STEVIE'S: GOOD FOOD, ERRATIC SERVICE.

Byline: Larry Lipson Restaurant Critic

Talk about a melting pot.

We're sitting in a new Creole restaurant in Encino eating a dish called the Last Supper.

Our waiter is a fair-complexioned, red-haired, Iraqi Christian Kurdish immigrant. An attentive maitre d' type with a big smile also stops by the table a few times and asks us how things are going.

Noticing his lilting accent, we ask where he's from.

``Togo,'' he tells us, and we find out that his grandfather was a village chief there who had six wives.

So here we are in L.A. spooning some of the best Louisiana-style gumbo (regular $8 or $18, vegetable $5 or $9) ever cooked in these parts, being waited on by two very interesting people who don't appear to have strong connections to the Creole-Cajun food of Louisiana whatsoever.

But at the new Stevie's Creole Cafe & Bar, an attractive wood-fronted replacement for Benvenuti, a relatively serene and enjoyable dinner experience

on one night changes radically. It becomes a chaotic and patience-testing time a couple of evenings later.

The Last Supper for two ($30) turns out to be a veritable feast, featuring moist, smoky Southern fried chicken; chewable, meaty, short ribs of beef; and fried, flaky, crunchy, corn-crusted catfish, all served with four side dishes of black-eyed peas, rice, collard greens and red peppered cabbage.

If you order a cup of thick, peppery, file gumbo ($8) brimming with crab, sausage, shrimp and chicken, your night is almost complete.

That's because there's a superb version of sweet potato pie ($5) with which to make it complete.

This well-above-average dinner experience is possible, even probable, on a non-show night.

But on a weekend evening when the stage show by such top performers as Billy Preston and Merry Clayton draws a larger, later crowd, the kitchen and dining room staff are stretched to a point where long waits and confusion become rampant.

Never mind that on a midweek evening the jambalaya ($18) here can be a delicious, assertively sauced concoction of rice with good, crunchy shrimp, and flavorful chicken and sausage links.

Never mind that when the kitchen isn't rushed, it's able to turn out a fine rendition of crawfish etouffee ($20), creamy and abundant with those good-tasting, little, red, out-of-shell decapods.

Never mind that at lunchtime one day a po-boy oyster sandwich ($11) paired with the wonderful, well-seasoned, house fries, may allow you to rejoice about the good food of New Orleans even if you've never been there.

Yes, it's difficult to forget the friends who are seated nearby well before showtime who are complaining that no food has come to their table for 40 minutes.

And that both the pork chops and barbecued ribs (half-rack $15, whole rack $20) are cooked in a dry style and served sauceless.

Or that a sampler platter of catfish nuggets, chicken drumettes and grilled shrimp seemed rather sparse for $25.

Or that the market price of a plate of king crab legs is not quoted as promised and ends up on the bill at $65, eventually reduced to $45 after a complaint had been aired.

Or that a New York steak ($25), a replacement for unavailable crawfish etouffee one night, and asked for pink, comes up blood rare and is returned.

But to balance the books, Stevie's makes excellent chowders in addition to its great gumbos. They're creamy and fulfilling soups, one with clams ($5), the other with corn and bay shrimp.

And again, there's that incredible sweet potato pie.

The restaurant: Stevie's Creole Cafe & Bar.

Where: 16911 Ventura Blvd., Encino.

When: Open for lunch, dinner, snacks and drinks from 11:30 a.m. to 11 p.m. weekdays, from 5 p.m. to midnight Saturday and Sunday.

Behind the scenes: Stephen Perry, a former child actor who owns Stevie's on the Strip, 3403 Crenshaw Blvd., Los Angeles, is owner. Leslie Bradley is chef.

Recommended items: Clam chowder, corn and shrimp chowder, seafood gumbo, vegetable gumbo, crawfish etouffee, fried chicken, oyster po-boy sandwich, catfish, Creole jambalaya, Last Supper combo platter for two (with fried chicken, catfish and short ribs), house fries, red pepper cabbage, candied yams, rum-sauced bread pudding, peach cobbler, sweet potato pie.

How much: Starters and salads from $5 to $30, entrees from $12 to $45, desserts from $1.75 to $5. Show cover charge is $15 per person. AE, MC, V, Discover. Full bar.

Wine list: Minimal opening list of a few major labels like Mondavi and Fetzer. Bottles priced from high teens and up. Corkage: $5.

Reservations: Helpful; mandatory on show nights. Call [phone].

Our rating: Three stars for food; One and one half stars for service; no stars for wine.

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Photo:

Stephen Perry, owner of Stevie's Creole Cafe & Bar in Encino, shows off his shrimp and crawfish etouffee. Perry also owns Stevie's on the Strip in Crenshaw.

David Sprague/Staff Photographer