RESTAURANT REVIEW : Kita San Is a Japanese Eatery Worth Getting Into Stew About : The highlight of the menu at this reliable spot in Oxnard is <i> yosenabe</i> , a delicious, full-flavored fish stew.

Success and failure, originality and fakery--these are qualities most quickly discerned in the Japanese restaurant. There’s so little to distract.

As a rule, the Japanese restaurant offers a spare setting, without thematic intrusion, and often it is situated in a less-than-boastful, less-than-conspicuous, off-an-alleyway space. The food, save the theatrics of a Benihana chain, couldn’t be freer of obfuscatory sauces. They are more plainly revealed, in glory or horror: raw fish, seared vegetables, clear broths.

So it is with Kita San in Oxnard.

Kita San is quietly tucked behind a Baskin-Robbins ice cream shop and a Kragen Auto Parts store at the sprawling Carriage Square shopping center at Gonzales Avenue and Ventura Boulevard. Inside, two plain rooms--cream walls, a few prints, a tree limb mounted along the back wall--are plainly fitted out with wood tables for perhaps 30 diners. There is a small sushi bar upon entering.

With the first order comes good news: sparkling fresh tuna and yellowtail sushi (most varieties $2.50), generously cut and nicely shaped. Ditto for octopus and eel; each piece is sea-fresh and nicely handled. Ditto, again, for the maki ($3.50), one of deep ruby tuna, audaciously smeared in parts with bracing wasabi, and another of snappy, just-peeled cucumber, the ultimate refresher.

More success follows: cold diced tofu ($2.25) showered in fragrant chives and pungent dried fish flakes--a lean, healthful, yet fortifying appetizer best shared by at least two.

Among appetizers, only the gyoza ($4.95), or pork-and-vegetable dumplings, disappoint. They’re under-seared, lacking in flavor, altogether boring.

A limited number of entrees bolsters the excellent sushi and sashimi offerings. Best of all and highly recommended is the yosenabe ($14.25), a Japanese bouillabaisse, if that’s possible.

Yosenabe , being a stew, is never the same from restaurant to restaurant and reflects not only the chef’s bias, but availability of ingredients. Here at Kita San, the yosenabe arrives as a deep urn of broth, scented with sweet and pungent herbs and the heady essences of seafood: a pile of tiny, sweet clams, their shells just opened from the piping hot liquid; a chunk of white fish, skin-on, fin-on; finger-size shrimp, shelled and plunged into the broth moments before serving to prevent overcooking, and, as if for good measure, a few cubes of tofu. Beneath everything are transparent glass noodles, the perfect foil to such complex flavorings.

(For those wanting to fully experience this dish, add, as Japanese do, a few shakes of tongarashi, the toasted hot chili blend at every table, and stir well into the broth. For reasons not chemically apparent, the pepper brightens and intensifies all flavors of the broth.)

Kita San also does tempura well: loose-fitting, oil-free jackets of crisp batter-fried shrimp and vegetables that remain tender and sweet within ($10.95).

There are, alas, dishes to be avoided at Kita San. Chicken, both teriyaki at lunch ($4.25) and the full dinner entree that is chopped and spiced with cumin and curry ($8.95), is dry, stringy, overcooked and stale. How this is possible in a kitchen that perfectly broils a delicate filet of salmon ($6.50 at lunch) goes without account.

In all the spareness, nice “extra” touches do abound: a tiny but stout serving of pickled vegetables accompanies every dish, and the dinner salads, while nothing memorable, are abundant, fresh and lightly dressed.

Desserts couldn’t be less frilly, with green tea ice cream, a smooth and not overly sweet rendition, successfully heading the list.

Kita San is a reliable place with very fresh fish and delightful, understated service. While it’s a bit modest for the special-occasion dinner, it is just the ticket for those nights when appetites call for great flavors and lean preparations in a kindly setting without pretension, artifice or suffocating themes. It’s also the place that has the yosenabe that haunts.

Details

* WHAT: Kita San Japanese Restaurant

* WHERE: 173 W. Gonzales Road, Oxnard

* WHEN: Open 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. and 5:30 to 9:30 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays. Closed Sunday.

* COST: Dinner for two, food only, $20 to $45. Visa, MasterCard

* FYI: 485-5800