HOLIDAYS : Good Winter Fare : If you’re craving the kind of traditional cooking that was popular in the days before California cuisine, these restaurants are made to order.

The period between Thanksgiving and the new year is always one of the most productive and profitable ones for the restaurant industry, a result of all the nonstop partying that goes on during that time. But these five-odd weeks are also a good time to get together with family and friends, enjoying the holiday spirit on a relaxing night out.

I’m often asked where one can find good menus corresponding with the season, because although the San Fernando Valley is filled with good, small ethnic restaurants and exotic cafes, most people opt for more traditional venues when it comes to family reunions and general celebration.

Many of your favorite local restaurants will be trotting out the turkeys, ducks and chickens for the upcoming weeks. Here are four of the more timeless and dependable places I know of, places where trends barely exist and where almost any generation can be at ease. Now it’s up to you to make those phone calls and find that evening convenient to one and all. Oh, and best wishes for Christmas, Hanukkah and the new year.

Bistro Garden at Coldwater

In my recent picks citing the Top 20 restaurants in the Valley, the Bistro Garden at Coldwater may have been the most regretful omission. Perhaps it should have been included.

In any case, there is absolutely no doubt about this restaurant belonging at the top of a holiday list like this one. For one thing, it is undoubtedly one of the prettiest restaurants anywhere, an enormous, European-style winter garden with a brick tile floor, groves of light-strung trees that make the restaurant look Christmasy the entire year ‘round and an overall elegance that few of its competitors can match.

Then there is the mix of elite and peasant fare, German favorites such as steamed pig’s knuckle--a smoky, fall-off-the-bone hunk of meat served with sauerkraut and a pool of creamy mashed potatoes--a hip new bar menu featuring dishes like mini-lobster pizza, gravlax with dill sauce (Swedish Christmas food) and steak tartare. There’s also an entire page of special dishes new chef Francois Meulien is planning to start immediately after Thanksgiving and offer through the new year.

Meulien, incidentally, comes to the restaurant from Ma Maison Sofitel in West Hollywood and has quite a history. His father is a chef at the three-star L’Oasis in Napoule, France, and he’s been in the kitchen since he was a child. You’ll be able to find things like roasted goose with pears, cranberries and apples--one of the few places around where you’ll find goose on the daily menu--salmon en croute, something called lobster Bellevue (in which the lobster is mingled with port wine jelly), and souffle Harlequin, a spinoff of the restaurant’s esteemed chocolate souffle that is ribboned with vanilla.

These are rich dishes for a rich season, geared more to a really special evening.

12950 Ventura Blvd., Studio City. (818) 501-0202. Lunch 11:30 a.m.-3 p.m. Monday-Friday; dinner 6-11 p.m. Valet parking in rear. Full bar. All major cards. Dinner for two, $60-$90.

White Horse Inn

Expect good, solid American fare at White Horse Inn, a Midwestern-looking supper club sporting semicircular red leather booths, dim lighting and exactly the sort of crowd that you’d expect to find in a place like this one. It’s a slightly older set that doesn’t care a whit about the fashions that come and go on distant Ventura Boulevard.

It’s quiet here, quiet enough to hear both cocktail music and the tinkling of glasses, so I wouldn’t choose this Northridge restaurant for a wild outing. Let’s not forget we are in the northwest Valley now, where more than a few people judge the merits of a restaurant by the temperature of their martini, the grain on their wooden salad bowl and how nicely marbled their beef is. If those criteria mean anything to you, you’ve come to the right place.

But there is much more than steak and salad at White Horse Inn, a restaurant that one of my too-hip friends says reminds him of a New Orleans-style bordello decorated by Edward Hopper.

The menu runs to the best American dishes, big plates of food served with accompaniments like stuffed baked potatoes, asparagus Hollandaise and beefy soups like French onion. Have your salad with the house creamy garlic--it’s terrific, if only for the spectacle of watching the server grind your fresh pepper from a combination flashlight/pepper mill that lights up when the pepper is being ground.

This is one restaurant where you can still get surf and turf, good sizzling steak combined with the vastly overrated South African rock lobster tail (which, if I had my way, would remain frozen for eternity), a near-perfect swordfish almondine, majestic cuts of prime rib for Uncle Harold and even indulgent things like steak Escoffier flambe, where for $17.95 your steak will be anointed with Roquefort and garlic, then set on fire by a harried waitress. Who could ask for more?

17710 Roscoe Blvd., Northridge, (818) 343-1985. 11 a.m.-10 p.m. Monday-Thursday, 11 a.m.-11 p.m. Friday, 5-11 p.m. Saturday, 4-10 p.m. Sunday. Self and valet parking in lot. Full bar. American Express, MasterCard, Visa. Dinner for two, $40-$60.

Truly Yours

Truly Yours is a restaurant that tries to be all things to all people all at once, one of its most endearing qualities and maddening faults.

The lively Tarzana restaurant has an A-frame ceiling, a roaring fireplace, lots of colorful art and a distinctly outdoorsy aura, not to mention a young, hot crowd generally found in the vicinity of the restaurant’s zinc-topped bar.

Chef Chris Adlesh, the chef for both the Tarzana and Northridge locations who replaced the creative Lance Katcher earlier this year, says that he can cook any dish anytime and this season is going to begin proving it with a truly authentic Hanukkah dinner between Dec. 19 and 26, the eight days of Hanukkah this year.

The menu will include matzo ball soup, creamy chopped liver (ideal for the interesting house breads), brisket of beef, potato pancakes--something the restaurant already does well--vegetables, a traditional dessert like sponge cake or honey cake and a choice of coffee or tea, for the reasonable price of $16.95.

If that’s not your, er, cup of tea there will be, as always, a mind-boggling variety of eclectic bistro, bar and dinner house specials. Beverly Hills combination salad is like flying around the world on a lettuce leaf--Caribbean shrimp salad, Greek salad, Caesar salad and Thai-style grilled chicken salad in one bowl. Caviars range from $6 to $52 an ounce, and original pasta dishes like wild spicy mushroom and asparagus over angel hair complement entrees such as Truly Oriental crispy duck breast, crunchy duck coated with sesame alongside stir-fried veggies and rice.

Essentially, this is one place with something for everyone, a quick fix for any large, diverse and hard to please group.

18588 Ventura Blvd., Tarzana, (818) 996-3131, and 9725 Reseda Blvd., Northridge, (818) 993-4714. Lunch and dinner from 11 a.m. to 2 a.m. Sunday through Thursday and 11 a.m. to 3 a.m. Friday and Saturday. Full bar. Self parking in rear lot. All major cards. Dinner for two, $25-$50.

Valley Inn

Every year around this time, the Valley Inn decorates its already colorful insides with red, white and blue lights, holly, mistletoe and other Christmas decorations, not to mention draping the outside of this venerable institution with gaudy lights. If that doesn’t get you in the mood to eat here, the good food should.

Some would call Valley Inn a typical steak, chop and seafood roadhouse, a homespun place where you can count on generous portions and no-nonsense service from a team of waitresses as hardy as evergreens. December brings to this restaurant dishes such as clove-spiked baked ham with raisin sauce, roast leg of lamb with mint jelly and roast tom turkey with an apple stuffing. But there is plenty more to rely on.

At first glance, one might be tempted to lump Valley Inn among the Midwestern supper clubs. That paints an incomplete picture. You will again be snuggling up in semicircular vinyl booths--in this case black instead of red. But here, the tried and true is offset by a spate of more fashionable dishes--Chinese chicken salad or good crab cakes with french fries, to name two.

Fans of the Caesar are in luck here. Valley Inn’s is one of the best around, rich with anchovies, heady with garlic and Parmesan and generously proportioned. Big eaters can order the Texas clam-bake, a huge plate of broiled, slightly overcooked Maine lobster, a baked potato, an entire ear of corn and a half-rack of meltingly tender baby back ribs.

Valley Inn, 4557 Sherman Oaks Ave., Sherman Oaks, (818) 784-1163. Lunch 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Monday-Friday, dinner 5-10:30 p.m. Monday-Thursday, 5-11 p.m. Friday-Saturday, 5-10 p.m. Sunday. Full bar. Self parking in rear lot. American Express, MasterCard and Visa. Dinner for two, $40-$65.

Open for Christmas Dinner

Balalayka, 19655 Sherman Way, Reseda, (818) 349-5300, will offer a Russian-style Christmas dinner celebration with hot and cold hors d’oeuvres, champagne and live entertainment for $19.95 per person from 7 p.m. to 2 a.m.

Benihana of Tokyo, 16226 Ventura Blvd., Encino, (818) 788-7121, will offer its regular menu from 5 to 10 p.m.

Kix, 343 N. Central Ave., Glendale, (818) 956-7800, will offer a special Christmas dinner featuring a choice of roasted goose, beef, turkey, lamb or fresh fish for $14 to $18 per person from 2 to 11 p.m. Reservations recommended.

La Loggia, 11814 Ventura Blvd., Studio City, (818) 985-9222, will offer its regular menu--lunch from 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. and dinner from 5:30 to 11 p.m. Reservations recommended.

Le Cafe, 14633 Ventura Blvd., Sherman Oaks, (818) 986-2662, will offer its regular menu 8:30 a.m. to 1 a.m. Upstairs at Le Cafe will be closed.

Plum Tree Inn, 20461 Ventura Blvd., Woodland Hills, (818) 888-6001, will offer its regular menu 11:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. for lunch and 5:30 to 10 p.m. for dinner.

Radisson Valley Center, 15433 Ventura Blvd., Sherman Oaks, (818) 981-5400, will offer a Christmas buffet with dessert and champagne from noon to 5 p.m. $18.95, $7.95 children under 10, and youngsters under 3 are free.

Shain’s, 14016 Ventura Blvd., Sherman Oaks, (818) 986-5510, will offer several special holiday items in addition to its regular menu, lunch from 11:30 to 2:30 p.m., and dinner from 4:30 to 11 p.m.

Truly Yours, 18588 Ventura Blvd., Tarzana, (818) 996-3131, will offer a special holiday menu from 11 a.m. to 2 a.m. Call for reservations and prices.

Truly Yours, 9725 Reseda Blvd., Northridge, (818) 993-4714, will offer its regular menu from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Call for reservations and prices.

Universal City Hilton and Towers, 555 Universal Terrace Parkway, Universal City, (818) 506-2500, will offer a Christmas dinner special in its Cafe Sierra featuring a four-course meal with choice of four different entrees for $21.95 per person. Also a children’s buffet for $9.50 for youngsters under 12. Reservations recommended.

Warner Center Hilton and Towers, 6360 Canoga Ave., Woodland Hills, (818) 595-1000, will offer holiday dining in two of its restaurants. The Brasserie will offer its regular menu from 7 a.m. to 11 a.m., and a special holiday menu from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. The Apollo Restaurant will offer its regular menu plus some special holiday items from 5:30 to 10:30 p.m. Reservations recommended.

Warner Center Marriott, 21850 Oxnard St., Woodland Hills, (818) 887-4800, will offer a full holiday dinner buffet featuring prime rib, turkey, ham and fish plus salad and dessert bar from 2 to 9 p.m. in its Parkside Restaurant for $12.95, half-price for children 8 and younger. Westlake Inn Hotel, 32001 Agoura Road, Westlake Village, (818) 889-0230, will offer a holiday buffet from noon to 9 p.m. priced at $19 per person with children and senior discounts available. Reservations recommended.