Lost in Translation : A Bientot is a bistro with a French flavor, but with some flaws.

A Bientot has curb appeal. It’s a friendly Glendale bistro with brick walls, a red tile floor and a glass front. It is also the only restaurant on Brand Boulevard brave enough to put tables out on the sidewalk.

The restaurant is owned by a French-Armenian family from Nice, a lovely Mediterranean port with a tradition of outdoor dining. A Bientot’s specialty is the same type of thin-crust pizzas served at outdoor restaurants along Cour Saleya in the old part of Nice, but that’s about as close to the south of France as it gets here. One glance at the cappuccino muffins, chicken papaya salad and turkey sandwiches on A Bientot’s eclectic menu and it seems clear Glendale will never totally replace the Azure Coast.

Though the food and prices are more than reasonable (almost everything is under $10), the restaurant has a few flaws. Service is sloppy and disorganized, for instance, and the kitchen can be numbingly slow. Another somewhat daunting aspect of the A Bientot experience is not the restaurant’s fault. One day while I was enjoying some homemade pa^te and rosemary roast chicken at one of the sidewalk tables, I was approached by panhandlers twice and later by a would-be photographer looking for a subject. If you decide to eat outside on Brand Boulevard, you may not have the sidewalk to yourself.

If you aren’t in a terrible hurry, A Bientot’s best meal is lunch. Salad eaters can choose between the creamy Caesar or Salade Nicoise, which is mesclun greens, flaky tuna, sliced boiled potato, lightly cooked green beans and fresh tomato tossed in a well-balanced vinaigrette and garnished with sweetly pungent anchovies.

The pizzas rival any in town. Walk toward the kitchen and bask in the glow of embers from the wood-fired pizza oven, a rustic hearth tiled in brick. Pizza Caprice relies on fresh tomato, sweet basil, minced garlic and olive oil, flavors that play well off the mozzarella and cracker-thin crust. Another good choice is pizza Reine, topped with mozzarella, fresh tomato and Black Forest ham.

Les hors d’oeuvres are simple and fun to eat at A Bientot. Les asperges au jambon is spears of green asparagus wrapped in ham and blanketed with bubbly melted Gruyere. Crottins de Chavignol is a mesclun salad crowned with oven-baked rounds of creamy goat cheese. Hearty appetites might want to consider pa^te A Bientot, two thick slices of country-style pork terrine.

A Bientot’s menu includes a pasta section. Spaghetti Bolognese is meaty and cooked perfectly al dente. Penne all’arrabbiata is a more judicious choice, tube-shaped noodles sauced with chopped fresh tomato, minced garlic, a heady pinch of crushed red pepper and Parmesan cheese.

Entrees are served with sides of ratatouille Nicoise and rosemary roast potatoes, both delicious. A Bientot may be the only place in the Southland where cassoulet sells for under 10 dollars. Too bad the conceit here is an oily, shredded duck meat and white bean hash, flanked by a greasy confit of duck leg and thigh. Half rosemary roasted chicken, though, is a thing of beauty. It’s both crackling and juicy, probably from being finished in the wood oven.

I’d also give high marks to a pair of fish dishes, filet of trout in beurre blanc and whitefish a la meuniere. Lamb chops, at $12.50, are one of the pricier things on the menu. They are also scrawny and badly overcooked.

As befits a proper bistro, A Bientot pours a mean Illy espresso and tempts customers with a variety of homemade desserts.

Perhaps A Bientot won’t make anyone stop longing for Nice, but Glendale just got a smidgen more romantic.

BE THERE

A Bientot, 230 N. Brand Blvd., Glendale. (818) 244-8822. Monday-Friday, 7 a.m.-10:30 p.m.; Friday-Saturday, 8 a.m.-12:30 a.m.; Sunday 9:30 a.m.-9:30 p.m. Beer and wine only. All major cards. Dinner for two, $23-$35.