RESTAURANT REVIEW / FINS SEAFOOD : Nice Touch : The chef at the casual grill located in the verdant Westlake Center knows how to handle the delicate dishes.

A couple of dozen years ago, Westlake Village was an infant community. Houses were replacing meadows, water was filling new lakes, and all of these changes were causing many folks in the established residential and commercial neighborhoods in nearby Thousand Oaks to feel dismay.

In the midst of this appeared perhaps the most attractive retail shopping center of its time. Its architect left many of the aged oak trees in place, laid out wide walkways, built patios and alcoves and softened the whole thing with extensive, expensive landscaping. Everyone shopped there because, besides being a lovely environment, it was the only game in town.

Today, the Westlake Center is still as soft and verdant as ever. But other shopping centers have come into the area, and though few of these newcomers are as attractive or as pleasant as this one, they’ve nabbed many of the large retail tenants needed to sustain economic health. Westlake Center’s business has gone down, and those who stroll its walkways pass hunks of empty, black space.

But in the current mix of independent stores and a few chain outlets, several restaurants cluster. Some of them have tables out under the trees, there to accommodate anyone who wants to take advantage of sunny lunch hours and warm evenings.

One of these is Fins Seafood Grill, a casual, woody sort of place that dishes out seafood and pastas, and jazz on weekend evenings.

Fins has been around for about three years. It’s the brainchild of Moez Megji, who comes from a restaurant family, and who earlier had a place in Beverly Hills.

What makes me appreciate Fins chef Roberto Leyva is the way he does a dish like bouillabaisse ($16.95), with scallops, one mussel, shrimp, squid and fish. Leyva knows how to handle seafood, which he has been careful to toss in at the last minute, avoiding overcooking.

The broth is outstanding, just a little bit thick, slightly sweet, with hints of saffron and fennel, maybe some sweet basil.

Leyva is usually as careful with simple fish dishes as with the bouillabaisse. The half-inch thick swordfish at lunch ($12.95) is gently cooked just about any way you want it.

But probably the most interesting fish on the menu is catfish ($16.95 dinner). The whole fish--nearly enough for two--comes to the table crisp skinned and in a black bean sauce, with hints of hot chilies.

It was a bit hard to get into, but a fellow at an adjoining table suggested I have them take it back to the kitchen and “tail it and head it, and cut it down the center.” I did that, and it works.

Off the mesquite grill came ahi tuna salad ($9.95), a beautiful dish with thick slices of ahi lying across a bed of greens.

Seared on the outside and nearly raw inside, the ahi and the accompanying salsa work very well together.

Not all fish dishes quite measure up.

The ceviche appetizer ($5.95) does well by its raw, marinated fish, but the seasoning is simply too hot, even for my chili-loving palate. The heat appears to come not from the chilies, but rather from an overdose of black pepper.

And I should have known without asking that at this time of year a tomato anchovy salad with capers and red onion ($5.95) wasn’t a great idea.

It was dumb to let the waitress persuade me that the tomatoes were “great.” They certainly were not.

The Maryland crab cakes ($8.95) are served in a savory Dijon mustard sauce, and the crab itself is fine.

But the coating, which I was assured is made on the premises, produces a crust that has a sort of shake-and-bake quality.

Over on the pasta side of Fins menu, go for penne aribiatta with eggplant ($9.95).

The penne, though not as creamy as you sometimes find this dish, comes in a sauce of tomatoes, green onions and eggplant--very spicy but, I thought, very good.

* WHERE AND WHEN

Fins Seafood Grill, 982 Westlake Blvd., Westlake Village, 805-494-6494. Open for lunch and dinner, Mondays through Thursdays 11 a.m. to 10 p.m., Fridays and Saturdays 11 a.m. to 11 p.m., Sundays 4 to 10 p.m. Full bar, reservations accepted, major credit cards accepted. Lunch or dinner for two, food only, $16-$56.