RESTAURANT REVIEW : Lapses in Vigilance, Guidance : The culinary expertise of owners Michel Richard and Bruce Marder seems missing from the Encino version of their Broadway Deli.

Encino’s Broadway Deli isn’t really a deli at all, but a sort of one-stop marketing concept serving several of our favorite cuisines. Mark my words; forewarned is forearmed.

The original Broadway Deli in Santa Monica probably worked because of sheer novelty. It combined the culinary aplomb of Michel Richard, proprietor of Hollywood’s famous Franco-Californian restaurant Citrus, with the vernacular Californian experience of Bruce Marder, proprietor of the West Beach Cafe, and the robust ethnic appeal brought in by his partner, Marvin Zeidler, whose wife is a well-known expert of Jewish food, together with the suave trendiness of northern Italy.

Imagine a restaurant where you can nosh on your favorite deli foods--potato pancakes, pastrami and the like--with a side of vegetable risotto and tapioca creme brulee to follow, washing it all down with a Chianti from some Italian boutique winery. Great, right? But without vigilant authority, this staggering variety is doomed to cook up into an unrecognizable mass.

Unfortunately, authority seems missing. At the moment, Richard is off in Washington opening one of his Citronelle restaurants, and the Encino Broadway Deli is between managers. That might explain the inconsistencies, but it hardly excuses them.

No one can deny that this restaurant is a feast for the eyes, at least. It occupies a huge second-story space in the stunning Courtyard Shops of Encino (the plush Terrazza Toscana has taken up residence on the other side). And it’s beautifully sleek and functional, with a lofty ceiling, plenty of rich woods and metallic elements, booths big enough for family get-togethers and a long, glassed-in deli counter displaying everything from smoked Irish salmon to the chicken ravioli served at Citrus.

Though the place doesn’t open till the lunch hour on weekdays, breakfast is served all day: buckwheat waffles, hash with poached eggs, fresh ricotta blintzes with dried fruit and nuts, you name it. But if you come for breakfast, zero in on the list of cured fish. These high-priced platters of thinly sliced sturgeon, gravlax, pepperlax, sablefish and tuna--all gracefully smoked, all served with good, chewy bagels (or the crusty house country white bread, which you can have by default) and a particularly soft, rich cream cheese--remind us of the connection between deli and delicacy.

Don’t miss the potato pancakes, either; they are just about the best I’ve ever tried. The potato--shredded, rather than grated--fries up perfectly golden and crisp.

Breakfast is easily the best meal of the day here. When it comes to lunch and dinner, it’s a stretch to find good things to say about most of the dishes. The soups seem all right, whether a classic chicken soup or something like shiitake mushroom barley, but the corned beef, pastrami and other deli meats are tough, machine-sliced and relatively soulless. Think about that--nothing harsher could ever be said about a deli.

A variety of pastas, all with tasty toppings, come up gloriously overcooked ( al dente is not an expression known around here). Linguine with rock shrimp and oyster mushrooms in garlic cream sauce is about as indulgent a pasta as the restaurant serves. The quirky lasagna substitutes lamb for beef, giving it a quasi-Greek flavor.

The best main course may just be turkey chili, a lighthearted, beautifully spiced version of the classic American favorite. Too bad the square of corn bread that accompanies the dish is cloyingly sweet. On the other hand, the good honey rosemary pork comes with top-drawer french fries.

And with a little improvement, the lamb shank with small white beans and roasted garlic would be spectacular. This is a classic of provincial French cookery, and Richard is in his element here; the flavors marry with elegance. Now all that’s needed is a better job on the beans, mine having been cooked to mush.

I’m less certain about the chicken pot pie, a Frenchified version topped with a fleuron of puff pastry. The filling is tiny scallops of chicken (all white meat), peas, pearl onions and shiitake mushrooms in a refined veloute , making this about as far from an American pot pie as boeuf en daube is from Texas-style brisket.

If it doesn’t plain startle you, you may just love it.

It’s an open secret that Richard, along with Campanile’s Nancy Silverton, is the star patissier in Los Angeles. How then to explain these lackluster desserts--for me, the biggest disappointment at Broadway Deli?

Yes, the tapioca creme brulee is an inspired twist on a cliche dessert, and the brownie with fudge sauce scales the heights. But the gluey fruit cobblers, the pasty lemon meringue tart and the dry, lifeless chocolate cake are hard to swallow, and surely nothing a Michel Richard could have had a hand in creating.

Come to think of it, that’s precisely the point, isn’t it?

Where and When Location: Broadway Deli, 17401 Ventura Blvd., Encino. Suggested dishes: smoked fish platter, $15; potato pancakes, $4; turkey chili, $5.50 (pint)/$10.50 (quart); honey rosemary pork, $12; tapioca creme brulee , $3.75. Hours: 11:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 11:30 a.m. to midnight Friday, 9 a.m. to midnight Saturday, 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. Sunday. Price: Dinner for two, $25 to $40. Full bar. Parking lot in rear. All major cards. Call: (818) 905-5595.