Michele Rodelli, formerly executive chef at Cinecitta on Star Street, has chosen to put his money where his mozarella is, contributing his own funds to a new Wyndham Street eatery called Goccia, which, according to the press release is pronounced "goh-chee-a'' in Italian.

It means "water droplet,'' but will inevitably from this time forward be pronounced Gotcha. It opened last week.

It seems a daring move. Goccia is in the quarters formerly occupied by a restaurant called Alibi, and it is surrounded loosely by two other Italian restaurants in a city where Italian restaurants are starting to outnumber Chinese ones.

Rodelli is listed as "patron chef,'' a reference to the fact that he has his own money in the place, along with four other shareholders who also own the nearby Divino wine bar and restaurant. He is learning the consequences of becoming his own boss.

Clad in a snappy white chef's tunic, he is not only shepherding the Indians, Pakistanis, Chinese and Filipinos in the kitchen, he and Franck Crouvezier, the sommelier and restaurant manager, both greet the guests.

"I tell you, I need at least one day of sleep,'' he says.

Goccia is unconventional in design. The entire downstairs is occupied by a bar, with the dining room upstairs, and with an open terrace at the back for al fresco dining. An open terrace, given Hong Kong's miserable summer weather, is a chancy thing. On a recent visit, the terrace was closed off because of the rain, which meant no griglia di goccia, or grilled dishes - inside or out - because the grilling range is unfortunately exposed to the elements.

Goccia's upstairs-downstairs configuration was designed by KplusK Associates, a local firm that specializes in tropical architecture. Everything was redone including the creation of a new kitchen. Because the downstairs is long, narrow and spare, sound tends to bounce, so if you enjoy bustle and racket, it's stimulating. If you don't, it's annoying.

The upstairs-downstairs arrangement also goes a long way to determining its cuisine - and improving the muscle tone of Rodelli's and Crouvezier's legs as they hustle up and down the stairs seeing to guests on both levels. Because there is no dining downstairs, Rodelli fashioned an Italian hors d'oeuvre menu called "bites'' on the Spanish tapas concept, for the street crowd that come for cocktails. These include a sesame seed cone with tuna tartar and asparagus tips, an interesting walnut crisp with smoked salmon and cucumbers, and a kind of gazpacho variation of cold tomato soup flavored with Pernod and served with a skewer of mussels and zucchini.

Rodelli won his spurs as a dessert chef, and accordingly the downstairs bites include three of them - a cream-rum-chocolate gelatin, for instance, flavored with pepper, and a chantilly cream flavored with balsamico, strawberries and honey.

The upstairs dining room is also spare rather than opulent, featuring split bamboo floors and ceilings, with the wall dominated by a long orange-red abstract frieze. The architect, Paul Kember, writes that it was conceived as a "series of raw elemental spaces lined with luxurious comfort,'' but it comes across as rather austere. If the weather ever improves, it would be nice to see the terrace decked out in its white napery and be able to sit outside.

Rodelli's seven-page menu is Roman in nature and it features ingredients flown in weekly from Italy and France. Of particular interest among the antipasti are a seared peppered tuna, rare in the center, dotted with oscietra caviar atop a potato gallette, and a millefeule of monkfish piled up atop vegetables, eggplant puree and avocado infusion. Both dishes feature slightly caramelized basil that gives them a nice tang.

Overall, Rodelli's menu is more subtle than spectacular. Among the pastas, there is an artichoke ravioli with prawns and dry mullet roe that features a sprig of mint, a herb that it is easy to get too much of. It comes off okay in this dish, but it leaves one wishing Rodelli had brought along the spectacular artichoke tart, featuring ricotta, fennel and spinach, which is still on the menu at Cinecitta.

There is also a tagliatelle with a classic bolognese ragout - it's light and delicately flavored and makes you forget the hearty bolognese sauces you find in most Italian restaurants, heavy with tomato and meat.

Seafood dominates the menu, and there is usually a fresh catch. One night last week that included Arctic char, a fish whose flesh is pink like salmon but which is genetically linked to trout. It flaked perfectly, but then again, you expect it to.

For two, there is il branzino in crosta di pasta di sale - sea bass in a crust of pasta salt - that is worth bringing along a partner who wants to share it, or if that doesn't work, stopping somebody on the street and asking if he or she would like to come to dinner.

Despite the emphasis on seafood, one guest at table during a recent visit decided the carne was probably more important, particularly the veal cutlet in a herb crust with grilled potato confit, and the baby lamb chops that only briefly had been passed over the fire.

Goccia has laid in about 100 wine labels, dominated by Italians and whites. This is no mean trick for an independent restaurant. For those who stop in for the bites downstairs, there is a large assortment of sparkling wines, kept at 6 degrees Celsius in a double-deck refrigerator that needs a ladder and a spry bartender to get the topmost bottles down.

There are some opening-week glitches, but it appears the service staff are well-trained and attentive for a restaurant so new. The menu could use some strengthening, particularly among the pastas, and it would be nice to see the new grill working.

"I am trying to do a good job, but I feel there is a long way to go. I am trying to take care of one thing at a time, trying to fix the kitchen,'' Rodelli says.

In any case, one encouraging sign is that on a recent visit the upstairs dining room was largely dominated by diners from the Italian community, despite the fact that the restaurant has only been open for a week.