VALLEY CUISINE; CAFES HAVENS FOR FINE FOOD.

Byline: Larry Lipson Daily News Restaurant Critic

Dining out is the American pastime, and the San Fernando Valley offers five spots that match up well with the 56 top restaurants across the nation that are highlighted in USA Weekend magazine in today's Daily News.

The mark of great dining is not just the food. It's the dining experience as a whole, especially if there's a great view and a theme to the ambience that are as good as the food.

Luckily, the Valley is loaded with excellent restaurants for all budgets and decorating tastes. In fact, there are now so many good places that it becomes difficult to select a handful as personal picks.

If you'll be vacationing on the road this summer, you'll certainly want to keep today's USA Weekend magazine, featuring 56 recommended eating places around the nation.

But if you're staying home, there are plenty of nearby restaurants to choose from. And even if your plans to be on the road are extensive, surely you won't be cruising the highways and byways of America all summer long.

So as a supplemental ``in our own back yard'' list, here are my five recommendations:

Ca' del Sole

4100 Cahuenga Blvd., North Hollywood, [phone]

There's rosemary growing along the wall outside the romantic flagstone patio, a tree-shaded, day-or-night delight for dining during warmer weather. Jazz stylings can often be heard drifting from the lounge, and the bill of fare has the strong Venetian accents of the restaurant's talented founding chef, Antonio Tommasi.

Try the superb whole deboned chicken with a lemon-and-herb glaze, served in a skillet with spinach and roasted potatoes. It's a natural sharing dish ($13.15). For a pasta treat, the house favorite is mezzalune di zucca baruca ($10.95). This translates into a delicious, feathery-soft, half-moon-shaped pasta stuffed with pumpkin and sauteed with a light sage, butter and parmesan sauce.

The more than 400 carefully chosen wines (60 percent Italian, 40 percent Californian) in stock give Ca' del Sole one of the largest, if not the largest, wine inventories in the Valley. Affable host and managing partner Rodolfo Costella will gladly help you select one.

Cafe Bizou

14016 Ventura Blvd., Sherman Oaks, [phone]

The Valley's hottest tables are the result of well-executed, contemporary French cooking presented with finesse and priced lower than anyone expects. Add a nominal $2 corkage fee and you've got a wine collector's paradise.

Chef and co-owner Neil Rogers usually prepares an impeccable dish of crusted fresh fish in red wine sauce for the many wine buffs who are looking to pair their fine red with something light. And soup or salad is a mere $1 with an entree.

But you end up paying another kind of price: You have to make reservations weeks (or months) in advance. So do it - it's worth it.

Out Take Cafe

12159 Ventura Blvd., Studio City, [phone]

It's a neat, narrow storefront space as casual as can be, about as nifty a neighborhood eating place as one can find anywhere. And the food is terrific, served in oversize bowls and plates and, like Bizou, at bargain prices, with the welcome mesclun green salad for a mere $1 extra with each entree order.

You won't find softer, tastier ravioli even in Italy. Soups are deep, large bowls of steaming joy. The mussels in a Thai-accented broth seem like endless gratification. And the Asian sauteed vegetable dish provides a delicious alternative when that urge for a meatless dining day rolls around.

Good, smallish wine list with several interesting choices by the glass. Corkage fee: $5.

Pinot Bistro

12969 Ventura Blvd., Studio City, [phone]

To many, this is the quintessential French bistro, offering everything you expect in bistro food from onion soup to steak frites to a satisfying roasted chicken dish. And the furnishings were brought directly from Paris.

But it has touches of California flair and owner Joachim Splichal's whimsy to give it that extra allure, plus resident chef-partner Octavio Becerra's inspired day-to-day cooking. You'll find Splichal's signature potato-crusted whitefish and other similarities to his much-lauded Patina fare. And the bar has a definite Euro flavor.

Posto

14928 Ventura Blvd., Sherman Oaks, [phone]

Probably the Valley's ultimate Italian dining destination, Posto reflects that distinctive Piero Selvaggio (of Valentino and Primi fame) stamp, an upscale ristorante that embraces you with Italian warmth and authentic, always-interesting food and wine.

The expertise of chef Luciano Pellegrini ranges from frico (thin parmesan cheese chips) to his superb, made-from-scratch, fresh garganelli pasta (sometimes black-hued with squid ink, sometimes red with beet juice), currently white, paired with roasted duck and white and green asparagus in a red-wine sauce with a touch of garlic ($14). Magnifico.

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PHOTO (Color) IN USA WEEKEND

The 56 greatest places to eat in the United States. Scenic cuisine in Los Angeles and along the California Coast.