those board meetings on “L.A Law,” light streams through a latticed wooden ceiling, giving a cathedral-like look.

Though airy and vast, the room manages a degree of intimacy through its garden motif; a regular grove of indoor trees, many soaring almost 25 feet to the ceiling, are scattered around the brick-colored tile floor. There’s also an elegant French quality in the fin-de-siecle beveled glass mirrors, which look as if they might have been plucked from the Boulevard St. Germain, and the tables draped in white linen and green toile, set with tiger lilies and fine silver.

The menu changes seasonally, in the best continental tradition. Right now we have wonderful Louisiana crab cakes with a pasilla chile sauce--crisp, golden discs that appear to be made of pure “back-fin” crab meat. Who could guess that the unassumingly named asparagus vinaigrette would be so close to perfection? Picture five or six fat, tender spears dressed in caper vinaigrette.

Capers play a role in the delicious salmon tartare, too, a heady dose of them mixed with finely minced fish, to be eaten on the toast points arranged in a cloth napkin. Goat cheese (two golden orbs, pan fried) and walnut cakes (toasted walnut bread with a texture something like Swedish crisp bread) appear together on mesclun greens dressed with a subtle vinaigrette.

In fact, the only appetizer that fails to make an impression is the gaudily presented lobster bisque en crou^te, despite its beautiful porcelain terrine and puffy pastry hat. The soup is watery--and the pastry is doughy.

The main-course dishes tend to be hearty and substantial, reflecting the continental aesthetic. They also slip up quite a bit, which is disconcerting given that most of them are more than $20.

The restaurant pays homage to the German side of its continental heritage by offering choucrou^te garni Alsacienne but doesn’t pay proper respect to the dish. The sauerkraut has been soaked to moderate its sourness and given a nice flavor of juniper, but the meats, except for two nice, tender slabs of smoked pork, are bland, commercial German sausages.

Risotto with rock shrimp and wild mushrooms is so rich and creamy it cloys after two bites. Grilled swordfish with cucumber salsa is an attractive filet grilled to a light pinkness in the center, as flavorful as you can probably hope for. But a friend’s osso buco Provencal was tough and gristly and the linguine underneath it mushy.

And what is Indonesian about the Indonesian-style rack of lamb, apart from a few crushed peanuts in the sauce (a heavily reduced rosemary-scented jus)? The three chops are meaty, but mine were on the raw side of rare.

Fortunately, the restaurant does nice things with its rotisserie, especially with beef or chicken, which are served sprinkled with fines herbes. There’s one rotisserie choice daily. I wish there were more.

For dessert, the waiters push the creditable, slightly floury chocolate souffle, spooned up with great gobs of whipped cream at your table. There is also a creamy New York-style cheesecake and the usual complement of ice creams and sorbets. At lunch, try making a dessert of the irresistible German-style apple pancake, best shared among three. You’ll find it among the entrees.

Bistro Garden at Coldwater has an extensive wine list, crack service and most of the tools to make the restaurant a contender for the top rank. But at these prices and this level of cooking, I prefer to think of the place as a faithful old soldier.

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BE THERE

Bistro Garden at Coldwater, 12950 Ventura Boulevard, Studio City. Lunch Mon.-Fri., 11:30 a.m.-3 p.m.; dinner nightly, 6-11 p.m. Dinner for two (food only), $59-$94; Full bar. Valet parking in rear. All major cards. (818) 501-0202.