Getting inside the mind of a creative chef can be fascinating, so I was intrigued by the opening of a new restaurant with the enticing name Intent. What an inspired theme for a restaurant, I thought: to lay bare the creative process and show how a chef’s intent turns into reality on the plate.And who better to mastermind it than preeminent pastry chef Francois Payard? I was wrong. Intent is called that because the restaurant is in a tent.

The NoLIta dining room is zoned as a garden space, which means it can’t legally have a permanent roof, so a semi-permanent canvas tent forms the ceiling instead. But nobody looks up in a restaurant, and the tent would hardly be noticeable if the name didn’t call attention to it. Thematically, though, it suits the sunny cuisine, which is a light-footed improvisation on Mediterranean and North African flavors. Ingredients like eggplant and olives flow freely, under the guidance of Craig Freeman, who cooked at Le Cirque 2000. Pork ribs (an $18 order comprises some 8 or 10 ribs) have abundant meat and wear a dazzling glaze of coriander-scented honey; date chutney makes a tart complement. And a daintily small lamb burger ($22) is smooth-textured and flavorful, served on an olive-studded focaccia bun and moistened with cool yogurt sauce.

Unsurprisingly given Mr. Payard’s specialty, pastry makes its way into a number of the savory dishes. Tunisian-style brik dough, like phyllo but thicker and crunchier, wraps a prime filet of daurade ($20), creating a stiff, lozenge-shaped package of fish with an enjoyable textural contrast. It’s accompanied with tomato oil, one of many tomato preparations at Intent, and rests on a bed of olive-flavored mashed potatoes. But this is one of a number of dishes that could stand to be stronger. Its flavor is balanced but weak, especially compared to the pork and lamb above: All the notes are harmonious but the volume’s turned too low. An appetizer tart ($9) of eggplant and zucchini, too, leaves the eater craving something more.The pastry shell is flaky and flavorful, but the filling gets its only zing from a dollop of stewed tomato mercifully placed on top. And monkfish mousse ($9), an appetizing-sounding appetizer, is just a creamy white cloud of vague flavor, barely recognizable as a product of the sweet, rich monkfish. The hidden key to the dish: Delve through the fluffy mousse to the clear tomato aspic underneath, whose concentrated, tart tomato flavor shines through the cloud.

But curried crab salad ($12) layered with potato chips has no shortage of flavor in its fresh-tasting flaky meat and keen spice; and neither does a salt-cod carpaccio ($10).The latter, milky white and with an odd but not unpleasant softness, is rimmed with tapenade and sprinkled with bits of olive that perk up the fish excellently.A trio of thick seared sea scallops ($23) bathe in a hearty broth that gets its neon orange color and garlicky spice from hunks of vibrant chorizo. Juicy clams, a light cod cake, and the sweet, beautifully cooked scallops themselves neatly temper the sausage’s intensity. Panisse, fried chickpea cakes, aren’t quite ubiquitous enough yet to constitute a trend, but they’re worth keeping an eye on. Intent’s version ($5) is crisp and smooth-textured, and makes an excellent side, as does a scoop of couscous with clean preserved-lemon flavor.

Some 40 Mediterranean wines, with descriptions like “Bone-Dry, Zingy and Frivolous” or “Elegant and Well Behaved,” are supplemented by half a dozen New World bottles that the menu considers spiritual kin of the old-country options. The varied list, in a $30–$100 range, favors juicy Rhône wines that suit the food’s seasoning, like the spicy, fruity Les Becs Fins ($37). The restaurant lacks a license to pour hard liquor, but makes up the difference with a selection of fruity $11 cocktails that get their punch from port. These include approximations of must-have mixtures like mojitos and cosmopolitans, as well as inventive drinks based on lemongrass and tart kalamansi.

The name is just a catchy red herring, and the food ranges in quality, but any of the desserts (each $9.50) singlehandedly makes the restaurant worth a visit, and puts the rest of the meal to shame.They are assembled with fresh ingredients — mostly fruit — and a marvelously light touch, by Eric Estrella, a transplant from Payard Patisserie. Dense, sweet Medjool dates, poached in wine until they almost melt, top a tiny, luscious cheesecake that gets its salty complexity from feta.A scoop of white-pepper ice cream cuts the sweetness of both. Coarse, full-flavored watermelon granita permeates a fruit salad that includes such seasonal joys as half-cherries, juicy strawberries, sticky apricots, and lightly salted fig slices. But the best might be a chewy, sticky block of fig pudding, dark with caramel flavor, topped with ripe figs and delicate fig ice cream: an eloquent celebration of a less-popular fruit.

Intent, 231 Mott St., between Prince and Spring streets, 212-966-6310.