CHEESEBURGER IN PARADISE : THE FACTS.

Byline: Larry Lipson Daily News Restaurant Critic

Hampton's, the longtime burger cafe in Toluca Lake, became Mo's almost surreptitiously.

And in doing so, it managed to put more windows in while giving the entire place a rustic, unstained woody look, effecting an airiness and easygoing, casual quality.

This building, once one of the first outlets, if not the original location of the International House of Pancakes, has always been a popular eating place in the area.

On a recent Friday at lunchtime, it was jammed full of boisterous diners, one large group in a corner even celebrating a birthday.

But I personally fail to understand its huge appeal other than the convenience of its location in the neighborhood. Its food seems fairly reasonably priced but rarely gets much better than average.

I guess you have to be a burger freak to really appreciate Mo's, which carries on the basic Hampton's formula of every kind of hamburger known to man ... and a few unknown.

Such as the ``foggybottom'' rendition of a burger with peanut butter and sour plum jam. Or a ``slam dunkburger'' with the same sour plum jam and Dijon mustard.

And in case these combinations aren't weird enough, you can match the sour plum jam or peanut butter with cheese, sauteed onions, pepper sauce, avocado, bacon, green chili and onion, broccoli, sauteed mushrooms, guacamole or marinara sauce for $1 per item.

Of course, you may mix any of the above and skip the jam and peanut butter altogether.

Burgers ($6.50 to $7.30) come with fair-size, decent-quality beef patties and not particularly extraordinary buns, though they're whole wheat.

Ironically, across the street is the historic Bob's Big Boy, still going strong and, though not a drive-in anymore, still doing brisk burger biz in its own right.

If I were to come back to Mo's, it would be for the chili ($3.90 or $6.30), a good melange of tender beef and spices, nicely zippy and, thankfully, not one of those bean-filled recipes. In fact, there wasn't one bean present in the cup sampled one night.

Raviolis ($7.95) filled with a chicken mixture are wonderfully soft, looking suspiciously like those made by Studio City's Out Take Cafe owner, who has a ravioli factory in North Hollywood.

And the potato raviolis ($5.95) in tomato sauce provide a tasty starter dish.

Soups are ordinary, and so are the chicken dishes. The rotisserie chicken ($9.95) sounds delicious when read on the menu, but just doesn't live up to its notices.

The same applies to the Cajun shrimp ($9.95), again merely passable, and to the turkey meatloaf ($7.95), a disappointing, institutional piece of sauce-soaked, mushy, ground turkey loaf that seemed like something you'd get in an old-style cafeteria.

But Mo's does enough - pizzas, vegetarian plates, foot-long and regular hot and cold sandwiches of all kinds and a load of salads - to please the local populace.

And that's what a neighborhood restaurant is all about.

The restaurant: Mo's.

Where: 4301 Riverside Drive, Toluca Lake.

When: Open for breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. weekdays, from 9 a.m. to 11 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.

Recommended items: Chili, potato ravioli, chicken ravioli, burger variations.

How much: Starters from $1.25 to $7.25, sandwiches and entrees (including pastas) from $6.35 to $11, desserts from $1.75 to $5.50. Full bar.

Wine list: Minimal list of six inexpensive wines priced from $11.50 to $13 a bottle and $3.50 to $4.25 a glass. Makes much more sense to buy by the bottle, because the glass appears much less than a fourth the size of a bottle. None recommended, though Placido chianti is a fair rouge ordinaire for quaffing with a hamburger.

Reservations: Accepted only for parties of six or more. Call [phone].

Our rating: Two Stars for food; Three Stars for service; One Star for wine.

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Photo

Photo: Partner Jay Sadofsky displays some of the fare at Mo's in Toluca Lake, which carries on the hearty hamburger tradition of the site's previous incarnation as Hampton's.

David R. Crane/Daily News