The following are summaries of recent Times...

The following are summaries of recent Times restaurant reviews.

Nui Ngu, 10528 McFadden Ave., Garden Grove. (714) 775-1108. Open Tuesdays through Thursdays and on Sundays from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., Fridays and Saturdays till 8 p.m.

Pagolac, 14564 Brookhurst St., Westminster. (714) 531-4740. Open Tuesdays through Sundays from noon to 10 p.m.

Little Saigon is always an arresting place to browse when in the mood for adventurous, inexpensive dining. Nui Ngu, in a misbegotten strip mall on McFadden Avenue, specializes in the wonderfully obscure cuisine of Hue, in central Vietnam. Bun bo Hue, a peppery beef noodle soup, and banh bot loc, sticky tapioca flour dumplings, are unforgettable. At Pagolac you can experience a phenomenon known as bo bay mon , literally “seven courses of beef.” The Vietnamese are mad for it. Unload a truck before you go.

Bagatta, 3012 Newport Blvd., Newport Beach. (714) 675-4020. Open Mondays through Thursdays from 6 to 11 p.m., Fridays and Saturdays till midnight. Sundays from 5 to 10 p.m.

The early returns show Bagatta out to a healthy lead in the Newport Beach Italian restaurant sweepstakes. It’s a terrific addition to the local dining scene. Chef Andrea Rogantini brings heavyweight experience to the kitchen. Owner Tony Bagatta makes a charming host. Such dishes as salmon carpaccio, latticed with a moss green pesto sauce, and dry cured bresaola make spectacular beginnings. Pastas are beautifully textured. Desserts, such as zucotto and homemade spumoni, are otherworldly.

Sapori, 1080 Bayside Drive., Newport Beach. (714) 644-4220. Open daily from 11:30 a.m. to 10 p.m., weekends until 11 p.m..

Sapori is a modish, elegant neighborhood trattoria where the cooking is serious. Chefs Adriano and Franco Maniacci hail from Palermo, Sicily, but play no favorites with regard to the many regions of Italan cuisine. Bruschetta di pane Saracena , triangles of roasted wheat bread with a garlic puree, are delightful, and many pastas come blanketed in savory sauces. Suprema di rombo, turbot in a leek and watercress sauce, pays homage to nouvelle. Veal Milanese is the best you’ll find anywhere.

Kitayama, 101 Bayview Pl., Newport Beach . (714) 725-0777. Open Mondays through Fridays from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., daily from 6 p.m. to 10:30.

Kitayama, the first really serious Japanese restaurant in Orange County, is an exquisite addition to the local dining scene. You’ll think you’ve wandered into a Buddhist temple--until you taste the delicate, sophisticated cuisine of Yoshio Shirai and his team of chefs. The sho-ka-do lunch is the most beautiful $14 meal anywhere, and the omakase kaiseki, a multi-course feast at $50 per person is unforgettable.

Five Feet Too, in Fashion Island, 1145 Newport Center Drive, Newport Beach. (714) 640-5250 . Open daily from 11:30 a.m. to midnight.

The gentrification of Chinese cuisine reaches new heights of absurdity in this self-consciously chic restaurant, the second effort of owner chef Michael Kang. The restaurant is visually stunning but often comes up short in the taste department: Many dishes are precious and ill conceived. The signature deep-fried catfish is excellent, and some imaginative dishes work well. Curried beef spring rolls are delightful. Kung pao three, with chicken, scallops and shrimp, is too. Desserts also are fine. Pity they don’t serve humble pie.

The Towers, in the Surf and Sand Hotel, 155 S. Coast Highway, Laguna Beach. (714) 497-4477. Open daily for breakfast and lunch; dinner from 5:30 p.m.

It’s a task to upstage the commanding sweep of the California coastline at The Towers, a Laguna Beach restaurant perched atop a beachfront hotel. New executive chef Jackson Kenworth tries his mightiest. He came from Citrus in Los Angeles, and shows his mettle in a variety of dishes. Home cured salmon is a delight, served in bite-size nubs. Sea scallops in a citruslike potato risotto are sensational. Warm short-rib terrine with vegetables in a mustard vinaigrette is as original as they come.

Capers, 34150 Coast Highway, Dana Point. (714) 661-3983. Open daily 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., 5 to 10 p.m.

A bright new seafood restaurant occupying the site of the former Dana Trader, Capers has a beachy, casual air well suited to the location. The food isn’t half bad when the kitchen plays it straight, but the kitchen tries too hard to be creative, often with disastrous results. There is a noble, garlicky Caesar, not for wimps, some fair broiled fish and several good shrimp dishes. Be wary of the ill-conceived attempts at nouvelle , especially anything with the horrid lime dipping sauce, coconut batter--or capers, the restaurant’s signature condiment.

Ten Hu, 315 S. Magnolia Ave., Anaheim. (714) 826-9910. Open Tuesdays through Thursdays and Sundays 11:30 a.m. to 9:30 p.m., Fridays and Saturdays till 10.

Ten Hu doesn’t compare with Chinese restaurants in Chinatown or the San Gabriel Valley, but that shouldn’t put you off a visit. Just remember that the steamed fish might be frozen. Winter melon soup with shredded chicken is a masterwork, and the Sichuan shrimps are particularly fine. It’s primarily a seafood restaurant but you may do just as well with the non-seafood items, such as the Peking spareribs or the mouth watering rice noodle dishes. Stay away from the retro-Chinese standbys like chop suey and egg foo young. They’re awful.

The Pleasant Peasant, 4251 Martingale Way, Newport Beach. (714) 955-2755. Open Mondays through Fridays 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m.; Mondays through Thursdays 5:30 p.m. to 9 p.m., Fridays and Saturdays till 10. La Brasserie, 202 S. Main St., Orange. (714) 978-6161. Open Mondays through Fridays 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m.; Mondays through Saturdays 5 p.m. to 10 p.m.

Country French cuisine has a huge audience, but many of the restaurants advertising it end up serving much fancier dishes instead. (They can charge more that way.) The Pleasant Peasant is reasonably priced, with both soup and salad included in the price of main courses. Stick to lamb and anything without sauce here. La Brasserie is a lot pricier but also considerably more accomplished. The coq au vin rouge is terrific, as is a wonderful homemade chicken liver mousse in aspic. Good desserts and plenty of romance here too.

Salud, 17401 Beach Blvd., Huntington Beach. (714) 842-1194. Open Sundays through Thursdays 11 a.m. to 11 p.m., Fridays and Saturdays till midnight.

Salud, a new high concept Mexican restaurant from Larry Cano, has an outlandish design that looks like a set Roger Corman might have used for a movie on Aztec discomania. All the trendy Mexican buttons are pushed: hand shaken margaritas, 80’s chiles, blue corn. Avoid the usualMeximush and head for soups, grilled meats and desserts. Pozole verde is hominy and shredded chicken in broth, and it’s great. So is Ibarra chocolate bread pudding, little cubes of fudge soaked bread in a tequila orange cream sauce. Prices are reasonable.

Mongkut Thai, 212 Avenida del Mar, San Clemente. (714) 492-3871. 31976 S. Coast Highway, South Laguna. (714) 499-2100. Open Mondays through Saturdays, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., and nightly 5 to 10 p.m.

As well as being one of the current nicknames for Thailand, “Land of Smiles” could describe the type of service you can expect at the often exotic, occasionally bland Mongkut Thai restaurants where smiles substitute for intelligible English. Dishes get such flowery names as Glittering Coastal Onyx (sauced calamari) or Garnet Ocean Field (crab fried rice) on one of the most uniquely written menus anywhere, and they can be blistering hot. Curries like mussuman (beef) or an oily, flavorless chicken curry tend to disappoint, but most of the fare is exuberant and flavorful.

Z Pizza, 30902 Pacific Coast Highway, South Laguna. (714) 499-4949. Open daily from 11:30 a.m. to 9 p.m.

7th Heaven, 3333 Bear St . in the Crystal Court, Costa Mesa. (714) 668- 9464. Open Mondays through Fridays 8 a.m. to 9 p.m., Saturdays 9 to 6, Sundays 10 to 6.

Z Pizza serves eccentric, internationally accented pizzas that have plenty of flash and flavors. Particularly engaging is a Moroccan style pizza with eggplant and pine nuts, and the Pissaladiere Nicoise, a cheeseless pie with anchovies and Provencal herbs. The chewy, fragrant crusts are mini-masterpieces all by themselves.

7th Heaven is a movable feast, a full-blown urban takeout emporium for grown-up tastes. Don’t miss such specialties as Chinese lacquered chicken, jalapeno corn pudding or a dazzling array of trendy salads. There are abundant pastes and cheeses for the picnic basket. Desserts like bread pudding and rich chocolate cookies are terrific.