Every neighborhood has one, if not a dozen: the family-style Italian restaurant, where regulars gather, often on Sundays, for pasta, chianti, peace and love. The challenge to those who run these places always has been, and always will be, how to stand out. How to get someone from neighborhood A, which has its own Italian place, to venture over to neighborhood B's.

The folks running Boticelli Trattoria, resident of the longtime South Miami spot known as Fancy's, which moved farther south, are putting their money on seafood. The menu is aswim with calamari, fish, mussels, clams, shrimp, crab and other frutti di mare. Health note: This is a good thing whether you're a follower of the diet that instructs you to avoid carbohydrates or the competing one that says don't eat fat, a battle drawing much interest nowadays.

Is it a good way, though, to lure restaurant patrons? Depends on how well you do it. Boticelli, like the majority of places, hits and misses. Order well, and you'll be happy. Order wrong, and you'll probably stick to your own neighborhood next time.

Boticelli is not all about seafood, of course. Its menu is one of those that includes everything, and there are even choices within choices. You can't just pick a pasta dish -- you must pick your noodle and your sauce, as well. Complimentary soup, house salad or Caesar salad comes with most meals -- your choice, of course.

We began with a trio of appetizers, two of them from the sea. Mussels posillipo ($7.95) brought a mother lode of large, plump, tender mussels, 10 in all, in (of course) your choice of sauce from among fra diavolo, marinara or white wine and pesto. Our fra diavolo, though, skipped its date with the devil: There was no evidence of hot-pepper spice. Too bad, because the sauce was rich and full-flavored.

Our second selection was the insalata di mare ($10.95). This brought an unbelievable amount of shrimp, calamari and mussels, boiled to order and then blasted in the freezer to chill. These were whisked with green pepper, celery, red onion, lemon and olive oil and served on a bed of mesclun. The dressing needed some urgency against the mild-flavored seafood. More lemon, more onion, more olive oil for a start, and perhaps a shot of vinegar or piquancy would help.

Hats off to a portobello cap ($7.95). This was fantastic: a big mushroom first sautéed, then layered with prosciutto and mozzarella and baked with red wine, rosemary and demi-glace. Soft, warm, wonderful.

Soup, a French onion, was hearty and good. Both salads -- the Caesar and the house, with a zesty vinaigrette -- made us glad to have them. Fresh rolls were passed, with a nice touch -- a tomato tapenade as alternative to butter or oil.

Entrées look interesting, and some are. Boticelli's take on cioppino ($20.95) is unusual in that it's served over linguine, rather than as a fish stew, and the linguine is voluminous and heavy. Maybe that no-carb fellow has a point. Part of the issue is that the sauce (again, we chose fra diavolo) is scant and lacks spicing. There's no complaining about the quality, freshness and quantity of the fish, clams, shrimp, mussels and squid here. But the dish has an assembled rather than organic feel to it, and we found out why: The seafood is precooked and added to the pasta and sauce, facilitating the choice but never allowing the flavors to properly meld. Better to settle on one treatment for this dish and just tell people that's that.

Gamberi della casa ($15.95) is a better bet, with six giant meaty shrimp in a creative sauce of pesto, red pepper, garlic, basil and white wine. Linguine here again, but the thicker, stronger sauce stands up to it, and the shrimp are delicious.

A special of crab ravioli ($12.95) was a winner, too, with delicate pillows of pasta stuffed with crabmeat and a bit of ricotta. Our sauce choice here was pomodoro, and it was refreshing, faintly sweet but not annoyingly so, and it made the perfect match with the earthy ravioli.

Land, ho. Meat lasagna ($12.95) borrows from the more is more handbook: This massive portion is loaded with beef, plus ricotta, Parmesan and mozzarella, a veritable snowdrift of cheese. It is utterly basic lasagna, without nuance. Sauce has something to say, but there isn't enough of it, so the predominant taste is hamburger.

We hit the jackpot with a special veal chop ($24.95). This was an outstanding piece of meat, premium cut, juicy, perfectly cooked, with a hint of rosemary poking the palate without perforating it. Sides -- cheesy polenta, sautéed spinach -- excelled, too. Ask for it.

Desserts are fairly priced and will go around, judging from our Neapolitan ($5). This was roughly a square foot of puff pastry layered with vanilla pastry cream, powdered sugar, chocolate drizzle and fresh strawberries.