DELIS UNDER THE PALMS

No, you don’t have to make a trip to New York to find a good deli. Here are some recently reviewed in The Times.

Arnie’s Manhattan (2831 Bristol St., Costa Mesa, (714) 557-8646). Arnie’s, a classy new Costa Mesa deli, smokes and cures its corned beef and pastrami on the premises. Thick, hand-cut slices of rye are used for the sandwiches, which are accompanied by fat, garlicky pickles. Besides the usual corned beef, pastrami, smoked salmon, chopped liver, potato pancakes and cole slaw, other authentic deli and Hungarian favorites are also available. Stuffed cabbage is unequaled in the area. Matzo ball soup is superb; the matzo balls are fluffy and the broth is enhanced with a heady pinch of fresh dill. A little something unusual? The stand-out sandwich called Chinatown: six ounces of Chinese barbecued pork and stir-fried vegetables stuffed into a French roll. Lunch and dinner daily. MasterCard, Visa. Beer and wine. Parking lot. Lunch for two, food only, $10-$20. Art’s Deli (12224 Ventura Blvd., Studio City, (818) 762-1221). Art’s is as delightful a deli as you are likely to find, redolent of pickles and peppers and all sorts of delicious foods that are absolutely awful for you. Try the corned beef sandwich, spicy and not too lean, served on good corn rye with a very crispy crust--it’s absolutely irresistible. It’s the sort of sandwich that really challenges your mouth; it’s layered toward the middle so that it looks about 10 miles high. The potato pancakes are quite good, and so is the matzo Brie, a sort of Jewish version of French toast, made of matzos that have been soaked and then beaten with eggs. Don’t forget to pick up a bag of bagel chips. They are perfectly plain and perfectly irresistible. Breakfast, lunch and dinner daily. Cash only. Beer and wine. Street parking. Lunch for two, food only, $15-$25.

Brent’s Delicatessen & Restaurant (19565 Parthenia, Northridge, (818) 886-5679). Brent’s serves breakfast any hour of the day. In addition to 16 different omelets, they serve hot cakes, French toast, all sorts of egg combinations and a slew of fish, cream cheese and bagel platters. There’s lots more. Sandwiches--special combinations, standard, hot, cold--add up to about 65 different choices. The triple-decker pastrami, corned beef and chopped liver, served on double-baked Jewish corn rye, is huge and delicious. If you’re hungry, try the buffet for two--lox, cod, whitefish and cream herring, served with cream cheese, potato salad, cucumber salad, coleslaw, garni, bagels and rolls, tomatoes and onions, orange juice and all the coffee you can drink. Breakfast, lunch and dinner daily. MasterCard, Visa. No liquor. Parking lot. Lunch for two, food only, $8-$15. Luneburg Deli-Cafe (18041 Chatsworth Street, Granada Hills, (818) 368-9005). This North German delicatessen is very close to the edge of the world: the northern rim of the San Fernando Valley, in the very shadow of the Santa Susan Mountains. The Luneburg Deli-Cafe really is a sort of dignified outpost of Old World tradition, breathing certainty about what food ought to be like. As a deli, it sells sausages, raspberry syrup, roggenschrot rye bread and a surprising variety of non-German items as well. It is also a cafe, where you can sit in peace and have a Maerzen-Bier and a Black Forest ham sandwich (delicious) or perhaps a quiche or a hot sausage lunch. Other excellent sausages include natural-skin frankfurters, a paprika-flavored Hungarian kolbase and two kinds of bratwurst (no preservatives). Breakfast, lunch and dinner Mon.-Sat. MasterCard, Visa. No liquor. Mall parking. Lunch for two, food only, $5-$10. Stage Deli of New York (10250 Santa Monica Blvd., Century City, (213) 553-DELI). The newest outpost of the popular New York City deli is in the Century City Marketplace. Stage Deli features about 60 sandwiches, half a dozen fish platters, a lot of Jewish-mamma dishes and a fairly broad fountain selection. Most recommended is the Neil Diamond sandwich (“NY’s Best Corned Beef and Pastrami, Plain but Piled High�). The garlicky corned beef is excellent and the pastrami is also great and garlicky, peppery, smoky and surpassingly meaty, and surprise, surprise, the sandwich is filled all the way to the edge. The chicken soup is good, and the Brooklyn egg cream is genuine, ultra-simple--made with milk, chocolate syrup and seltzer water. Breakfast, lunch and dinner daily. MasterCard, Visa and American Express. Full bar. Parking lot. Lunch for two, food only, $10-$20.