Long Island Restaurants

fatfish

To be recipe-precise, this new waterside spot is dubbed fatfish, as if e.e. cummings and Liz Smith added the ingredients.

Compounding matters, the eatery also has been identified as Fatfish, fatfish, and FAT FISH, all of which complicate things more because it isn't entirely a seafood joint.

This is one of many stressful issues to confront in an early November moment when, post election, you're perhaps either seeing red or feeling blue. For the record, The-New-Restaurant-in-Bay-Shore succeeds an old one, Porky & Glenn's, the name of which pretty much said it all.

Visually, the changes have been dramatic. The decor has been de-kitsched and the kitchen de-camped. Now, you arrive at a streamlined, handsome, modernist place. The site is refreshed. And the view of Great South Bay remains grand.

You can enjoy the scenery from the main deck and inside dining room, or a canal-side area when spring boating starts.

Brian Valdini, proprietor and executive chef, offers an appealing mix of the old and the new. Sometimes, the fare is uneven. But in general, it's good.

Try "shrimp in trenchcoats," beer-battered and fried shellfish that are tender and tasty, ready for a dip in the lemon-herb mayo. The house's shrimp cocktail also is recommended. Likewise, the plump steamed mussels in a snappy scarlet sauce.

But clams oreganata are gritty. And piquillo peppers stuffed with spinach and manchego cheese have the watery texture of a jarred pimiento. Instead, consider the grilled eggplant with ricotta and mozzarella, in tomato-basil sauce.

Mediterranean soup is generous with shellfish and finfish in an herbaceous broth accented with tomato and white wine. But the lobster bisque seems to have had a platonic relationship with the shell. The aftertaste suggests tomato paste.

A grilled chicken salad spiked with pesto, tomatoes, olives and artichokes suffers from a dry bird. But the grilled salmon salad positions a hefty slab of well-cooked fish atop grilled zucchini, tomatoes, greens, basil and cucumber. It's all dressed with lemon-and-scallion flavored olive oil.

Salmon is part of the "seafood trio," which also stars grilled shrimp and halibut, given a shine by citrus-olive oil. Halibut on its own shows up oven-roasted, with orange-tomato salsa. It's a bit overdone. An alternative: chargrilled swordfish in lemon-butter sauce.

A moist, unadorned steamed lobster fittingly is among the better selections here, flanked by corn-on-the- cob and baby potatoes. There's a lot less to the dull shrimp- and-scallop union that gets tangled in fettuccine, finally giving up in a lackluster cream sauce.

Respectable cannelloni, defined by roasted vegetables and mozzarella, is in a lightly herbed tomato sauce. You may take a more contemporary turn with the open ravioli, with goat cheese, olives, basil and cherry tomatoes, as well as mozzarella, in a white wine-herb sauce.

The mixed grill brings together lamb and veal chops and a small filet mignon, unevenly cooked. The savory part of the dish is potatoes au gratin. You're better off with the New York strip steak, the ample ribeye, and especially the thick, juicy "porterhouse" pork chop, a 16-ounce number with a caramelized apple-and-brandy sauce.

Chicken Rina at first seems like a stuffed-breast wedding reception staple. But the fine white meat is wrapped with pancetta and receives an appetizing bull's-eye of Gorgonzola cheese and asparagus. The production goes well beyond all those forgettable poultry packages irreverently dubbed "Cordon Bleu."

Desserts don't have a mandate. The strawberry tiramisu is a bland hybrid. Passion fruit cheesecake doesn't do much for either side, despite the raspberry sauce. The warm crepe with vanilla ice cream and a shower of toasted almonds is the showiest finale. But you may just settle for ice cream.

That's ICE CREAM.

Reviewed by Peter M. Gianotti, 11/7/04.

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