ITALIAN FOOD LIKE YOU REMEMBER IT.

Byline: Larry Lipson Daily News Restaurant Critic

Buca di Beppo is a backlash of titanic proportions to nuova cucina.

The parallel to French nouvelle cuisine, Italian nuova cucina brought lighter, supposedly healthier and often imaginative combinations of ingredients to the table.

But the burgeoning Italian restaurant chain that started in Minnesota has capitalized on what Americans think of as Italian, with plenty of Southern Italian red sauce.

Recently opened in Encino, Buca di Beppo is located in the old Adam's restaurant location. The building is still owned by the Travaglini family, ironically the originators of the site as a landmark Italian restaurant for many years carrying the Travaglini name.

So what's the attraction?

It's a throwback. They call it Southern Italian immigrant food. It's nostalgia. It's huge platters of food served family style and perceived as a good value.

And it can be fun.

But there are drawbacks.

Solo diners or twosomes will find it difficult to eat a meal with any sort of diversity. Basically, it's a restaurant for parties of three or more. And definitely not for anyone with a small appetite.

Also, forget quiet dining. Buca di Beppo is about as noisy as any restaurant I've visited lately. Everyone seems to be shouting.

Some people prefer not to see where the food is produced. Here, you almost always have to walk through the kitchen to get to a dining room, or if you come in through a rear door, to get to the front desk.

And the multiplicity of typical European immigrant family photos, pictures of famous Italian-American or Italian movie stars, red-checkered tablecloths and suspended wine bottles as the dominant decor features may seem tacky.

There's even an area with a table that has a replica of the pope's head encased in Lucite in the center, called appropriately the ``Pope's Table.''

But if crowded dining rooms are any indication, the appeal easily outweighs any suggestions of disapproval.

And the staff is about as cheerful and helpful a bunch of people as you'd want to meet anywhere.

The whole idea is definitely a blue-collar approach to dining out: Get as many people as possible together so you can order several different megaplatters of pasta, chicken or veal. It's pigout time.

And though the servers are always ready to smilingly aid you, don't look for detailed attention in the service. For example, if you need plates, you'll get them all right, piled on the edge of your table.

Giant serving spoons arrive with each mountain of pasta and with such dishes as chicken cacciatore ($19.95), a savory, sizable, three-legged bird propped atop a hillock of mashed potatoes, the latter a bit pasty but not too bad.

The food, for the most part, is tasty, prepared fresh and served hot.

Even the giant meatballs in the spaghetti and meatballs ($10.95 or $17.45) don't seem as breaded as the ones remembered from yesteryear.

And there are nifty ways to take advantage of the big portioning.

Like ordering mussels in a frothy marinara sauce ($12.95), some 40 or 50 of them, with wedges of the crunchy, house-baked round loaf and a bottle of your own sauvignon blanc or pinot grigio ($5 corkage).

Or getting a huge, thin-crusted, four-cheese pizza bianca (with gorgonzola, provolone, mozzarella and romano) topped with caramelized red onions ($14.95). Or an order of roasted peppers ($6.95).

Bring a bottle of good red wine for that relatively low corkage fee and pour it into those silly glass mugs (no proper wine glasses here) and feast on one of those pretty good chicken offerings like the chicken Marsala with mushrooms ($18.95) or the hefty ravioli and meat sauce platter ($19.95).

End with either the deep pot of tiramisu ($8.95), certainly a passable version and enough for five or six people, or the equally respectable cheesecake ($6.95).

Fans can find the same food at Buca di Beppo outlets opening soon in cities across the country. There's already one in Pasadena, and two more are scheduled to open this year in Redondo Beach and Santa Monica.

THE FACTS

The restaurant: Buca di Beppo.

Where: 17500 Ventura Blvd., Encino. (Also in Pasadena.)

When: Open daily for dinner only, from 5 to 10 p.m. Monday through Thursday, until 11 p.m. Friday and Saturday, and from 4 to 10 p.m. Sunday.

Recommended items: Mussels marinara, roasted peppers, pizza bianca, Caesar salad, chicken Marsala, chicken cacciatore, ravioli with meat sauce, torta formaggio (cheesecake).

How much: All dishes large enough to share. Starters and sides (includes pizzas) from $7 to $19, pastas and entrees from $9 to $20, desserts from $6 to $9. Full bar. AE, MC, DC, V.

Wine list: Highlights jug-style house wines (red, white or rose) from single glass ($4) to 5-liter ($50) plus a couple of dozen labels well marked up, with only four priced under $20 and no vintage dates. Corkage fee: $5.

Reservations: Limited reservation policy. One-third booked nightly. Others are requested to call a half-hour prior to arrival time for possible wait-list notation. Call [phone].

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

CAPTION(S):

Photo

Photo: Portions are large at Buca di Beppo, an Italian restaurant chain that has just opened up an outlet in Encino, where assistant general manager Fred Slater, left, and general manager Anthony Penn show off the spaghetti and meatballs and chicken cacciatore.