Long Island Restaurants

Luce

Sunflowers need light. So, Cafe Girasole has given way to Luce. The new restaurant keeps some of the old ingredients, adds its own and yields a fine meal. Dino Vlacich, veteran of Mio in Roslyn, is part-owner. He oversees an upbeat update. The high-ceiling dining room has turned from sunburst shades to earth-tone hues. And the food is a bit subtler, too.

THE BEST

You'll enjoy the elemental seafood salad, with tender calamari, octopus, shrimp and sea scallops in a lemony dressing. Just as flavorful: plump, grilled shrimp atop rounds of zucchini and marinated tomatoes, accented with basil oil. Crisp but not crunchy fried artichoke hearts require only a squirt of lemon. The "three-cheese fondue" that comes with the dish goes better with bread. There's savory minestrone and an even-better lobster soup, with chunks of shellfish in a cream-enriched, coral-tinted broth. Excellent cavatelli alla Bolognese heads the pastas. Snowy, moist halibut wrapped in potato "scales" swims in on a balsamic-vinegar reduction, with caramelized onions. Tuna alla Calabrese finds its way with roasted garlic, Gaeta olives, capers and grape tomatoes, along with asparagus risotto. The house's lobster risotto delivers a sweet taste of Maine via Milan. Luce travels elsewhere, too, with a juicy, double-cut pork chop paired with butternut squash; and rosy, orange-sauced roasted duck breast with mashed sweet potatoes and mixed berries. A mound of creamy polenta boosts the moist, spinach-stuffed breast of chicken in mushroom sauce. Tiramisu, panna cotta, fruit tarts for dessert.

THE REST

Duck-and-goat cheese ravioli: on the dry side. Leaf-shaped strascinate pasta turn pasty, tossed with fresh tomatoes and ricotta salata. The apple strudel arrives as a limp packet. Who'd come here for blueberry-cream cheesecake?

THE BOTTOM LINE

Let there be ...

Reviewed by Peter M. Gianotti

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