PERSIAN CUISINE UNDER BIG A.

Byline: Larry Lipson Daily News Restaurant Critic

The new Green Cottage resides in an A-frame building on Ventura Boulevard in Woodland Hills that was originally built to serve pancakes as an IHOP.

In recent years the building has changed hands and names, purveying barbecue for a while and more recently Vietnamese food.

Now, with its green-themed decor, a patio with waterfall, lots of potted plants inside and out, and a new name, it serves burgers, steaks with fries, whitefish and salmon entrees. But such Americana is hardly its main direction.

The Green Cottage happens to be primarily a Persian restaurant, and a pretty good one.

Not only good from a food standpoint, but as a good deal, as well.

One day at lunchtime, two hungry fellows ordered the smaller combination appetizer platter ($6.99) - there's a larger one for $10.99 - and the tadig (tah-dig) plate ($3.99) which is the traditional Persian crisped rice cake.

Here, the kitchen presents the tadig topped with ghorme sabzi, a flavorful, piquant stewlike mixture of kidney beans, tiny pieces of veal, onion, herbs and dried lime. For an extra $1 the rice cake has one half topped with the ghorme sabzi and the remaining half topped with one of two other prepared stews, either the gheymeh - which also contains veal, dried lime and onion, but instead of kidney beans yellow split peas - or fesenjan.

The gheymeh is also cooked in a saffron-tomato sauce, giving it even more flavors.

Fesenjan, a pomegranate and walnut mixture, is traditionally coated on duck or chicken. But it wasn't available that day.

It was discovered that the tadig, though a lighter dish, certainly would have been a large enough appetizer to share by itself.

But the large oval platter was stacked with three dips (garbanzo and sesame hummus, yogurt and shallots maast o'moosier and the sesame-flavored, garlicky, eggplant and garbanzo bean spread called baba ghannouj, this one made with yogurt). It also contained a sizable chunk of feta cheese, portions of marinated olives, a variety of pickles and a substantial portion of green salad sprinkled with thousand island dressing. It looked enormous. And this was the smaller one.

Consequently, after nibbling and munching from this heaping appetizer serving with the help of two baskets of pita bread, the entrees seemed almost superfluous.

So there was plenty to take home of the zereshk polo plate ($5.99 at lunch, $7.99 at dinner), another oval platter filled with a mound of rice topped with a tart and sweet, saffron-boosted barberries and onion sauce and a nicely seasoned, plump, baked half-chicken, crisp of skin, moist of flesh.

To boot, there were vegetables and pickles on the plate.

Yet how could anyone eat at a Persian restaurant and not order a kebab-style dish?

The familiar shish kebab ($8.99 at lunch, $12.99 at dinner), not made with lamb but tender filet mignon, was marinated and flame broiled, paired with steamed rice and broiled vegetables. It was just as big.

And for dessert there were premises-made sweet Persian pistachio ice cream, yellow hued from saffron, and faloodeh, an icy refreshing creation made with sweetened thin white wheat noodles in rosewater ($2.99 each or $4.99 if combined).

This lunch turned out to be much bigger than most dinners.

So it's interesting to note that at an ensuing visit to the Green Cottage in the evening, it becomes immediately apparent that, in general, dinner portions seem to be about the same size as lunch, which makes some sense because diners can order from both menu segments all day.

One of the few moderately sized appetizer plates is an offering of a little feta cheese with walnuts and a spray of mint and basil leaves, an inexpensive beginning called panir o'sabzi ($2.99).

There's also a separate version of reasonably portioned baba ghannouj ($3.99) that provides a refreshing start.

For main courses, there are gratifying entrees of ground and cubed combos of chicken and beef kebabs called soltanis (chicken $10.99, beef $12.99) served with well-executed basmati rice and grilled tomatoes.

And for those with a yen for spicy food, the kitchen soaks good quality filet mignon in a peppery marinade before flame broiling it on skewers for its ``hot'' kebab platter ($13.99).

You'll never have to worry about getting enough food at the Green Cottage. And at alluring prices.

And if there's an unadventurous type in your party, there's that smattering of familiar American items to choose from.

Would you believe that this Persian kitchen makes a Caesar salad, a turkey burger and a tasty barley soup?

Yep, and if you're cowardly and order a steak, you might want to try the Green Cottage's good ol' onion rings ($3.99) with it.

THE FACTS

The restaurant: Green Cottage.

Where: 20022 Ventura Blvd., Woodland Hills.

When: Open for lunch from 11:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Tuesday through Friday, for dinner from 3:30 to 10 p.m. nightly. Closed Monday.

Recommended items: Combination appetizer platter, tadig (crispy rice) topped with two stews (ghemeh, ghorme sabzi or fesenjan), feta cheese with walnuts, kebabs (chicken or beefsteak, ground or cubed, separately or combined), baked half-chicken with barberry and onion-topped rice, slightly spicy filet mignon kebab, Persian saffron-pistachio ice cream, faloodeh (cold sweet noodles) with rosewater.

How much: Starters from $3 to $7, entrees from $8 to $16, desserts from $1.50 to $5. No alcohol. AE, MC, V.

Reservations: Suggested. Call [phone].

Our rating: Three stars for food; Three stars for service; Three and one half stars for value.

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Photo

Photo: Green Cottage serves a kebab combination plate with skewered beef, chicken, vegetables and a side of rice.

Charlotte Schmidt-Maybach/Daily News