W.E.MORANVILLE * DATEBOOK DINER April 17, 2008

A couple weeks ago, a friend and I were menu-browsing along a restaurant-lined street in one of the many charming neighborhoods of Seattle. We spotted a menu with dozens of dishes in a range of culinary styles and briskly left. As my friend put it, “With so many choices, your chance of finding what the kitchen really does well is slim.”

But if a restaurant limits our choices to a chiseled-down menu, everything on it had better succeed. Happily, that’s pretty much the case with Frank’s Pizza.

The look: With its sleek plastic furniture, the somewhat stark atmosphere privileges edge over warmth. TVs adorn the walls. Silently playing black-and-white classics, they serve like framed moving art.

The menu: Anyone who opens a casual pizza spot, when so many exist, will have to make standout pies to survive. Frank’s achieves this with four specialty-of-the-house pizzas. Some are vividly unique - the Mona Lisa gets a drizzle of olive oil, then a sprinkling of garlic, rosemary, cremini mushrooms, kalamata olives, romano and fresh ricotta. The DiMaggio swings more classic, with mushrooms, sausage, pepperoni and banana peppers.

Customize the pie with a short list of ingredients, but I prefer to put myself in the hands of the creators, who have passionately wrought some stellar combos.

Dinner salads and a small handful of Italian specialties - including a meatball sandwich and baked lasagna - round out the focused and admirably inexpensive menu (lasagna costs $6.95).

Tastes: The handcrafted, yeasty thin crust tasted small-batch made, and the thoughtfully combined toppings achieved balance and harmony. I’m still dreaming of the utterly artful Mona Lisa, with its tart olives balanced by creamy ricotta, all subtly perfumed with rosemary.

Distinct layers of bright-red marinara, cheese and sauteed veggies defined the satisfying las

agna; alongside, a tasty little Romano toast irresistibly oozed with soft, fresh garlic.

Even the meatball sandwich performed a class act. By adding a bonus of Italian giardinara - a pickled vegetable relish - Frank’s gave the sandwich its own “it can only be had here” spin.

Stay for dessert? Expert cannoli stars solo on the dessert menu.

Service: The order-at-the-counter operation can hardly be described as service, but the chaps behind the counter sure were nice.

Bottom line: A rare blend of casual and committed.