In a tiny storefront restaurant just yards off the Venice boardwalk, two young chefs named Michael (Wilson and Brown) cook their own style of robust, Cal-French seasonal comfort food. The menu changes weekly; all the bread and pasta are made at the restaurant. That friendly, loquacious old cuss at the door is the owner, Burt. Tues.-Sun. 6-10 p.m. Beer and wine. Street parking. AE, DC, MC, V. Entres $20$32. California French

Lucques impressive and astute partners, Suzanne Goin and Carolyn Styne, have now opened their second venture, a wine bar with terrific food in a serviceable space whose spare dcor amplifies the fireworks on the plate. Goin cooks only small dishes, from cheeses and olives to wood-roasted chickpeas and octopus salad with preserved lemon  all of which showcases her rustic heart and sophisticated abilities. Styne built the wine list by focusing on high-quality wines from small producers for reasonable prices  between $30 and $50 a bottle  and many are available by the taste or the glass or the multiple-tasting flight. Mon.Fri. 611 p.m., Sat. 5:3011 p.m., and Sun. 5:3010 p.m. Full bar. Valet parking. AE, DC, MC, V.  la carte, $4$16. Mediterranean

The best food here revolves around the extraordinary mole sauce: sharp, thick, sweetly complex, with top notes of smoke, clove and citrus, lashed with dried-chile heat, black enough to darken the brightest Pepsodent smile. (It takes two days to make, a million steps, and has something like 20 ingredients.) Dobladitas are corn tortillas folded around melted cheese and moistened with mole. There is also chicken mole, and sometimes a Oaxacan-style special of chicken, pork and plantains cooked in mole. And you can get a side of mole sauce to put on your burrito. Open Mon.Thurs. 10 a.m.10 p.m., Fri.Sat. till 11 p.m. No alcohol. Takeout. Lot parking. Cash only. Entres $5.75$14. Mexican

This newcomer in the former Citrus space has some mighty shoes to fill. But first, the remodel: Citrus bright solarium whiteness has been replaced by the clubby dark wood of the Craftsman revival and old mens clubs. The once cutting-edge open kitchen has been partially scrimmed by green and yellow stained glass. New chef-owner Alex Scrimgeouer is talented, careful and hard-working; his Cal-French cooking hits most of the right notes, and the service is attentive. Its fun to order the $58 four-course pick-your-dishes menu. Overall, Alex gets a sturdy A-minus, the minus for the simple reason that we want more  more passion, more risks, more flourish and even more mistakes. I mean, hey, this is a place where the live piano player stops playing midsong when his cell phone rings. Lunch Tues.Fri., dinner Tues.Sat. Full bar. Valet parking. AE, D, DC, MC, V. Entres $29, plus $58 prix-fixe dinner. California French

The main dining room with its sky-high ceilings and roomy tables has the lofty ambiance of a European railway station  and the service can be European, too: maddening. But the cooking is authentic regional Italian; try the deep-fried artichokes, roast pork on cabbage with polenta, wafer-thin pizza and the best gelato outside of Rome. Every Wednesday night features a special, reasonably priced regional dinner. Dinner seven nights. Full bar. Valet parking. AE, MC, V. Entres $12.95$22.95 Italian

On a stretch of Westwood Boulevard thick with student coffeehouses and Iranian hair salons, Ambala Dhaba is an outpost of the Punjab, a branch of a restaurant noted on Artesias Little India strip for its fiery goat curries and the boiled-milk ice cream called kulfi. Its probably the only thing resembling traditional Indian food on the Westside. Ambala Dhaba exemplifies the time-honored side of meaty northern Indian cooking: basic, direct food almost Islamic in attitude, Pakistani in intensity of flavor, but wholly Indian in its attention to fresh vegetables, crunchy snacks, and breads. But my favorite part of a meal at Ambala Dhaba may be dessert, several flavors of house-made kulfi-on-a-stick available by the piece and by the bag, kulfi shakes made with pistachio, almond and mango, and even a mysterious dish known as kulfi-cut-in-bowl. Open daily 10:30 a.m.10:30 p.m. No alcohol. Lot parking. Takeout. MC, V. I Food for two, $12$20. Indian

One of the smallest and certainly one of the busiest snack shops in Little India, this Ambala would be at home in Bombay proper. Savory snacks, ordered at the counter, include a papri chat whose near-psychedelic beauty  bright-green mint sauce, burgundy-red tamarind and white yogurt on crisp golden crackers  is surpassed only by its flavors. A glass case displays sweets in such vivid colors and generous portions that theyre as compelling as jewels or toys (depending on the age of the beholder). Dont resist  try golub jamun (milk balls in syrup), kalakan, and milk cake (sweets made of cooked-down milk). Wash down these sweets with the good, peppery chai. Lunch and dinner seven days 10:30 a.m.9 p.m. No alcohol. Takeout. Lot parking. Cash only.  Entres $7$10. Indian

The little storefront caf is almost harshly minimal, white and noisy; the service is intermittent at best, and the clientele is often predominantly stunning models of every gender (Herb Ritts studio is just around the corner). But Ammos food tastes as if its been made to order by a fabulous home cook with her own organic garden (or at least one with access to a farmers market)  and for that, well brave anything, even sitting in a room with multiple examples of physical perfection. Try the French lentil salad with roasted root vegetables in a Dijon vinaigrette; penne with fresh tomatoes, olives and anchovies; and the ice cream sandwich. Lunch Mon.Fri., dinner Mon.Sat., weekend brunch. Beer and wine. AE, MC, V. Entres $11$16 (lunch), $14$26 (dinner). California

The great Italian chef Gino Angelini has fulfilled a lifetime dream to open his own casual osteria that serves simple, hearty, home-style food  from a home rife with genius cooking genes. The classy, clattery urban caf is lively, fun  and very kid-friendly. (The three-course childs menu is a fine way to introduce the squirts to the pleasures and pace of fine dining.) Angelini may have downshifted his culinary ambitions, but his abilities are entrenched, and theres unmistakable haute in the homiest braised oxtails or codfish stew. Beer and wine. Valet parking. Lunch Tues.-Sat. noon-2:30 p.m.; dinner Tues.-Sun. 5-11:30 p.m. AE, MC, V. Entres $16$30. Italian

Down in the garment district, where Spring and Main streets converge, under an enormous Rampage billboard a stones throw from the Fashion Institute, theres a two-story caf with a mansard roof and a patio that would be at home in any French town. Owner Bruno Herve Commereuc and his wife, Florence, make their own charcuterie  excellent rillettes, jambon persillade, pt, andouilette  lancienne. Anglique is open for traditional French breakfasts (bread and pastries from Commereucs brothers bakery, Pain du Jour) and for lunch, featuring a great selection of salads (try the cured salmon), hot entres (try the roasted chicken) and vegetarian dishes (try the summery eggplant-and-tomato casserole). A homesick Frenchman I know swears that Anglique is the only place that eases his malady. Breakfast and lunch Mon.Sat. 7 a.m.4 p.m. No alcohol. Takeout. Street parking. MC, V.  Entres $6.45$8.95. French

Antequera de Oaxaca specializes in botanas  bar munchies, more or less. The botanas are assembled into a big combination plate for one, two or four people: crunchy balls of chorizo, dried beef, professional-strength slabs of fried pork rind, a tangle of shredded string cheese, Oaxacan-chile relleno stuffed with a sweet-sour chicken stew, chunky, rustic guacamole. The pace is just right. The dining room is pleasant. And the plate is enough for two or three hungry people. Breakfast, lunch and dinner seven days 9 a.m.8:30 p.m. No alcohol. Takeout. Street parking. MC, V.  Lunch for two, food only, $9$15. Oaxacan

The last time we visited Antique, we felt as if the only antiques in the room were us: Its a good place to scope out 22-year-olds with unbelievably fashionable hair.   Korean

Arts has been the best deli in the Valley since late in the Eisenhower administration, and its dense, tasty chicken soup, puddled around matzo balls the size of grapefruit, is justifiably renowned. Among the local cognoscenti, Arts is well-known for the succulence of its knockwurst, the creaminess of its chopped liver, and the particular garlicky smack of its house-made pickles. Lox and eggs? Matzo Brie? Kreplach soup? Crisp-skinned cheese blintzes? Well-cured salmon on fresh Brooklyn Bagel bagels? Got em. And as it says on the menu: Every Sandwich Is a Work of Art. Sun.Thurs. 7 a.m.9 p.m., Fri.Sat. 7 a.m.10 p.m. Beer and wine. Takeout. Valet parking. AE, MC, V. Lunch or dinner for two, food only, $18$36. Deli

For a while, Asanebo was famous as the No-Sushi Bar, an establishment that served only sashimi and tiny portions of proto-Japanese cooked foods  grilled salmon with mashed potatoes and salmon eggs, fried squid with asparagus, steamed catfish with miso and ginger  and all Hollywood seemed to flock to the place, eager to visit a restaurant that had come up with an entirely new way to deny satisfaction to its customers. Still, it is a pleasure to pull up a stool to the bar, to utter the magic word omakase  Feed me until I burst!  and to sit back and wait for the food to arrive. Soft, oily salmon, mounded in a bowl, is garnished with caviar; fillets of kanpache, a tiny cold-water tuna imported from Japan, are arranged into a little fishy Stonehenge. The ankimo, cylinders of molded monkfish liver in a sharp ponzu sauce, is fine. Lunch and dinner Tues.Fri. Call for times. Beer and wine. Lot parking. AE, D, DC, MC, V.  Dinner for two, food only, $25$90. Japanese

At Axe (pronounced ah-shay), simple and gleaming as a Zendo, the clear ocean air is practically a design element. Some find the austere aesthetic refreshing; others find the seats uncomfortable, the overall effect harsh. The wait staff does tend to be more physically attractive than efficient, but this restaurant marches to its own beat, or rather, to that of the chef-owner Joanna Moore, whose breakfast, lunch and dinner menus are seductively eclectic. Try her meal-sized whole-grain pancake, a composed salad, her masterly spaghetti aglio olio and any dessert. Lunch Tues.-Fri., dinner Tues.-Sun., brunch Sat.-Sun. Beer and wine. Valet parking. AE, D, MC, V. Entres $11$28. California
