RESTAURANT REVIEW : Eccentricity Plus Creativity Find a Place at Akbar Grill : Talented chef Avinash Kapoor puts a distinctive spin on well-known Indian dishes.

With his athletic build and long black pony tail, Avinash Kapoor looks like an Indian rock star. But he happens to be one of the few creative young chefs around these days who is cooking in the Mughlai style.

Several years back, Kapoor assisted his father in the kitchen of Akbar, a popular Marina Del Rey restaurant that has since closed. Later, he opened an Akbar in Encino, and finally moved a few blocks west to his current location, Akbar Grill, and he is at last able to do his own thing. What that means is creative spinoffs of well-known Indian dishes, plus a few original, eccentric concoctions all his own.

Like most boulevard Indian restaurants, Akbar Grill serves a blowout lunch, competitively priced at $4.99. If I were hungry and in the neighborhood, I wouldn’t hesitate to stop by for this steam table buffet of tandoori-style chicken, rice, dal and half a dozen vegetable dishes. The price is dirt cheap.

But anyone who comes only for lunch misses the point. Kapoor is a talented and creative chef; you’re not likely to see aloo aam tikka , shrimp bhuna , coco lamb or the unusual cheese naan in anybody else’s restaurant.

About that cheese naan . Made with a light touch of Parmesan, Cheddar and cream cheese, it is perhaps the most wine-friendly Indian dish I’ve ever tasted. It’s a wonderful foil for the restaurant’s 1990 Vieux Telegraphe Cha^teauneuf-du-Pape, priced at $25.

Finding quality wine at an Indian restaurant is also unusual, and another mark of Kapoor’s seriousness. He stocks several good wines, and he won’t mind a bit if you pick one out from the liquor store next door.

Appetizers range from mid-afternoon snacks like papri chat and papadums to heartier items such as pakoras and the chef’s irresistible Indo-Mexican chicken kati roll. Aloo aam tikka are fat potato patties, crisp on the outside. The soft, green centers are a surprise--spiced pureed peas.

The sweet, spicy appetizer papri chat comes as six crisp wafers, each topped with a scoop of spiced mashed potato draped in a tricolor of sauces: green (mint), red (tomato) and white (yogurt). Pakoras are the Indian snacks fried in lentil batter, but Kapoor’s version is made with shrimp, rather than cauliflower or some other vegetable, and lightly rolled in coconut.

*

He describes his chicken kati roll as roti (a plain grilled Indian flat bread) stuffed with highly spiced chicken, but that doesn’t quite give you the picture. With the onions and tomatoes, it’s a lot like a burrito--but with an infinitely more complex flavoring of ginger, cardamom and turmeric.

That brings us to the tandoori dishes. Kapoor doesn’t offer much variety from the tandoor oven, but what he prepares is well crafted. His tandoori chicken is crusted with spices, notably fresh ginger. The predominating flavor in the tender lamb tikka (shish kebab) is properly muttony and gamy. His naan breads, cooked at extreme heat on the sides of the clay oven, are served unbuttered. (Try green herb naan , temptingly sprinkled with mint, cilantro and basil.)

You find more of these personal statements as you work your way down the menu, and to tell the truth, not every one succeeds. Dhaba lamb, named for the reliable roadside restaurants of Punjab, is messy and ponderous, with its oily gravy and egg topping.

Chicken chutney wala is a better idea, combining chicken with a pungent mint chutney. Banarsi pilao is a vegetable, nut and fruit pilaf, for those who like their rice dishes complicated.

Kapoor also prepares a number of dishes in the bhuna (dry curry) style, where the foods are cooked with little or no liquid and nary a trace of residual oil. The menu features shrimp bhuna , but you can request many other bhuna dishes, including lamb, cauliflower, eggplant and potatoes.

At dessert time, check whether the chef has made his frothy mango cheesecake or kesari kheer , a chewy rice pudding flavored with saffron and almonds. I’m looking to Kapoor for ever more inspired cookery in the future. Akbar Grill is a find.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

DETAILS

* LOCATION: Akbar Grill, 18003 Ventura Blvd., Encino.

* SUGGESTED DISHES: aloo aam tikka , $2.50; chicken kati roll, $4.25; cheese naan , $2.50; mixed Akbari grill, $12.50; shrimp bhuna , $9.95.

* HOURS: Lunch 11:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m. Monday-Friday; dinner 5:30-10 p.m. daily.

* PRICE: Dinner for two, $24-$37. Beer and wine only. Street parking. American Express, MasterCard and Visa.

* CALL: (818) 343-1838.