1723 Wilson Blvd., Arlington, Va. (703) 522 0284 Hours of Operation and Prices Lunch: M-F 11:30-2:30; Entrees: $5-$13 Dinner: M-Th 5-10:30, F-Sat 5-11, Sun 5-10; Entrees: $8-$17 Pre-Theater: M-Th 5-7, $13 Brunch: Sun 11-2:30, $8-$13 Other Information • Credit Cards: All major • Dress: Casual • Parking: Free lot • Nearest Metro: Rosslyn, Court House • Handicapped accessible

From the street, the Village Bistro would seem to be just another neighborhood restaurant in a shopping strip that is fraying at the edges. Inside, though, it's dressed with bouquets of flowers and so friendly that after your first few visits the waiter is likely to know your preferences without being reminded. While such personal service may be noteworthy in this chain-restaurant era, the Village Bistro's quality/price ratio is even more remarkable. At chicken-carryout prices the Village Bistro offers a long list of fresh fish and seafood, luxurious choices among the meats, nicely dressed pastas. Except for the uninteresting pizzas, the cooking is a sure-handed and creative mingling of French, Italian, Indian, Middle Eastern and American.

Even so, appetizers are the winners, from steamed clams fragrant with orange and lemon to calamari sauteed with an herbed beurre blanc. Those buttery yet light sauces for seafood and Mediterranean garnishes of olives, arugula and balsamic vinegar or pernod and garlic are the kitchen's signatures, so when in doubt, choose fish. And if you find a disappointment - dry crab cakes, for instance - remind yourself that those generous and elaborately garnished cakes cost little more than a sandwich elsewhere. Here is a place where you can wear jeans or jewels and eat Broadway cooking at movie-house prices.