PAUL'S BIDS FOR BIZOU CROWD.

Byline: Larry Lipson Daily News Restaurant Critic

Paul's Cafe is a clean little unpretentious place in Sherman Oaks that's fast becoming the local restaurant hit of the summer.

The former home of Chao Praya, Paul's Cafe has gained status due in part to the hugely successful, nearby Cafe Bizou and the highly acclaimed JoeJoe's.

It duplicates Cafe Bizou's corkage ($2), dollar salad or soup (with entree) and a Welsh accent by one of the co-owners.

And it crusts almost everything and flavors the mashed potatoes - horseradish and basil come to mind - just like Joe Miller of Joe's in Venice had inspired Tom Munoz, the chef and co-owner of JoeJoe's, to do.

The chef at Paul's is Darin Eckermann who, not surprisingly, cooked at Joe's. And its namesake co-owner Paul Lloyd, the expatriate Welshman, worked at Cafe Bizou where its head chef and co-owner is Neil Rogers, also from Wales.

Those super-bargain dollar soups come in reasonable portions in nice-looking white bowls and are usually intensely flavored purees combined with little or no cream and always contain the necessary seasonings to avert blandness.

Sweet corn soup, a semi-sweet carrot creation and roasted tomato with carmelized onion soup have been three of Eckermann's triumphs to date.

With either the soup or very adequate salad available to diners as satisfying starters for such a low price, it becomes difficult to order one or more of the good appetizers here.

But meal-takers should be aware that the kitchen turns out a delicious grilled portobello mushroom dish ($5.95) specked with crumbled goat cheese and coupled with arugula leaves and a delightful, full-flavored tomato relish enhanced with the tiniest of sweet cherry tomatoes rarely larger than blueberries.

Tomatoes of the sun-dried variety add tartness to a distinctive-tasting lobster and wild mushroom cannelloni ($6.95) moistened with a chive-studded buerre blanc.

Lobster also appears in the garlicky aoli dressing with Eckermann's neatly fashioned crab cakes ($7.95), a trio of them served with crunchy green beans.

But the star of the menu is undoubtedly the chef's rendition of rack of lamb ($14.95). He rubs the juicy baby lamb meat with garlic, boosts the flavor with a refreshing mint au jus and accompanies the tasty meat on the bone with a superb filo-wrapped, red sweet pepper-dotted goat cheese and potato tart as well as spinach finished with browned butter.

I've had larger racks, but never one better at twice the price.

Wrapping and crusting being his thing, Eckermann effectively crusts shrimp with filo dough ($13.95) and serves them with his seafood-stuffed raviolis. He crusts salmon ($12.95) with pepper to achieve the perfect combination of a zippy crisped exterior with flaky flesh tenderness. The salmon is artfully paired with a wild mushroom and artichoke ``hash'' mixture and made companionable to a good red wine by being in a red wine sauce. Shades of Cafe Bizou's menu, which seems to always have a red wine-sauced fish.

The roasted chicken breast here brings forth bites of moist delight with green-hued basil mashed potatoes and vegetables at lunch ($7.95) or with Yukon potatoes, green beans and carrots for dinner ($10.95).

He crusts sea bass with porcini ($12.95) and delivers a hearty plate of herb-crusted pork tenderloin. In the latter dish, the pork is almost overshadowed by a rich Madeira and mushroom sauce, an equally rich leek and cheese potato creation and pearl onions.

Surprisingly, whitefish ($11.95) at Paul's receives no crusting. Yet the simple roasting of it works admirably. And the light, tender fish arrives with a restrained lemon-vinegar sauce, respectable mashed potatoes and spinach or green beans.

New York steak frites ($8.95) is a great lunchtime treat. In the evening, the kitchen sends out filet mignon ($14.95) as its sole steak item, replacing the nicely wrought fries with horseradish-flavored mashed potatoes, adding both a port wine sauce and green beans.

If you decide to end a meal with a salad, there's a sharing possibility from a butter leaf, pear, raddicchio, arugula, endive, spiced pecan and gorgonzola cheese melange that really refreshes.

Desserts are mostly clever arrangements of filo dough and ice cream with berries or such popular endings as creme brulee, chocolate mousse or warm chocolate cake.

And wine, of course, is what you bring for a $2 charge per bottle, or pick from a two-page starting list of fairly reasonably priced bottlings.

The twin dining room arrangement of closely spaced tables may appear to be congested when full, but somehow Paul's service works without noticeable major problems, despite the small staff's newness to its surroundings.

The only faults to date have been a couple of dishes delivered tepid instead of hot. And that was on a busy weekend night.

Meanwhile, this place is undoubtedly a gem worth visiting as soon as possible, certainly before reservations become as hard to obtain as Rolling Stones concert tickets.

THE FACTS

The restaurant: Paul's Cafe.

Where: 13456 Ventura Blvd., Sherman Oaks

When: Open for lunch from 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. weekdays, for dinner from 5 to 10 p.m. nightly, to 11 p.m. Friday and Saturday.

Recommended items: French butter pear salad with spiced pecans and gorgonzola cheese, dollar soup, lobster and wild mushroom cannelloni, grilled portobello with goat cheese, crab cakes, filo-crusted shrimp, roast chicken breast, pepper-crusted salmon with red wine sauce, roasted whitefish, rack of lamb with a goat cheese and potato tart, herb-crusted pork tenderloin.

How much: Starters from $1 to $7, entrees from $11 to $15, desserts $3.50 each.

Wine list: 37-label selection of well-chosen wines priced from $12 to $34 featuring eight chardonnays, three sauvignon blancs, nine cabernet sauvignons and six merlots. Vintages are '95 through '97, and there are a dozen wines by the glass ($4 to $6). Fourteen bottles are $20 or less. Corkage: $2.

Reservations: Suggested. Call [phone].

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

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Photo

Photo: Chef Darin Eckermann, left, and manager Paul Lloyd are co-owners of Paul's Cafe in Sherman Oaks.

Phil McCarten/Daily News