RESTAURANT REVIEW : Right Way to Eat at Pasadena Old Town’s Rite Spot : If you can’t make it on a Saturday night, stick to lunch or breakfast.

Over the past year, I’ve watched as the dingy burger joint on the corner of Fair Oaks and Colorado disappeared and the Rite Spot, Pasadena Old Town’s newest and fanciest nostalgia/theme coffee shop, slowly materialized.

Gone is the greasy glass of the old take-out window, the litter of straw wrappers and cup lids, the depressing bus-stop atmosphere. Instead, there are heaven-high ceilings with classy Deco-style fixtures; a room called the Mecca Room, paved with yellow Egyptian-like carved stone; colorful geometric tilework on the floor and swank old-fashioned carpet with a kind of Tom Collins lime-on-the-rim-of-the-glass motif (it reminds me of the Wiltern Theater’s vintage martini-and-olive carpet).

On one wall is a mural, a kind of 1990s version of the graphic, boldly executed WPA murals; in this one, pink mountains transfigure into gears and cogs and you can look a good ways up the flapping skirt of a woman waiting for a train. The only thing missing is Raymond Chandler grousing at the bar.

I had thought Old Town nostalgia had reached a peak at Delacey’s Club 41 nearby, but Club 41 has done itself one better in this, its own first spinoff.

If only it were comfortable as well. When we arrived for dinner on a Wednesday night, we were seated in a tiny booth in the front room. We knocked knees under the table, sat this way and then that; my friend ended up sitting sideways with both legs sticking out into the room. We asked to move and were given a tiny table with three-quarter-sized chairs. (At least here we could fit all four legs under the table.) The whole room looked as if it had been designed with your average 12- to 13-year-old in mind. The booths were roomier in the Mecca Room, but it’s the designated smoking section, which must make the Rite Spot one of the last places around where smokers are rewarded for their controversial activity.

Still, you can’t help but admire the business acumen involved in the seating design: Nobody lingers in uncomfortable chairs, no matter how charming the decor.

It took me a number of visits to figure out the right way to eat at the Rite Spot. That first Wednesday night, we ordered dinners from a waitress who was as edgy and hurried as a hummingbird. She’d alight for a moment to take an order or drop off food, and then streak over to another table--before we could tell her we needed a glass of water or another fork. To be sure, it wasn’t all her fault--the restaurant seemed understaffed.

We also figured out that dinner is probably not the right choice at the Rite Spot. The deep-fried calamari appetizer was OK, but salads were made with limp, brown lettuce. Dressed in some white, tasteless substance and topped with jawbreaker croutons, the Caesar was particularly dreary. I had the daily special, an unmemorable braised lamb shank; my friend had a meat loaf whose decent flavor was cloaked in a sweet, winey gravy.

Breakfast turned out to be a better option. We had a different but equally harried waitress; she at least was backed up by a coffee-pouring busboy. The coffee was decent too, the eggs Benedict respectable and the ham steak with the ham and eggs was as big as a face. The accompanying muffins looked and tasted like miniature bundt cakes, and the potato pancakes were deep-fried discs of mashed potatoes. The only thing strange was the Joe’s special; the classic dish of eggs scrambled with spinach and sausage was made with maple -flavored sausages.

Lunch proved even more satisfying, though it did star yet another over-burdened waitress . . . or rather, she had a very minor speaking part. However, I loved the hot beef brisket dip sandwich. And a triple decker roast beef, turkey and Swiss sandwich was so huge and satisfying, it was half eaten before I noticed there was no Swiss cheese to be found in it. A spinach salad was fresh and pretty.

But it wasn’t until we stopped in for a quick bite after a Saturday night movie that we had the apex of our dining experiences at the Rite Spot. The place was nearly full of dates and tables of friends and small families who nearly all looked happy, as if they were really having a good time. We had a good time too. For one, we had a great waitress; she actually paused at our table and looked at us and answered our questions and still didn’t miss a beat. We had great fish and chips and an ordinary cheeseburger, which both came with a crunchy fresh cole slaw. Despite the discomfort of the chairs, we also had a ringside seat to Saturday night in Pasadena. So many people poured by the windows, we felt we were in the middle of something, that we had found and claimed some central vantage, that somehow, we’d managed to be in the Rite Spot at the right time.

The Rite Spot, 2 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena. (818) 792-1886. Breakfast, lunch and dinner daily. Major credit cards. Beer and wine. Dinner for two, food only, $15 to $50.