TAP DANCING SERVERS CLICK AT SUSHI BAR.

Byline: Larry Lipson Daily News Restaurant Critic

The jazzy music begins. On a small, shiny dance floor, two men and a woman start tapping out their dance routine.

The blond-maned man seems to be leading. He's flanked by a woman with reddish hair, and a tall, thin man wearing glasses and sporting shaggy black locks.

The audience at dining tables and at the bar is appreciative and urges them on, clapping and cheering when they do tricky or dramatic steps.

Shades of the Step Brothers, the Nicholas Brothers, Bojangles, Gregory Hines.

But wait a minute. This is not a cocktail bar, it's a sushi bar.

Hey, this place doesn't even look a little bit like a supper club.

And the dancers are two Japanese sushi chefs - yep, even the blond one - and the woman is the restaurant's hostess.

Bizarre, even by Hollywood standards, this is the latest in themed restaurants, a sushi bar with tap dancing staffers.

Called Sushi On Tap, it sits in the small Studio City mini-mall that holds Residuals, the well-known actors' hangout and bar, in a space previously occupied by San Andres, a South American restaurant.

The sushi it purveys is, at its worst, comparable to competing sushi bars in the neighborhood, and at its best, a few notches higher.

It seems appropriate to begin with something peppery at such a hip, jazzy place. Recommendable are both the spicy scallop roll or spicy yellowtail roll ($4.20 each), made with fresher, crispier nori (seaweed) that works better than the more leathery, chewy nori used as a wrapping at many sushi bars.

The competent sushi chefs - who thankfully never attempt to dance a single step behind the counter while wielding their knives - make all the favored items: straight sushi, hand rolls, cut rolls, dynamite, sweet shrimp, salmon skin, you name them.

And in its clean, sharp, mostly black and white, minimalist setting, Sushi On Tap offers a different kind of noise to balance the staccato ra-ta-tat-ta-tat of tap dancing. It's the slurp.

The slurp is the acceptable sound - if you don't believe it, go to Tokyo and stick your head into any noodle cafe - made by enthusiastic, appreciative soba and udon noodle eaters.

Consequently, both buckwheat soba and the pastier wheat flour udon noodles are contentedly slurped at Sushi On Tap in numerous dishes, both hot and cold.

I prefer the soba, a thinner noodle, brown in color, in a dark, soy-flavored broth. It's a warming soup-noodle arrangement in a deep bowl with a couple of slices of fish cake and scallions floating in it, available with numerous additions, starting with my favorite, the tanuki version ($5), meaning it's sprinkled with crispy tempura batter.

You can add tiny nameko mushrooms ($6) or meats (beef, chicken, with or without curry flavoring, $6 to $7), also bean curd, egg, seaweed, mountain vegetables, grated yam, shrimp or vegetable tempura.

Bowls with these remaining additions are priced from $5.50 to $7.50.

Whatever is chosen, sprinkle some Japanese chili flakes in it from the handy little container provided, and you've got a zingy, tasty dish that for some is equivalent to main-course satisfaction.

The slurping involvement continues with cold noodle opportunities in the same price range with many of the same ingredient options.

But not everybody wants to engage in noodle slurping.

So, on a quieter munching basis, black cod yuanyaki ($9) glazed in sweet soy and sake is one of the many neatly wrought appetizers, others being soft shell crab ($8.50) or deep-fried calamari ($5.50), both presented with tart, vinegary ponzu dipping sauce.

One of the good, little finds at Sushi On Tap is a tasty rice dish for only $3 called chicken soboro rice, in which a bed of steamed rice is topped with finely cut snow peas and just as finely cut chicken.

And there are even more reasons than sushi and tap dancing for eating here.

The well-rounded menu lists a number of salads ($3.50 to $7.50) as well aas several lunch combination meals priced from $7 to $13 that include soba or udon servings and pickled vegetables.

And sake connoisseurs will love this place.

The restaurant stocks a collection of around a dozen sakes that range in price from the everyday small-size hot serving ($3) to a strong-flavored premium sake called Jyukushu Shikishima priced at $85 for a 500-millileter bottle.

So consider sipping a sake, nibbling some sushi, slurping soba, and watching the magic feet of the Sushi On Tap dance ensemble at work.

Who said life is dull in the big city?

The restaurant: Sushi On Tap.

Where: 11056 Ventura Blvd., Studio City.

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

Recommended items: Hot tanuki soba (with nameko mushrooms or preferred additions), vegetable tempura, black cod yuanyaki, albacore salad, chicken soboro rice, spicy scallop sushi, spicy yellowtail sushi, regular tuna and yellowtail sushi, soft shell crab, cold or hot sake.

How much: Starters and salads from $1.50 to $9, sushi and sashimi from $2.50 to $9, hot or cold soba and udon from $5 to $7.50, desserts from $3 to $5. Beer, wine and sake. MC, V.

Reservations: Helpful. Call [phone].

Our rating: Three Stars for food; Three Stars for service.

CAPTION(S):

2 Photos

Photo: (1) Sushi On Tap employees Kiyo Sone, left, Rumiko Hayashi, Hideki Fukuoka and Ken Tsuchiya break into a dance routine.

(2) When he's not aentertaining diners, chef Tsuchiya is rolling sushi.

David Sprague/Daily News