I don’t generally subscribe to the chef-as-auteur theory. Some chefs are brilliant cooks, some create great menus, some run big kitchens well, and some do more than one of these things; some chefs have a style that is fun to follow, but most aren’t so distinctive. One who does have a style but moves around a lot is Rene Michelena. He’s been at La Bettola, Centro, St. Botolph, the Vault, consulting at Caffè Umbra, and recently at Saint. Although that’s many kinds of restaurants — Saint, for example, is all small plates, no real entrées — Michelena is the same chef everywhere. He likes plump little morsels, and features an effortless fusion of Italian and Asian flavors. Someone has called it "MediterAsian." Since he was born in the Philippines, his native culture is sort of a fusion. But I doubt there are a lot of chefs anywhere with the same fluency in flavor spectra like Meyer lemon/lemon lime/kaffir-lime leaves/lemongrass. Or basil/Asian/mint/pea/green soybean/fava bean.

Domani is supposed to be a real Italian trattoria, but the food is full of these MediterAsian tricks. The restaurant’s supposed-to-be-Roman décor, complete with a wall done in sand-dune-wavy stucco with a motor scooter mounted in the middle, sends us rapidly into a techno-fusion state of mind that helps us treat each piece of food as a Platonic morsel, its own essence, rather than part of any national concept.

Food starts modestly enough with hot breads, one night focaccia and sourdough, another night a focaccia-like flatbread and something denser, like a barley loaf. Instead of olive oil, there is a ramekin of sweet butter with sea salt blended in. It doesn’t dissolve, so the butter has a salty crunch.

For a typical taste of Michelena in Italian mode, try the grilled shrimp ($14), three tender shrimp with some taste of the grill, yet juicy, on a wisp of eggplant, garlic, and truffle cream. There’s also the mixed grill ($16), featuring a flavorful wild-boar sausage, half a grilled squab (juicier than quail), and a perfect double baby-lamb chop, all with Michelena’s signature juiciness, plus a tiny ramekin of white polenta. Both these plates are like mini-entrées, and might well have moved up from Saint. (Everything at Domani is actually cooked in Saint’s kitchen, downstairs.)

For lighter appetizers, we had two superb salads. The "simple greens" ($7) feature some unusual non-greens — a couple of baby radishes with a bit of stem, French-style; some marinated chunks of baby pattypan squash; and pine nuts to go with a fine, if salty, vinaigrette dressing. A Caesar salad ($10) features a cold egg with a firm white and a runny center. I have no idea how this is done, but it adds something remarkable to the greens and croutons.

The only appetizer that wasn’t a pure wow was pheasant consommé ($8), presented in the modish manner of a large bowl with a small garnish at the center — wild mushrooms, barley, and crawfish tails — with the server pouring the soup from a metal teapot. One drawback of this presentation is that the soup is never really hot, but the more serious problem here was a combination of many flavors, perhaps some tarragon involved with the crawfish, that added up to a metallic effect.

Our main dishes were almost perfect, marred only by slightly underdone beans in a skate-wing special ($21) and similar chickpeas in the arctic char ($19). The latter dish is unusual in that the char is in two steaks rather than the usual fillet. The steaks are presented lapped, with ears of roasted red pepper filled with chickpea "tapenade." The skate wings, three nice fillets, had the same peppers, each stuffed with some sautéed spinach and puréed beans, and topped with a little bundle of sweet wild asparagus.

Tortellini ($15; $9/half order) were not available one night because the kitchen was still making them. When we did get some on a second visit, they were worth the wait. The filling is a minted purée of peas and green soybeans, the pasta is soft and luxurious, and the trimmings are a bit of sour-orange syrup, with a few peas and fava beans as visual clues. I just about inhaled this dish.

Braised rabbit ($20) was presented two ways. I was a little nervous about the rabbit, which some chefs undercook to make juicy little morsels. Apparently the kitchen shared my concerns, as this is the only meat I had at Domani that was slightly overcooked and a little dry. The loin of the rabbit, which is white meat and apt to dry out, was done up as a spring roll with spinach to keep in some moisture. The shank, a dark-meat piece, was a little crusty, with a sour-sweet sauce of raisins and olives, a starchy stuffing, and micro turnips and carrots.

The wine list is mostly Italian and interesting. The wines by the glass are all Italian and expensive, but even more interesting. The only old friend is 1999 Dessilani Spanna ($10/glass), generally a bargain among mature Piedmont reds, with real nebbiolo character (berry fruit plus a depth reminiscent of black olives) and length, if not the heft of a Barolo or Barbaresco. The most impressive of the reds by the glass may be Centine’s 2002 sangiovese-cabernet-merlot blend ($8), which offers lots of sangiovese aroma with the cabernet backbone flavor. On the white list, a 2002 Rivera chardonnay ($8) is a remarkably clean, fresh, and fruity chardonnay from such a southern locale. Decaf coffee ($2.25) and cappuccino ($3.75) were both excellent.

Desserts are refreshing and again offer bits of Asian fusion in Italian-designer drag. Italians like tropical fruits, too. My favorite is passion-fruit panna cotta ($8), a goblet of tart pudding topped with a confetti of fruit that includes kiwi, plus a sesame wafer. Sorbets of the day ($6) were Champagne mango (a divine combination) and raspberry, with a pair of buttery shortbread cookies. The banana-butterscotch napoleon ($8) is layers of banana bread, butterscotch filling, and chocolate sauce.

More traditional is the cheese platter ($12) with grapes, a dried fig, a date, and thin slices of Iggy-style nut bread to complement a selection of American boutique cheeses: our night a Humboldt Fog (a Northern California goat cheese with an ash layer said to resemble the local fog), a blue cheese whose flavor was unforgettably rich and fine, and an aged goat cheese as orange, dense, and rich as a well-aged Gouda.

There is a special quality to Domani that does not fully emerge in the details of the food. Part of it is the overall quality and individuality of Michelena’s concept. (I did find the food as a whole somewhat oversalted; perhaps the excessive sodium is a consequence of making all that bar food for Saint.) Part of it is the design and atmosphere of the room. What is most Italian about Domani is the sense of space on a hardwood floor, giving a lightness to the room despite quite a lot of postmodern décor.

Service is also unusually good, especially at splitting appetizers and entrées without charge and without apparent effort. Both our servers were knowledgeable about the food without being stuffy, and to know this food is to be enthusiastic about it.

Robert Nadeau can be reached at RobtNadeau@aol.com.