RESTAURANT REVIEW : Gee, That Sounds Familiar : Don’t confuse quirky new Pesto with established Posto. Still, the atmosphere is quirky and the prices low.

Italian restaurants abound in the San Fernando Valley, and some of them are real heavyweights. One stretch of Ventura Boulevard already has three of our most accomplished ones, Il Mito, La Loggia and Bellablue. The remarkable Posto in Sherman Oaks, in my view the best of the lot, is not far away.

That makes it tough for newcomers such as Pesto--which is not to be confused with Posto, of course. Pesto is a quirky little place with a distinct personality, but nothing about its cooking will make you want to desert the competition. You come here for the novelty, and for low, low prices.

When I say quirky, I refer to the atmosphere, sort of a cross between a pre-war European cafe and a nostalgic Hollywood canteen. The walls are covered from top to bottom with framed original movie posters from the ‘30s and ‘40s, and the luxurious chairs--amber velvet on French Provincial maple frames--are straight out of “Cabaret.” I don’t like the fact that all the tables are covered in thick white paper, which hide reasonably elegant mauve tablecloths. It may be a way to save on a cleaning bill, but it is not a way to make friends.

Complimentary bruschetta and hot rosemary bread don’t hurt a new relationship, though. You’d have to call this bruschetta a bit rough. It’s a toasted round of bread topped with an oily checca, large chunks of chopped tomato in a heavy sauce of garlic, basil and olive oil. The house bread, which is pizza dough brushed with olive oil, rosemary and salt, served steamy-hot and cut into cubes, is more subtle. If you eat both with gusto, you won’t need to spend much on dinner here.

That’s pretty hard to do anyway. Just about everything in this restaurant is under $10. There are generous appetizers at low prices, and the pizzas, with fragrant, bready crusts, are filling and aesthetically satisfying.

The name “polenta alla Milanese “ is a contradiction in terms--polenta is a country dish, not really eaten in Milan. It’s great, though--a deep-fried cylinder of cornmeal, topped with prosciutto, fontina cheese and an oyster-mushroom sauce positively loaded with Marsala. They call it an appetizer, and if it qualifies for the term, so do biscuits and gravy in Mississippi.

Grigliata verdura is simply grilled carrots, zucchini, mushrooms, eggplant and bell pepper, lightly drizzled with a good grade of olive oil. That’s an appetizer.

If you order a pizza--such as the pizza Caprese, say--you expect something substantial, and that’s what you get. This one is a real winner, topped with artichoke, basil, fresh tomato, garlic and a gooey blanket of mozzarella. Made from the same chewy dough as the fragrant house bread, the crust is one you’ll want to eat every last bite of.

Pastas are prepared with workmanlike competence. The eponymous pasta al pesto is really too oily, and the spaghetti alla polpette (with tiny meatballs) too bland. My taste runs more to capelli d’angelo alla checca and farfalle with spicy shrimp. The capelli (angel hair) is perfectly al dente and doesn’t clump together a bit, and the checca topping is magically oil-free. The sauce on the farfalle (bow-tie pasta), while hardly spicy by California standards, is satisfying because of such good components as asparagus, mushroom and pieces of jumbo shrimp. It’s probably the best pasta in the house.

The secondi piatti (meat courses) are a little less interesting, limited to chicken, veal and more chicken, but again they fill you up fast. The kitchen sauces them liberally and serves them in casserole dishes with an enormous square of polenta in marinara sauce on the side. Chicken Scaparella is a gloppy mess of white-meat chicken, sliced Italian sausage, potato, bell pepper and marinara sauce in a trencherman-sized dish. It’s a gusher, an oily mess.

Vitello alla Milanese is a world away: thinly pounded veal dredged lightly in flour and sauteed a la minute in olive oil. It’s the most delicate item on this menu.

Desserts are solid and unimaginative. The cannoli (little pastry boats stuffed with a ricotta cheese filling), though homemade, and the tartufo ice cream, a chocolate bombe flavored with amaretto, have little to distinguish them. And then there’s the inevitable tiramisu, which our waiter informed us would be the best of the three.

WHERE AND WHEN

Location: Pesto, 12415 Ventura Blvd., Studio City

Suggested Dishes: G rigliata verdura, $5.95; pizza Caprese, $6.95; farfalle spicy shrimp, $9.95; vitello alla Milanese, $12.95.

Hours: Lunch 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday through Friday, dinner 5 p.m. to midnight nightly. No alcoholic beverages. Valet parking.

Price: Dinner for two, $25 to $35, all major credit cards.

Call: (818) 761-7643.