A BARGAIN NOT SO ROUGH HUSBAND AND WIFE BRING HAUTE FOOD TO AGOURA HILLS.

Byline: Larry Lipson Restaurant Critic

FINICKY SHOW-BIZ types have been the recipients of spouse-chefs Claudine and Neil Kramer's cooking efforts for some time as the clientele of their 9-year-old catering company.

So it's no wonder that in their new Agoura Hills restaurant, Cafe 14, they find it not too difficult to please suburban diners.

Their tasteful little dining room sits relatively hidden in the rear of the Reyes Adobe Plaza serving very good dinners Wednesdays through Sundays.

The fact that they have kept their prices reasonable is a bonus. A full-service, three-course, a la carte meal can be enjoyed here for $30 or less per person. It's comparable to uptown dinners priced from $15 to $20 higher.

Of course, if you order the highest-priced entree, a deliciously tender filet mignon steak plate ($26), as a follow-up to one of the highest-priced appetizers, the Kramers' superbly wrought tuna tartare stack ($13), you will end up - after dessert ($6) - well into the $40 range.

That's without a glass (or bottle) of wine.

But however high the bill at Cafe 14, you'll probably feel that it was money well spent.

That's because this young cooking couple know how to produce food that's not only handsomely presented but, more importantly, remarkably full-flavored.

Two of their entree plates utilizing couscous are good examples.

One is a lovely, airy, meatless rendition of panko-crusted eggplant ($16) caped with fresh mozzarella cheese, nestled on a spinach and couscous bed in an intensely flavorful tomato sauce. It's a terrific dish, obviously a takeoff of the traditional Italian eggplant parmigiana.

The other is a sensationally rich-tasting, Moroccan-style, bone-in chicken ($18), aromatically spiced and seasoned, boosted with such assertively flavored ingredients as preserved lemon, prunes and green olives.

One night I reveled in the Kramers' moist, firm, double-thick pork chop ($22) topped with caramelized red onion strings and delectably finished with a brandy demi-glace.

On that same evening there was a clever pairing of braised fennel and a creamy Pernod sauce for licorice lovers as part of a platter of sauteed scallops and shrimp ($22). It came forth nicely plated on a mound of well-executed risotto with a tomato concasse accompaniment.

Fish is respectfully handled here in the form of seared halibut ($18) dotted with fried leeks in a roasted red pepper sauce, and tender, flaky salmon ($19) crusted with brown sugar, delivered on a rice pilaf mixture studded with andouille sausage.

You won't go wrong with the low-priced, seven-vegetable lasagna ($14), a satisfying stuffed pasta offering layered with mozzarella, herbed ricotta cheese and the Kramers' kitchen-produced fresh tomato sauce.

Soups du jour ($5) run from a respectable mushroom to a superior cauliflower recipe. And premises-baked endings reveal shareable versions of a deep and gratifying bowl of apple berry crumble ($6) and an intense flourless chocolate cake filled with whipped cream called a chocolate roulade ($6).

Now you can dine like a picky movie mogul does - and presumably for a lot less money - at the new Cafe 14.

Larry Lipson, [phone]

larry.lipson(at)dailynews.com

CAFE 14

Food: Three and one half stars

Service: Three stars

Wine: Two and one half stars

Where: 30315 Canwood St., Agoura Hills.

Hours: Open for dinner only from 5 to 10 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday.

Recommended items: Soups, crab cakes, red and gold beet salad, tuna tartare, panko-crusted eggplant, sauteed shrimp and scallops, seven-vegetable lasagna, Moroccan chicken, seared halibut, brown sugar-crusted salmon, seared pork chop, grilled filet mignon, apple-berry crumble, chocolate roulade.

How much: Starters from $4 to $13, entrees from $14 to $26, desserts from $4 to $6. Beer and wine. All major credit cards.

Wine list: Two-page ``progressive style'' list of whites, reds and sparklers with 14 whites ranging from ``sweeter and milder'' to ``drier and stronger'' ($16 to $60) and 12 reds from ``lighter and more elegant'' to ``richer and more powerful'' ($20 to $65). Also, 11 wines by the glass ($4.50 to $9.50). Corkage: $10 per bottle.

Reservations: Helpful. Call [phone].

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2 photos

Photo:

(1 -- 2) Left, Claudine and Neil Kramer prepare a double-thick pork chop with vegetables at Cafe 14 in Agoura Hills' Reyes Adobe Plaza, where dinner is served Wednesday through Sunday. Far left, the finished dish is accompanied by an apple berry crumble dessert.

Gene Blevins/Special to the Daily News