NOW THIS IS ITALIAN PALAZZO IN NORTHRIDGE OFFERS ALL-SATISFYING MEALS AND NOTHING OVER $10.

Byline: Larry Lipson Restaurant Critic

RIDICULOUSLY LOW prices for full-service Italian food in a spotless little Italian cafe tells the basic story of the recently opened Palazzo in Northridge.

This is no old-style, red sauce Italian dinery with heavy, starchy food and gloppy toppings. Its kitchen sends out attractively arranged ingredients on large white plates and in deep white bowls. The fare reflects a restrained, light hand even with the most generous of portions.

For its more than 50 regular menu items that include appetizers, salads, soups, sandwiches, pizzas, pastas, chicken and seafood entrees and desserts, Palazzo never charges double-digit dollar amounts.

Yep, trust me, everything is listed under $10, with 45 items priced under $7.

True, the individual dishes are familiar, safe, hardly innovative and don't use the more expensive ingredients. They reflect care and skill and fit the needs of today's budget-minded diner who's looking for well-made, noninstitutional food from an independent restaurant kitchen.

Starters here begin at the almost absurdly low price of $2.95 for a respectable mixed green salad. At the top end, they feature a scampi-style appetizer for $6.95, with crunchy, tail-on, deveined shrimps bathed in a creamy, garlicky saucing that could easily go for twice the price at any Westside trattoria.

Hungry? Munch a few of Palazzo's complimentary garlic rolls with this appetizing dish and you may well feel that you've already finished a meal.

Two soups come forth fresh-tasting and flavorful, one a nicely fashioned minestrone ($2.95), the other a soup du jour ($3.50) that might be a well- crafted chicken noodle or a rich and smooth, creamy vegetable effort.

Shareable salads include a refreshing, leafy spinach mixture ($4.95) with red onion, cucumber, feta cheese and pine nuts dressed in a light Italian vinaigrette.

Pastas ($4.95 to $6.95) range from a popular capellini alla checca ($4.95) of angel hair tossed with fresh tomatoes, basil and garlic to a light but gratifying rendition of meat and cheese lasagna in a lilting tomato sauce ($6.95).

The white option of linguine with chopped baby clams, Italian parsley and garlic ($5.95) is a steal here. And so is the chicken Marsala ($6.95) prepared with moist chicken breast in a mushroom and sweetish Marsala wine sauce.

All seven of the chicken dishes use a boneless chicken breast, sometimes slightly dryish, other times richly moist and tender. One of the better chicken preparations is the herbal cacciatore offering ($5.95), bold with onions, bell peppers, olives and mushrooms.

Even the seafood opportunities escape double-digit pricing with melty, pan-fried filet of sole ($8.95) as the No. 1 choice. It's available with a zingy puttanesca sauce for those who like the robust flavors of anchovy, capers, onion, garlic and olives. Yet, if that seems overwhelming, the same fish might be on hand with a buttery, lemon, white wine and capers saucing or something similar.

Palazzo makes hefty sandwiches at bargain prices, inexpensive pizzas and some artistically plated desserts as low as $2.95 each.

In the endings department, one time we shared a nifty apple tart with ice cream, another time a thick, airy, creamy slab of tiramisu.

Diners leave Palazzo with good feelings.

There's that elusive, wonderful feeling of receiving more than your money's worth. It's joined by the joy of fulfillment, the result of consuming food that leaves unexpectedly high degrees of satisfaction.

If it stays on this same path, it has to be a winner.

PALAZZO

Food: Three stars. Value: Four stars. Service: Three stars.

Where: 19253 Roscoe Blvd., Northridge.

Hours: Open for breakfast/brunch 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays, for lunch 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. daily except Mondays, for dinner 4 to 10 p.m. Tuesdays through Sundays. Closed Mondays.

Recommended items: Scampi Italiano, soups, spinach salad, lasagna, linguine vongole, chicken marsala or cacciatore, filet of sole, tiramisu.

How much: Starters from $3 to $7, sandwiches and pizzas from $5 to $9.99, pastas and entrees from $5 to $9.95, desserts $2.95. No alcohol. All major credit cards.

Reservations: Taken. Call [phone].

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Photo:

The Mussels Marinieres, among the lighter dishes at the Italian restaurant Palazzo, features mussels steamed in white wine sauce.

Evan Yee/Staff Photographer