Long Island Restaurants

Fino Rosso

The North Shore needs another Italian restaurant the way Jones Beach needs sand. But Fino Rosso, the third eatery at this address in as many years, does get your attention. It starts the fireworks with lively food. The modern appointments, from glistening open kitchen to shiny red floor, haven't changed much since Spark went out. That's all right. And service has stayed warm and attentive. That's better.

THE BEST

Nibble on a thin-crust pizza, blistered from the wood-burning oven. The namesake number, with sunny eggs and prosciutto atop a trim Margherita, stands out: consider it a breakfast pie, tasty anytime. The fontina-arugula-prosciutto combo also delivers. Spaghetti alla carbonara and rigatoni all'Amatriciana head the pastas, along with four-cheese ravioli with asparagus in cream sauce. Baked clams oreganata and Waldorf salad: dependable. Fino Rosso's big catch is the whole baked branzino, or sea bass, drizzled with herb-flecked, garlicky olive oil. The red snapper simmered with tomatoes, garlic, olive oil, herbs and clams comes close. And chef Paul Vuli sends out a terrific, tender filet of bison, as basic to Italian cuisine as mozzarella di bufala is to the Great Plains kitchen, finished in a red wine reduction. His roasted rack of Colorado lamb: rosy, juicy, excellent. Chicken contadina, backed by sweet sausage, red peppers and roasted potatoes, would be better on the bone, but it's still savory. Topping the finales -- a wine glass full of frothy zabaglione on strawberries, and a tiramisu to make you remember why the dessert always stays on top.

THE REST

The watery crabmeat salad is engulfed by tartar sauce; and the salad of goat cheese, potatoes and French beans looks as if it were molded in a Campbell's soup can. Baked shrimp in caper-anchovy-mustard sauce surprisingly define bland. Dry cheesecake, carrot cake.

THE BOTTOM LINE

Roman candle.

Reviewed by Peter M. Gianotti, 7/2/08.

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Major Credit Cards Accepted

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Wheelchair Access