RESTAURANT REVIEW : The Earlier the Better at Otani’s : The seafood is fresh, but the predominantly deep-fried fare gets heavier as the day progresses.

Lunch is the best meal at Otani’s Tempura-Ya Restaurant.

Otani’s dishes--many of which are deep-fried--tend to get a bit heavy as the day wears on. Besides, it is quite cozy to sit at the six-seat counter, sipping a paper cup of Budweiser ($1 on tap) and waiting for a plate of fish, oysters, clams or shrimp, while the midday Oxnard sun streams in through the storefront windows.

Later in the day, the salads seem to get just a little bit soggy and the oils and the breading are not as light or as fresh as they were in those lunchtime hours.

You’re not looking at a ritzy restaurant, but a neighborhood place with a consistent clientele. And it’s nice to see the Otani family bustling around behind the counters.

This is a combination restaurant and seafood market, with catfish, oysters, shrimp, squid and a variety of other denizens of the deep displayed on ice in the cases on two sides of the room.

The place is cavernous, its high ceilings sporting industrial beams, and the booths are the traditional orange plastic ones. On the wall behind the counter, the menu is written on long sheets of butcher paper.

The place doesn’t look as if it has changed much since the Otani family started running it more than 40 years ago. Four generations have been involved in the business.

Stick with the seafood, which is fresh. Items like the teriyaki chicken ($4.98) or the teriyaki hamburger ($2.89) are not what you’d come here for.

And even the seafood--with the preponderance of fried items on the menu--can be a bit heavy. But earlier in the day, when the oil is still light and golden, the deep-fried seafood plates are hearty and filling. The thick breading is a Japanese bread-crumb mixture called panko.

The oyster plate, as an example, offers large, plump oysters ($4.98), and plenty of them. On the side are rice, tempura-fried vegetables and a salad, which comes with nearly every meal. It consists of tossed greens, with some cabbage, lots of onions and a creamy garlic dressing.

The tempura combo ($4.98) comes as lots of softly cooked fish and shrimp, fried, with the vegetables, rice and salad on the side.

Still looking toward the fried side of the menu, the clams and shrimp ($4.98) come with all of the same fixings. The shrimp is all right, but the clams--actually clam strips--are an overcooked version of those that helped make the Howard Johnson restaurants famous.

Perhaps the most interesting dish on the menu is the Japanese taco ($3.25). Although the description says it’s filled with fish, the one I ate seemed to have some shrimp in it. It is a deep-fried egg roll skin, sort of folded in half, and stuffed with fish (shrimp?) and vegetables such as celery and bell pepper, onions and carrots, with flavoring of ginger and soy.

If deep-fried, breaded seafood is not your thing, then what the butcher paper menu sheets refer to as the “diet special ($6.95)” may be. It can be albacore or swordfish, but the mahi-mahi--a generous, tender, firm piece of fish that comes broiled, with a teriyaki sauce--was perhaps the best dish at Otani’s.

Details

* WHAT: Otani’s Tempura-Ya Restaurant.

* WHERE: 608 S. A St., Oxnard.

* WHEN: Open 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday.

* COST: Meal for two, food only, $7.50 to $20.

* ETC: Beer and Wine, major credit cards accepted. Call 483-6519.