I like to eat out. I guess that's pretty obvious. Dining with a capital "D" is a consuming adventure where I dissect every fine-tuned nuance of food, service and ambience.

A less obvious, but equally vital pleasure is simply grabbing a quick bite to eat. After sampling a few too many three-hour meals involving bank-breaking New American entrees, I want to sip soup and let my mind wander. I need a place that makes fewer demands on me.

I like the Bagel Deli and Restaurant because I feel at home. It restores balance — not to mention reality — to my culinary universe.

First, this is not a fancy schmancy place, even by low-key strip mall standards. Metal racks full of grocery items fill the shelves, which barely separate the bustling deli and market. Family and historic photos fill the walls, and wise-cracking Joe Kaplan, who co-owns the Bagel Deli with his wife, Rhoda Kaplan, usually mans the register.

The family affair includes staffers who have been there forever so it's not surprising that several generations of Denverites have felt welcome. The menu is so familiar, so packed with well-made comfort foods you can order without looking at it.

Case in point is the authentic New York-style toasted bagel with cream cheese ($1.75). The small, chewy Kosher bagels baked by The Bagel Store in Denver come with classic coatings like poppy seed. Don't even think about sun-dried tomato and asiago bagels here. The deli makes its own cream cheese, which has an extra-fresh dairy taste, not that two-weeks-in-the-plastic-tub flavor.

Early on weekday mornings commuters swing through for big egg, cheese and beef "bacon" bagel sandwiches ($3.95) and a cup of regular shop-style coffee ($1.50) before hitting nearby Interstate 25 off Hampden Avenue. If you have a few minutes, ask Joe Kaplan what he thinks about T-REX.

The simple breakfast roster includes matzoh brei ($4.95), challah French toast ($4.99), and decent-but-unspectacular blueberry pancakes ($3.75 short; $4.95 tall), but the star is very good house-made corned beef hash ($2.95), crisply fried and crumbly instead of the mushy canned stuff. Live dangerously and have it with a poached egg and a little hollandaise.

Around lunchtime, the deli starts to rock. Every table fills, and a line forms at the takeout counter. Nobody is here to dine, and everybody is in a hurry to get a sandwich.

My preferences lean toward two standards: the hot-from-the-griddle Reuben ($9.95) layered with corned beef, sauerkraut and melted Swiss, and a juicy pastrami sandwich ($7.95) done New York-style ($1 additional) with cole slaw and Russian dressing.

On the cold side, first choice is the chopped liver ($5.95 appetizer; $7.75 sandwich) on rye. The deli's mild and not-too-smooth chicken liver is the best I've found in ages. We also appreciated the simplicity of the chicken salad ($6.95 sandwich; $7.95 platter) made with mainly white meat, only a little mayo and almost no celery, and the tuna salad ($7.45 sandwich; $7.95 platter) moderately mayo-ed with just a hint of relish and hard-boiled egg.

The other rye bread choices run the gamut from cold cuts such as the mild tongue sandwich ($8.75), to the Chicago-style franks ($4.95) washed down with Dr. Brown's soda ($1.50) or a chocolate phosphate ($1.95).

For lunch and dinner, my vote for the most comfy nosh goes to the homemade chicken soup ($3.45), a soothing slurp of clear broth with noodles and a big moist matzoh ball. A good substitute in the Jewish penicillin category is the eatery's chicken in a pot ($10.95), a stewed bird nested with noodles, kreplach, carrots, celery and matzoh ball.

My mom gave her seal of approval to the family-friendly service and the stuffed cabbage ($4.95). She said the soft leaves rolled around ground beef and rice and cooked in tomato sauce were almost as good as her stuffed cabbage. That's saying something, believe me.

Other deli faves include sweet noodle kugel ($3.25), cottage cheese-filled blintzes ($5.95) with cherry topping and wonderfully high-carb potato knish ($3.45).

Many regulars frequent the establishment simply to bring home deli necessities and some house-baked sweets such as the gooey lemon bars ($2.25), blueberry cheese strudel ($3.45) and wonderful chocolate nut and apricot rugelach ($1.25).

The bakery's most popular dessert is the incredibly moist, fudgy brownie ($1.95) coated with chocolate chips and walnuts, but I lean toward the heavily iced carrot cake ($3.45) chock-full of walnuts, raisins and spice flavor.

While The Bagel Deli clearly has some must-try items, all is not impeccable. The decent but not award-winning sandwiches are not as overloaded as we'd like, and not always carefully assembled. Several times we were served meat sandwiches with torn bread.

The first plastic-wrapped black and white cookie ($1.95) we had was all wrong. It was dry and so stiff it was hard to break into pieces. We complained and the tasty replacement was much softer, with icing that wasn't crystallized.

Also, iconic items like borscht ($3.45 bowl; $2.95 cup), cole slaw and potato salad, are just OK, nothing special. The biggest disappointment is the potato latkes ($5.95), which arrived tasting too much like pancakes. The crispy, shredded potato taste I like so much was missing.

Are these shortcomings serious enough for me to not recommend the Bagel Deli? Not hardly. I enjoy stopping in for a bite of something familiar and a friendly voice. That's good enough for me.