February 14, 1986

A RESTAURANT writer's mail is a fairly accurate social barometer. The scores of letters I receive every month offer a revealing sketch of how New Yorkers spend their leisure time, much of which involves socializing in restaurants. I have been surprised at how many of the letters request recommendations of romantic settings in which to dine. Recently there was a shy young man trying to muster the nerve to ask out a woman in his office, several spouses approaching important anniversaries, estranged couples looking for a suitable place to talk things over, and one jittery would-be fiance.

The Central Intelligence Agency aided Honduran security forces that it knew were responsible for having killed a number of people they detained for political reasons between 1981 and 1984, according to two American officials and a Honduran military officer. The C.I.A. agents did not directly take part in actions by the Honduran Government units, the two American officials said. The help they provided included training and advice in intelligence collection as part of a program to cut off arms shipments from Nicaragua to leftist rebels in Honduras and El Salvador. ''The C.I.A. had nothing to do with picking people up,'' said one of the American officials, who has intimate knowledge of American policy in Honduras. ''But they knew about it and when some people disappeared, they looked the other way.''

Bronx Borough President Stanley Simon said yesterday that he had been subpoenaed as a witness in the continuing Federal investigation of political corruption in New York City. According to others who have received subpoenas, the subpoena issued for Mr. Simon was one of a number issued to Bronx campaign operatives and political figures, including a member of the City Planning Commission. They are part of what the United States Attorney in Manhattan has described in court documents as ''an ongoing investigation into political corruption.'' Mr. Simon said he was not a target of the investigation. ''Like any good citizen I am prepared to cooperate,'' he said.

Companies Detroit wrapped up its second-most-profitable year with a report that Ford earned $2.5 billion and Chrysler $1.64 billion in the year. G.M. earlier said it earned $4 billion. But industry analysts say the companies will be hard pressed to match that performance in the future, as new entrants and added production capacity make the market more competitive. [ Page D1. ] Sales of new American-made automobiles rose 4.3 percent in the first 10 days of February, with the help of low-rate financing. [ D3. ] Chrysler will cut $710 off the base price of a scaled-back version of its Dodge Omni and Plymouth Horizon, to $5,499, in an attempt to stem the influx of low-priced imports. The company said the experiment will succeed only if it can sell the models in high volume. [ D3. ]

''They say good things come in threes, so. . . .'' - Evelyn Marie Adams, two-time million-dollar winner in the New Jersey lottery. [ A1:1. ]