East End Eats: Downtown Grille

Assuming you have never eaten at the Downtown Grille in Montauk, what does the name conjure up? Breaded clams and homefries? Fourteen variations of hamburger?

Well, if that's what you assume, as I did, then you are in for a surprise that will knock your black rubber waders off.

The first hint of the attention to detail that gives this restaurant such an edge is the banked planters at the entrance, overflowing with simple summer flowers. Inside, the atmosphere is rustic chic, with lots of raw wood, stencils, and old wooden tools.

The service is attentive but so discreet the food almost seems to appear by itself. The main dining room has a high barn ceiling, so the acoustics are good, and the presentation of the food is simply outstanding.

Old Favorites Made New

A basket of onion-cornbread, rolls, and crispini struck a good first note, as did the menu. While essentially presenting old favorites in a new light - familiar faces freshened by an exotic sauce, a unusual garnish, or offbeat combinations of flavors - it's exciting, and engendered quite a bit of argument as to who was going to have what.

There's a big wine list, with sensible prices, from which we chose a Grand Cru Sonoma merlot at $23 that was just fine. The Downtown Grille also bills itself as a wine bar, which explains the large number of wines available by the glass.

However, while there are nine white wines by the glass at reasonable prices, I would quibble that having five of the eight red wines over $8 is a bit pricey.

Crabcake Pancake

Appetizers range from $6.95 to $9.95. They include two salads, one of mesclun with roasted onions and plum tomatoes and a Caesar salad, both of which were excellent.

Among those we didn't try: a crispy almond shrimp, steamed mussels with spaetzle, a grilled vegetable napoleon, and the ubiquitous grilled portobello mushroom.

Two excellent crab cakes were dark and peppery, with the crabmeat mushed rather than chopped. They were sandwiched around a crisp frisbee of potato pancake and came with two sauces, a spicy salsa and a chipotle, basil, and lemon aioli.

Put Out The Fire Oil

We also tried the shrimp and tuna spring rolls, which came with Oriental greens, lemon-thyme syrup, and a spicy sauce. They were crisp, light, and invigorating. As with the other dishes, there was a lot of passing around and discussion.

The cinnamon and coriander seared tuna carpaccio with greens, miso dressing, and mango fire oil was delicate but lacked a little something. Looking back, I suspect it was the fire oil, which its recipient may have overlooked on the plate.

Entree prices start at $10 to $14 for individual pizzas and rise to $26.95 for lobster, served in two different ways.

The Eye Eats

All the main dishes arrived on huge, round, colorful platters of different designs, with sauces drizzled in patterns and garnishes artfully arranged so that each was a small Fauve masterpiece. They say the eye eats half the food. They're right.

The "fisherman's pan roast" was in reality a dish of tricolor rigatoni in a white wine cream sauce with lots of lobster, shrimp, and scallops. It was rich and full of fishy flavor. This was my choice, and I might have enthused at length but for the fact that everyone else said theirs was even better.

There was a very plain and simple penne dish with grilled chicken, prosciutto, fresh sauteed spinach, and roasted garlic which demonstrated that with pasta, less is often more.

The Best Risotto

A special of the day, crisp softshell crab, came on a bed of the most outstanding risotto I've tasted on the East End, its glistening surface scattered with tiny capers.

How many times have you ordered a steak and regretted it by the 20th unrelentingly red-meat mouthful? Not at the Downtown Grille you won't - their grilled filet mignon with potato pancake, roasted shallots, garlic, herb farci, and red-wine rosemary sauce is divine.

(Glancing at my watch, I wonder if there's time to rush over there and have a portion all to myself before deadline.)

But it was fish - tempura fluke - that actually brought a round of applause from the table. It sailed in like a galleon, the fluke billowing above a sea of homemade potato chips, manned by a crew of phyllo-wrapped curried shrimp that looked like tiny prickly hedgehogs.

Above it, a wafer of potato with a basil leaf trapped inside waved like a flag. It was the tops, the tower of Pisa, the smile on the Mona Lisa of the evening.

The restaurant didn't fall down on desserts either, though we only tried two - the successful momentum was carried right through to coffee. The key lime pie with a very subtle ginger sorbet was lovely, and the "chocolate bag" (a real, square bag made of chocolate) filled with different ice creams and chopped banana, was great fun.

The evening was an unqualified success. Downtown Grille gives excellent value for the prices it charges and the charming visual presentation adds inestimably to the pleasure of the meal. It is highly re commended.