RESTAURANTS : Counter Intelligence : Harmony Nao : Cafe Nao in Gardena balances its Parisian bistro flavors with a light Japanese touch. Counter

The Franco-Japanese craze has subsided on the Westside, though places like Chaya Venice continue on their merry way. But it’s just as much of a force as ever in Gardena, where restaurants such as Cafe Nao continue to attract a worshipful clientele.

French and Japanese tastes have a distinct harmony; witness the opening of Taillevent-Robuchon, a joint production by two Parisian restaurants in Tokyo, and the appearance of Leno^tre pastries in Japan’s supermarkets.

Cafe Nao is in the New Gardena Hotel, a modest establishment that caters largely to visiting Japanese executives, and on any given evening in this bipolar cafe (one side is casual, the other rather formal), you will spot families celebrating, businessmen talking and even a handful of accidental diners who have stumbled onto chef Nao Imayoshi and his terrific French-Japanese kitchen.

The cafe’s front room looks out onto the street. Here you dine at blond wood tables decorated simply with flowered cloth mats--and perhaps stare at the handsome case filled with sumptuous-looking chocolate truffles, ga^teau St. Mark (you’d think St. Marc, but that’s how Nao spells it), Paris-Brest and other desserts, all made on the premises. In the back room, which is appointed with tablecloths, wine glasses and French provincial furniture, the experience feels more like fine dining, though the food is the same.

When the cafe first opened, chef Nao made delicious rillettes de porc, a rustic fatty pork spread, but his Japanese clientele found the dish too rich, and at the moment, he is only making it on request. He continues to offer a fairly standard but wonderfully flaky quiche Lorraine as a main dish at lunch and a filling appetizer at dinner.

One starter I order again and again here is rice and cheese croquettes. The Japanese are great lovers of the croquette (which they call koroke), and these croquettes are amazing. The crumb-crusted cylinders ooze an almost liquefied blend of rice and Gruyere cheese when you bite in.

Another appetizer called spicy shrimps is the scampi of your dreams--plump prawns sauteed in butter and garlic. There’s always a soupe du jour, the best one I’ve had being a light, frothy pumpkin soup intense with chicken stock.

The main dishes are like what you might find in a Paris bistro, except for the lightness, due to Japanese influence. Beef braise, for instance, is nothing more than an ultra-tender short rib glazed with a red wine reduction, not much different from the beef daube I had at Benoi^t in Paris . . . where it was twice as expensive.

One of Nao’s best dishes is jumbo sea scallops sauteed in butter with a touch of balsamic vinegar. His duck confit comes with mild sauerkraut, piped potatoes (served in a potato skin) and a pile of snappy French beans. His sole meuniere is a filet dredged in flour, pan-seared to moist perfection and served with a wedge of lemon.

Not everything’s perfect. The beef Stroganoff, for instance, is something no Russian would recognize. It’s beef tenderloin and mushrooms sauteed in red wine, with no sour cream to be found anywhere. “The chef doesn’t like sour cream,” explained our hostess.

Then there is the deep-fried shrimp “with chicken thyme flavor.” I don’t object to the linguistic creativity, but to the dish itself--it’s dull panko-crusted fried shrimp and a few pieces of McDonaldesque chicken tenders, and there’s only a bare hint of thyme in the breading.

All this is quickly forgotten when the desserts arrive. Nao is a pa^tissier extraordinaire, and his pastries are as good as you’d find in any top-notch French bakery.

My favorite is the St. Mark: layers of sponge cake sandwiching a dark, dense chocolate ganache layer, the whole thing thickly topped with caramelized sugar. Nearly as good is the Paris-Brest, a large ring-shaped confection made from pa^te a choux, the pastry used for making cream puffs and chocolate eclairs. It’s really a glorified cream puff, in fact, but in addition to the thick layer of whipped cream in the center, it has vanilla custard cream lining the bottom ring.

Gardena has its own Ironman Chef, and his name is Nao.

BE THERE

Cafe Nao, 1641 W. Redondo Beach Blvd., Gardena. (310) 323-3000. Lunch 11:30 a.m.-2 p.m. Tuesday-Friday, 11 a.m.-2 p.m. Sunday; dinner 6-10 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday, 5-9 p.m. Sunday. Parking in hotel lot. Beer and wine only. All major cards. Dinner for two, $33-$59.

What to Get: rice and cheese croquette, spicy shrimps, beef braise, duck confit, ga^teau St. Mark.