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The dish on Long Island's restaurant and food scene

Chan's Sushi & Teriyaki, Lake Ronkonkoma: First bites

Chirashi at Chan's Sushi & Teriyaki in Lake

Photo credit: Newsday/Joan Reminick

Small but tastefully appointed, Chan’s Sushi & Teriyaki in Lake Ronkonkoma seems to be hitting the trifecta: pleasing food, friendly service and affordable prices. At a recent dinner, even the gratis miso soup — afloat with paper-thin mushroom slices — surpassed the ones usually served. So, too, did the gyoza ($4.50), al dente half-moon dumplings stuffed with a savory pork mixture.

A friend’s...

Testaccio at the Gardens: A taste of Rome in Nassau

At Testaccio at the Gardens in Garden City

Photo credit: Newsday/Erica Marcus

Very promising dinner last night at Testaccio at the Gardens, a new Italian restaurant in Garden City Park.

Looking over the menu, I felt a mixture of elation and dread. Elation because here was a document deeply rooted in regional Italian (and not Italian-American) tradition. The region is Rome (Testaccio is a famously gritty neighborhood in the Eternal City), and the menu featured such Roman...

Lobster Roll Northside: Back from the hereafter

Lobster Roll Northside in Riverhead.

Photo credit: Photo by James Carbone

Last fall, when Lobster Roll Northside in Baiting Hollow closed for the season, it was put up for sale — and, effectively, thought to be a goner.

Now, much like the recently revived Bollinger's Family Restaurant in Farmingdale, the place has returned from the great beyond. As manager Dana Bordsen tells it, her stepfather, owner Fred Terry, was planning to retire but had second thoughts and...

This week’s restaurant reviews

Executive chef Mr. Ge in the kitchen at

Photo credit: Doug Young

Joan Reminick visits Ten89 Noodle House in Stony Brook, a modest eatery serving the kind of hearty, authentic Chinese noodle dishes and stir-frys that are maddeningly hard to find on Long Island. Reminick laments the flimsy plastic spoons and Styrofoam containers, but “reward takes the form of noodle soups, each a virtual meal in a bowl. One spoonful of the roast pork version — loaded with meat...

Blue Point beers take over the Tap Room, Patchogue

A pint of Blue Point Brewing Company beer

Photo credit: Handout/

Long Island Craft Beer Week keeps rolling along. Tonight, the Tap Room in Patchogue celebrates its one-year anniversary with an expansive event. Usually the pub runs five lines of Blue Point, but tonight Blue Point brews will issue from 16 — almost every one that the Tap Room has.

Two of Blue Point Brewing Company's beers were winners at Tuesday night’s Golden Tap Awards, and both of them,...

The Meat House: Grilling for good in Roslyn

John Timmermann presides over the butcher counter at

Photo credit: Newsday, 2012 / Erica Marcus

This Saturday, Roslyn’s high-end butcher / specialty market will be raising money for the Children’s Medical Fund of New York, a nonprofit that raises money to support the Steven and Alexandra Cohen Children’s Medical Center at LIJ in New Hyde Park. From 10 a. m. to 5 p.m., The Meat House will be grilling up samples of ribs, pork shoulder and Kobe beef tri-tip. The actual grilling will be performed...

Crave 11025 in Great Neck: Closed

Diners linger over a meal Crave 11025 in

Photo credit: Agaton Strom

Crave 11025 in Great Neck is now behind windows with For Rent signs on them. The dramatic-looking black and white restaurant, designed to evoke a Parisian boutique hotel, was the work of owner Steven Dann, who also owns the shoe store across the street.

Crave opened in 2010 and, on an initial visit, impressed with a delectable goat cheese and caramelized onion omelet and spicy-sweet house-made...

Chichimecas opens in Farmingdale

Chichimecas' everyday menu includes such items as pork

Photo credit: Newsday / Joan Reminick

Alejandro and Maria González, owners of Oaxaca and Quetzalcoatl in Huntington, just opened a new Mexican restaurant in Farmingdale. Chichimecas —  named for a nomadic Mexican people who have long since assimilated —  takes over the trackside bi-level building that last housed Estelle’s Contemporary BBQ.

González is making use of the smoker left over from the restaurant's previous...

Blue Point Brewing takes top beer prize

Blue Point Beer awaits the participants of the

Photo credit: Jordan Gibbons

At last night’s Golden Tap Awards gala at the Boulton Center for the Performing Arts in Bay Shore, Patchogue’s Blue Point Brewing Company won New York State Brewery of the Year, its Toasted Lager won Best Long Island Beer 2011 and its White IPA won Best New Beer 2011.

More than 1,000 Long Island beer enthusiasts participated in the online poll, voting in five categories. The other winners...

Crushed Olive opens in Sayville

Mona Rossero bottles an oil selection at her

Photo credit: Newsday, 2011 / Erica Marcus

The Crushed Olive has added a third Long Island location to its portfolio. Mona and Bob Rossero opened their first olive-oil-and-vinegar boutique in Hickory, N. C., in  2010. The Huntington natives had moved to Hickory five years ago, and, after the success of that first store, they decided to open a branch in their old hometown. A Huntington store opened last May; Stony Brook followed in October.

Now...

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