Long Island Restaurants

Cafe Diane

There are about 50 seats at Cafe Diane.

Reserve one.

The new restaurant from the owners of Trattoria Diane in Roslyn improves on the original and adds luster to what's becoming a very good year for dining out on Long Island.

Cafe Diane is tucked into the Woodbury Village Shopping Center. But the storefront only hints at what's inside. This is a handsome, elegant little spot, where you'll have a carefully fashioned, often excellent meal. Credit executive chef and co-owner John Durkin and chef de cuisine Nick Molfetta, formerly of the Mill River Inn in Oyster Bay.

The dining room itself has a soft, almond hue, and a subtle weave of plaid that suggests Burberry nouveau. The other color, fittingly, is chocolate. Devotees of Diane's Bakery will approve. There's also a bar up front, where an overflow of eight also may eat.

While you're going through the menu, triangle-shaped grilled cheese sandwiches are set on the table. But the cheese is nutty fontina and the oil is truffled. You're on your way.

Start with the rich tuna tartare, finished with avocado and soy-lime dressing; or a fine beet salad with mache, hazelnut and goat cheese. A dollop of chevre floats at the center of a tomato-fennel soup that, while short on anise, carries a taste of late summer. Cafe Diane's pristine salad of heirloom tomatoes, from Rottkamp Bros. Farm in Old Brookville, is irresistible.

Lobster salad, prettily presented as a sandwich between rounds of deftly fried tomato, still arrives a bit underseasoned. Likewise, a duet of otherwise perfectly crusted crab cakes.

Cafe Diane's Italian side announces itself with a creamy, refined risotto of baby artichokes, wild mushrooms, truffle oil, Parmesan cheese and tiny, tender Brussels sprouts. Ricotta ravioli, completed with tomato, basil and Parmesan, is a mellow alternative.

Pan-roasted halibut, with rounds of fingerling potato, clams, mussels and squid, looks terrific, but is slightly overcooked. Pan-seared tuna, sliced and angled against a savory union of cippolini onions, cremini mushrooms, roasted tomato and arugula, shows up rosy as requested.

Thick, juicy and recommended: the Berkshire pork chop paired with garlic-mashed potatoes, wild mushrooms and Brussels sprouts, and accented by a peppercorn sauce that knows its place.

The ample "beef duo" brings together braised short ribs and grilled sirloin, along with fava beans, English peas, chanterelles and truffle-mashed potatoes, for a bracing choice.

Desserts are headed by the warm, flourless chocolate cake; blueberry-blackberry-strawberry pie; peach-blueberry cobbler; cheesecake; and, most addictive, cinnamon-sugar doughnut rounds with vanilla and chocolate dipping sauces.

You'll be back for seconds.

Reviewed by Peter M. Gianotti, 9/23/07

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