by MATHILDE RABBAT

A few months ago, the Pepsi Forum became home to Guido & Angelina's, a restaurant covering a huge surface area of the space. Both the size and the décor of this eatery conjure up a cross between a train station food court and a Vegas-casino-style dining hall. Dark, stained-wood trim on the walls and ceilings, carefully positioned plant treatments and a highly polished wood floor reveal a designer's touch.

There's a large, U-shaped bar that extends along the Ste-Catherine Street wall and an open-concept kitchen that further magnifies the space as a small team of chefs in uniform concoct dishes for everyone to see, displaying them on a large illuminated counter for service. The covered terrasse is quite pleasant on a sunny afternoon or a hot summer evening, but can get noisy from the traffic speeding down one of downtown's busiest thoroughfares.

While you munch on your antipasti, you can view looped clips on flat screens of the duomos and gondolas of Italy and snippets of Ingrid Bergman admiring ancient Roman statues. There's also Flash-style animation featuring a whole array of characters with Italian accents punctuated by a "Madon!" here and a "Grazie!" or "Salute!" there.

Meanwhile, colourful animated shorts of a beefy, chiselled Guido and a buxom Angelina are projected on all screens. Speakers assure that the pair can be heard from the dining room to the washroom. Their cartoon likenesses also appear throughout the mammoth space on signs, cards, matchbooks and dinnerware. There's even a Web site where the resto's latest "webpisode" can be viewed, www.guidoangelina.com, just in case your meal distracted you from the footage at any point.

The menu cards in Italian, French and English list an extensive variety of Italian eats ranging from antipasti, zuppa and insalata dishes whetting the appetite for pizza, pasta, pollo (chicken), carne (meat) or pesce (fish) main courses. Prices are affordable with garlic and oil bruschetta going for as low as $2.25 and the soup of the day at a reasonable $3. At $3.75 per glass, the domestic beer is also inexpensive. A wine list is available starting at $6 per glass, and main courses range between $6.50-$24 to suit most budgets.

As is the culinary custom in many Italian restos, before the meal begins you can enjoy fresh slices of bread dipped in an olive oil and balsamic vinegar mixture that you prepare yourself at the table. This enjoyable treat can be chased by a simple and delightful arugula salad topped with fresh parmesan ($7.50).

Because the menu is so jam-packed, the quality of certain main dishes may suffer. One of the most expensive pizzas featured ($14), topped with ricotta, portobello mushrooms and spinach, provides a case in point. The dough, while crisp and quite tasty, becomes soggy in the centre where the juices of too many bland ingredients gather. For about the same price, I recommend the scalloppine piccata al limone ($14.50), which, even out of season, is definitely worth sampling. Flattened and breaded veal in a warm lemon sauce lie atop crunchy carrot slices and are served with tender pieces of potato, crispy broccoli, soft turnip strips and long, decorative chives. The service is courteous and care is obviously given to the presentation of dishes.

Guido & Angelina
ADDRESS: 2313 Ste-Catherine W. (Atwater metro)
PHONE: 228-5225
HOURS: Open Mon-Thur & Sun, 11AM-11PM;
Fri-Sat, 11AM-midnight
BEST FEATURES: Scalloppine piccata al limone,
food presentation, terrasse
ALCOHOL: Yes
WHEELCHAIR ACCESS: Yes
VEGETARIAN FRIENDLY: Yes
CREDIT CARDS: Cash (no debit), Visa, MasterCard, American Express
NON-SMOKING SECTION: Yes
PRICE: Full meal $30 per person including alcohol, tax and tip
RATING: **1/2 out of ****