RESTAURANTS : GENEROUS TO A FAULT : At Agostino Sciandri’s Latest Restaurant, Patrons Get a Lot of Food. Like It or Not.

In its early days, Il Giardino was a restaurant so thoroughly Italian that even sophisticated people were puzzled. The waiters spoke almost no English. The hallmark of the cooking was its utter simplicity. The menu was so authentic that chefs from all over the country made pilgrimages to Los Angeles. Until Il Giardino came along, nobody in America had really attempted the pared-down elegance of the best Italian food.

The chef was Agostino Sciandri. By the time he left in 1987, Il Giardino clones were commonplace. Sciandri then opened a little trattoria in Brentwood and once again made his mark. Diners at his Trattoria Toscana walked in the door to be greeted by a large table filled with antipasti, just as they would in Italy, and walked out with the smell of wood smoke clinging to their clothes. For a second time, he had an enormous hit.

Sciandri and his partners (Doc Severinsen among them) next opened a little takeout place, Rosti, in Brentwood, and another terrific trattoria, Oli Ola in Pacific Palisades. Now comes their first venture into the Valley. And their first attempt at a large restaurant (this one seats about 200 people).

It, too, is an enormous hit. On any night of the week, the place is packed with people who look like they’re having a terrific time. The tables are set with pinzimonio-- huge bowls sprouting celery sticks, radishes and carrots alongside a saucer of olive oil and vinegar. People eat their vegetables, crunching on carrots as they table-hop around the vast and raucous room, swapping chairs as if this were one giant party. Everybody, it seems, is happy.

Except me. Sciandri has now become a full-fledged American chef, and what you get at the newest Toscana is primarily a lot of food at very reasonable prices. This would certainly be cause for celebration--if only the food were better.

Consider the first dinner I had at Terrazza Toscana. After I’d repeated my wine order three times (the noise level here is extraordinarily high), the waiter looked at me with surprise. “That’s a very good choice,” he said, as if I had somehow chosen at random and gotten lucky. Indeed, the ’85 Nozzole Chianti Classico is delicious.

A lot more delicious, in fact, than any of our appetizers. Insalata mare was a heap of extremely overcooked calamari, surrounded mostly by mussels. Ribollita alla Toscana, one of the great soups of Italy, was a pallid vegetable soup that resembled the minestrone you used to get in the bad old days of Italian restaurants. Grilled fresh porcini mushrooms were old, with the soggy character of mushrooms gone to mush. Pizza Margherita was nice enough, but it, too, had a soggy quality.

I’ve always loved the bistecca fiorentina at Toscana--a giant T-bone cooked in the wood-burning oven. The one here was less impressive: The meat was so jaggedly cut that the thin filet mignon on the T-bone was completely overcooked while the thicker strip of steak on the other side of the bone was rare. The meat was accompanied by roast potatoes and by spinach that looked as if it had been cooking all day.

Calamari in zimino-- one of the more interesting-sounding dishes on the menu (“sauteed calamari with fresh vegetables, tomatoes, white wine, chile and garlic”)--turned out to be fishy, rubbery squid stew. None of us ate it.

Grilled Santa Barbara prawns were mealy. Tagliatelle bolognese was generously served and would have been a good deal at $8.75 if the sauce had tasted more of meat than tomatoes. There was, however, a very fine stew of sausages, red beans and lots of rosemary. This, at $9.50, was a true bargain.

The best of the desserts were tiramisu and a pear tart, but the best part of the whole meal was the espresso, which was excellent.

Can you eat well at Terrazza Toscana? Having now eaten my way through most of the menu, I can tell you that the answer is yes--provided that you order very carefully. Avoid anything with calamari--this kitchen ruins squid every time. And don’t expect much from the pasta either. But carnivores can have a terrific time at Terrazza Toscana.

To begin, there is an extraordinarily delicious carpaccio, made of paper-thin slices of icy cold beef topped with arugula and generous sheets of shaved Parmesan. This version makes it clear why the dish became a national sensation. There is a similarly delicious version of insalata carciofi-- slivers of baby artichokes with lemon, olive oil and those satisfying sheets of cheese.

The sausage stew is always wonderful, and the lamb chops (served with grilled radicchio) are good. There’s a nice pounded half chicken, pollo al mattone, laden with garlic and rosemary. Although I was disappointed with the T-bone steak, the less expensive rib steak served with white beans is a substantial plate of food.

The pizzas can be very good--provided the crusts are cooked to crispness. And the bruschetta’s not bad. Desserts--the usual cakes and tarts--are primarily a concession to American tastes.

Unfortunately, that’s the feeling you get about all the food at Terrazza Toscana. Sciandri is one of our best Italian chefs, and we were lucky that he started out by serving us the food that he wanted to eat. But at Terrazza Toscana, he has ended up serving us the food that he thinks we want to eat. There’s quite a difference.

Terrazza Toscana, 17401 Ventura Blvd. (in the Courtyard shopping center), Encino; (818) 905-1641. Open for lunch Monday through Saturday, for dinner nightly. Valet parking. All major credit cards accepted. Dinner for two, food only, $30-$80.