Mill Valley parties on, graciously hosted at Piazza D'Angelo
Friday, July 4, 2003 - San Francisco Chronicle

Unseasonable heat doesn't deter scores of diners from flocking to Piazza D'Angelo in Mill Valley. Maybe they're drawn to moderately priced Italian fare, or maybe they know that the breezy dining rooms and garden patio will offer a cooling respite. Server-led choruses of "Happy Birthday" occasionally punctuate the chatter, testifying to the fact that this is a celebratory spot for many.

It's easy to see how Piazza D'Angelo can spark a party. The 22-year-old restaurant operates with confidence. Tables are filled quickly and smoothly. Service is responsive no matter how busy the dining rooms get. Yet not every dish emerges from the kitchen with the same degree of assuredness. Some plates need tinkering with, whether it's more balanced flavors, a more polished technique or a more appealing look.

Appetizers range from a gutsy saute of shrimp and artichokes ($9.95) to a subtle carpaccio Veneto ($8.25). The shrimp and artichokes are cooked in a lemon and white wine sauce and arrayed around a garlicky mound of sauteed spinach. The menu warns the dish is "slightly spicy," but the flavors are more vivid than fiery. The carpaccio tastes as good as it looks, with rosy, tissue- thin slices of raw beef attractively garnished with arugula, capers and stiff ribbons of shaved Parmesan.

Entrees are less fetching. Minced Swiss chard, cabbage, basil, Parmesan cheese and crunchy pine nuts make a pillowy filling for the ravioli di verdure ($11.75), but the pasta rounds looked tired, despite a wake-up sauce of white wine, garlic, quartered artichokes and chopped red and yellow tomatoes. Simplicity is the hallmark of an angel hair pasta dish ($9.25) crowned with sauteed cubes of fresh tomato. The tomato's acidity gave the dish a lift, but the overly large pieces threatened to overwhelm the delicate pasta.

Grilled wild salmon ($20.95), a special, is served with sugar snap peas and mashed potatoes in a lemon saffron vinaigrette. The fish was good but wanted more oomph than the dressing can supply, and the dry mashed potatoes were presented in one large cafeteria-style scoop. What got attention were the sugar snap peas sauteed to a vivid green.

Among the desserts, the lemon meringue tart ($6.50) is blessedly old- fashioned. Gently browned, the pipings of meringue have the moist, slightly chewy quality of marshmallow and are a good foil to the lemon custard. Creme brulee ($7), a "deep-dish" version, features a firm custard with an emphatic vanilla flavor.

Although the kitchen needs a few tweaks, I'm not about to be a party pooper.

Piazza D'Angelo celebrates food, drink and companionship in a fresh, vivid way.