SOME LIKE IT HOT SZECHWAN SPICINESS, AUTHENTIC ITEMS MAKE NORTHRIDGE WOK SPOT STAND OUT.

Byline: Larry Lipson Restaurant Critic

DON'T TELL ANYONE, but the big secret at the Hot Wok Cafe in Northridge is knowing you may request the English version of the Chinese language menu to be sure to get some of the kitchen's most interesting food.

For example, there's a delicious clam broth laced with fresh shredded ginger and filled with fresh clams in the shell ($7.25), a super soup starter that isn't listed on the regular menu.

Then there's the house seafood soup ($7.95) that actually can be found on both menus.

This soup, one that may be conveniently ordered in a smaller quantity, plenty enough for two ($4.55), is a lively, smooth and creamy mixture of shrimp, scallops, pieces of fish, with tofu and egg shreds, and it's absolutely lovely.

You may want to pass on the sauerkraut with tripe soup ($5.75) and the cold jellyfish salad ($6.55), but if you like calamari, don't pass up Hot Wok's cold five-flavor squid appetizer ($6.55).

This is the large squid - a whole load of it - hammered down to compliant crunchiness, served cut up and chilled with zingy sweet and spicy Szechwan saucing.

Spicy Szechwan in varying degrees appears to be the culinary direction here at Hot Wok, confirmed by a couple of paragraphs defining Szechwan fare on the restaurant's menu.

Even filet of sole with black bean sauce ($9.25), a frothy, light dish, very generously portioned, as are most of the Hot Wok creations, reveals the occasional small red fleck of hot chile pepper. Note that on the translated menu it's listed as having a ``rice bean sauce.''

For those who are chow fun lovers (as I am), the flat rice noodle platters are executed very well here. If you pick the beef rendition ($6.55), you'll appreciate the tastiness and texture of the many slices of tender meat that the Hot Wok kitchen puts on each order.

That same beef comes forth dramatically with large, sweet scallops on a hissing, sizzling iron platter ($11.25) that can be requested off the regular menu's list of chef's specialties.

Pork is also good here.

It comes numerous ways, with one of the rarer recipes finding it stuffed in a wonton skin roll and crisped ($7.25), cut and served as a crispy pork roll, Taiwan style. Some might find this a bit dry.

Another pork recipe worth trying is part of an old Chinese restaurant fave. Pork egg foo young ($6.55) emerges here as a brown-sauce-soaked, thick omelet-like treat that brings a mildly seasoned, satisfying, harmonious dish to a table of diverse and often spicy offerings.

Offerings that evidently are responsible for making the Hot Wok Cafe hot.

Larry Lipson, [phone]

larry.lipson(at)dailynews.com

HOT WOK CAFE

Food: Three stars - Service: Three stars

Where: 9135 Reseda Blvd., Northridge.

Hours: Open for lunch from 11:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. daily, for dinner from 3 to 9:30 p.m. nightly, to 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday.

Recommended items: Soups (fresh clams with ginger, seafood), cold five-flavor squid, chicken in cage, beef with scallops on sizzling platter, pork foo young, beef chow fun, fish in black bean sauce.

How much: Starters from $1.50 to $13, entrees from $6.55 to $21, desserts $3.25 and $4. Beer and wine. MC, AE, V.

Reservations: Helpful. Call [phone].

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Photo:

Shrimp with crispy walnuts is one of the offerings at Hot Wok, where additional adventurous dishes are offered on the Chinese-language menu (translation available).

Phil McCarten/Staff Photographer