Restaurants : DESIGNER DINING : Pasta, Risotto and a Stylish Boutique--a Nice Fit. Just Keep the Sauce off the Lapels.

My eyes glazed over: Emporio Armani Express Restaurant, located in a Beverly Hills boutique and featuring a carpaccio of the day. A carpaccio of the day! Just sell the clothes, fella.

OK, so my eyes glazed over; it’s not the first time they’ve misled my mouth. The food served in this restrained and elegant room (actually upstairs from the boutique proper) turned out to be stunning. One reason: The kitchen is managed by Stefano Colaiacomo, who also runs the wonderful L’Opera in Long Beach and Antonello and Trattoria Spiga, outstanding Italian places in Orange County.

However, the appetizers, including those vaunted carpaccios, give no more than a hint of what’s to come. Nidi di rondine , a nest of deep-fried zucchini strips with a topping of prosciutto, porcini mushrooms and tomato sauce, is about as exotic as the starters get. Cannellini e gamberetti --shrimp on white beans--doesn’t surprise anybody anymore, though these shrimp are particularly crisp and tasty and the white beans have a good tang.

The rustic bruschetta di vongole consists of chopped clams on toasted Italian bread; polenta al Parmigiano seems to cry out for some kind of sauce. Grilled mushroom slices, spinach salad with scallops, barley soup in strong veal stock with scallops (kind of a scallop motif here)--frankly, these are just pleasant ways of killing time before the pasta course.

The pastas are not only the tastiest part of the meal, they’re also the handsomest. Take ravioli di zucca : pale orange disks with domes of filling in the middle, like Rodeo Drive Stetsons glistening in browned butter. The filling is pumpkin puree mixed with rich mascarpone cheese and cinnamon. Or creste di gallo : half-moon shapes heavily crimped around the edge (hence the name, “cocks’ combs”), full of mascarpone and zucchini, all in a white cream sauce with a couple of mint leaves perched on top. Even the rotelle ai carciofi (two slices from a kind of jellyroll of pasta filled with artichokes and mascarpone ) has a certain geometrical grandeur--and a staggering “creamy brandy” sauce that seems to be more mascarpone , another motif around here.

Other pastas may be less extraordinary, but they tend to have unique touches. Lasagna aragosta , filled with a lobster-and-ricotta mousse, enjoys a tarragon-tomato-cream sauce. The gnocchi are tiny ones in fresh tomato-basil sauce, sprinkled with ricotta. Even the crepes ( crespelle ) filled with spinach and mushrooms have roasted almonds in their tomato sauce. There are also four risottos, from the non-soupy school of risotto-making.

The meat entrees are perfectly good, but if you actually want a course between pasta and dessert, consider splitting the order with somebody else. There’s an occasional nod to France in this section: salmon en papillote ; venison in porcini and Cognac sauce. You can also get rack of lamb with deep-fried artichoke hearts, broiled chicken with lemon-and-rosemary sauce, or a fish of the day.

Only a fool would pass up dessert here. The sweet called Aida is a ramekin of fantastically rich chocolate cake (think of raw brownie dough) covered with caramelized walnuts, but the real chocolate addict will go for zuccottino , a pumpkin-shaped genoise cake filled with chocolate and, yes, mascarpone , glazed with chocolate and Kahlua and slathered with creme anglaise and hot caramel sauce. Even the creme brulee , called crema carina , has a layer of chocolate pudding at the bottom.

There are some moderately ordinary items, like a close-to-standard fruit tart and a white chocolate cake that’s just pound cake compelled to serve as strawberry shortcake, but expect the occasional surprise anyway, such as a tart cheesecake.

Armani Express strikes a neat balance between elegance and all-out sensuality. If this is boutique food, as I think somebody once said, let us make the most of it.

Emporio Armani Express Restaurant, 9533 Brighton Way, Beverly Hills; (310) 271-9940. Lunch and dinner served daily, breakfast Monday through Saturday. Full bar. Valet parking at dinner. All major credit cards. Dinner for two, food only, $39-$80.