Dining out -- Mary Furr

Shore House Cafe, at the top of Main Street across from the Huntington

Beach Library, is in a location that has had a variety of ethnic

cuisines. The building once housed a Swedish smorgasbord, then a French

bistro.

Now it is an Italian cafe owned by experienced restaurateurs David and

Diane Bonadonna. To know the Shore House Cafe is to know Huntington Beach

-- the same eclectic mix of patrons, the same laid-back ambience.

Open at 7 a.m., the restaurant begins the day with dawn-breaking

surfers and ends at 10 p.m. with romantic couples and two-career families

too weary to cook. The large menu meets all their needs.

For breakfast, there’s the country scramble ($6.95) on a big hot

platter that combines pieces of ham, sausage, bacon, mushrooms, spinach

and onions in a “clean the refrigerator” three-egg combo that could have

had less potato, but which is still better than anything I’ve had lately.

It includes a jumble of fresh cantaloupe, watermelon, pineapple and

orange slices -- a good balance of tastes.

A lunch/dinner selection may come from one of the four rice bowls

($7.95). Charbroiled white fish pieces are combined with steamed

broccoli, zucchini, carrots, squash, celery and mushrooms piled on top of

steamed white rice with those crisp, translucent rice threads sprinkled

on top. The fish and vegetables soak into the rice, which gets better and

better as you eat to the bottom of the flat bowl.

The menu has a page of stone-hearth pizzas ($9.95 to $16.95) from

barbecue to vegetarian, south of the border specials from the o7 carne

asada f7 ($11.95) to the taco plate ($6.95) and an entire page called

“Primarily Pasta” ($11.95 to $14.95). Entrees with soup or salad ($9.95

to $14.95) fill another page, and it was from there we chose.

Manager Penny Lanning said chef Carlos (Ricky) Rojas follows David

Bonadonna’s recipes and makes all the sauces and soups from scratch,

including a minestrone that overflows the bowl with cauliflower, squash,

carrots and broccoli, and a clam chowder that’s creamy with good-sized

clam pieces.

The chef’s crab cake appetizer ($7.95) of two deep-fried patties

doesn’t have much crab in its mix of bread crumbs, milk and eggs, but

makes up for it with a great spicy red pepper sauce and fresh salsa,

which, added to a bite of crab, is a real treat.

Florentine in Italian cuisine usually means spinach, and in the

chicken Florentine ($12.95), it is fresh, lightly steamed leaves strewn

on the double split-chicken breast in a lemon, white wine garlic sauce

and served on top of a pile of spinach.

It’s a mild, well-balanced dish with a colorful fresh vegetable medley

and my choice of smooth rosemary mashed potatoes. It makes me feel

positively virtuous to eat something so nutritious yet so gourmet.

Charbroiled top sirloin ($14.95) with shrimp scampi is an excellent

combo. The sirloin is good-sized and tender with a shallow bowl of four

firm scampi -- the Italian name for the tail portion of a prawn. Here,

the shrimp are brushed with butter and garlic oil in a delicious sauce to

mop up with the warm, crusty bread.

Tempting Sara Lee desserts, including cheese cake ($3.95), o7

tiramisuf7 ($3.95), lady fingers layered with o7 mascarpone f7 cream

and coffee-flavored chocolate, make choosing difficult so we settled on a

pecan tart for two ($4.50), a buttery shortbread crust holding pecans in

a rich brown-sugar filling.

Shore House Cafe fills early and poor acoustics can make it loud at

times, but it’s the place to be and serves whatever you want at any time

of the day.

* MARY FURR is the Independent restaurant critic. If you have comments

or suggestions for her, call (562) 493-5062.

FYI

o7 SHORE HOUSE CAFEf7

* Where: 520 Main St., Huntington Beach

* Hours: 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily

* What else: Credit cards accepted

* Phone: (714) 960-8091