SUMMERTIME : RESTAURANT REVIEW : It’s Hit or Miss at Ravioli’s : Indulge in antipasti, salads and soups because other dishes suffer from excessive sauces and toppings.

Ravioli’s owner seemed almost contrite. He had come over to our table to apologize for having run out of balsamic vinegar pork chops and Florentine beefsteak, two of the more delicious-sounding items on his menu. “I’m in the process of changing butchers,” he told us. “Try the veal piccata instead,” he suggested.

We did, and wished we had waited for the new butcher. Ravioli’s name implies that you have the chance to order lots of pasta at this restaurant, and take it from me, that’s a chance you should probably take. Pastas, especially the various ravioli preparations on this menu, are tasty.

This airy place is a converted Reuben’s, with a style I’d describe as comfortably sterile. The white paneled walls showcase an array of neutrally decorative posters, just like ones commercial designers use in hotel dining rooms. There’s plenty of brick here, an exposed kitchen that gleams with brass and steel, a nice, earthy tile floor.

Diners have a choice of several areas in which to sit, even if one does look pretty much like the other. One dining area affords a view of the kitchen and pizza oven. Another is hidden toward the back of the building, away from most of the action.

Proceedings get off to a robust start. The waiters bring a basket filled with squares of steamy focaccia bread, then pour balsamic vinegar and a yellowish olive oil into a glass bowl, so that you can dip. The antipasti, salads and soups offer a few things you won’t see on just any suburban Italian menu. I’d advise you to indulge.

Ravioli fritti are crunchy, golden, deep-fried cheese ravioli, sitting atop a creamy tomato sauce. They make a great snack. Papa al pomodoro might be the restaurant’s best dish. This Tuscan soup is a hearty, satisfying bowlful of fresh tomatoes, herbs and vegetable stock, in which old bread has been allowed to soak overnight. It is amazing just how good this simple dish can be, even in the hands of an average chef.

Carpaccio is fine, too, though oddly dry. Most restaurants dribble a little olive oil onto this appetizer of raw beef sliced razor thin, to complement the capers and shaved Parmesan cheese that make it so savory. Maybe the kitchen had a lapse.

Ravioli’s bruschetta is tasty enough, though, in a generic way. The rounds of toasted filone bread are smothered with checca (chopped tomatoes and basil), maybe even smothered to death. Like most of our Italian restaurants, this one does not hold back on the sauces and toppings. I wish they would.

The pizzas are inconsistent, the pastas less so, though there’s some of that overkill in the sauce department. The classic pizza Margherita--topped with tomato, basil, mozzarella and a touch of oregano--is from the thin-crust school and clicks on all cylinders. The pizza quattro formaggio (four cheeses), however, sputters because of deadly excess. There is just too much cheese on this pie.

Good, properly chewy pastas range from a classic alla checca , with chopped tomatoes, garlic and basil, to a saucy, messy lasagna Bolognese, an enormous casserole dish brimming with a good meat ragu.

Ravioli is, understandably, where the restaurant gets creative, and the kitchen doesn’t disappoint. Turtei con aragosta e ricotta is a bright red noodle pocket with a lobster, ricotta and leek filling--wonderful, though they could do without all the creamy lemon sauce on top.

There are mezzaluna al salmone affumicato , crescent-shaped, black in color, with a delicate smoked-salmon filling. Ravioli di verdura con salsa di noci acida are spinach-filled ravioli in a rich pine-nut and walnut sauce, maybe the richest dish in the entire Italian repertory.

Grilled and main-dish specialties fall far short of outstanding. The veal piccata is thick and not so tender, sauteed in a gluey lemon and caper sauce. Grilled breast of chicken has an equally thick garlic sauce, served with good spinach and oily roasted potatoes. Italian sausage with good stewed peppers is probably the best of the meat dishes. They are the firm, grainy type, nicely browned.

Desserts come from a huge glass pastry case by the front door. Later, white-chocolate-covered strawberry cake box, creamy Napoleon, chocolate-covered cannole and stiff, New York-style cheesecake will be brought to your table on a serving tray. None of them make a big impression, pretty to look at as they are. But you can count on the restaurant’s moccacino , a well-crafted chocolate cappuccino. Too bad they haven’t got chocolate ravioli.

Where and When

Location: Ravioli, 18711 Devonshire St., Northridge.

Suggested Dishes: Papa al pomodoro , $3.95; pizza Margherita, $7.50; turtei con aragosta e ricotta , $9.95; Italian sausages, $10.95.

Hours: Lunch 11:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday through Friday; dinner 5 to 10 p.m. Sunday through Thursday, 5 to 11 p.m. Friday and Saturday.

Price: Dinner for two, $20-$35. Full bar. Parking lot. American Express, MasterCard and Visa.

Call: (818) 831-4441.