Long Island Restaurants

Il Piatto

Ray Ringle, left, Anthony Amoroso and Michael Ringle are co-owners of Il Piatto, an Oyster Bay eatery that's equally comfortable as a steak house or Italian cucina.(Newsday Photo/Daniel Goodrich)

Il Piatto is full.

In fact, each dish overflows at this friendly, generous and unpretentious restaurant. It's the antidote for diners who've had enough of ridiculous tabs, miserly portions and an invariable overdose of attitude.

Il Piatto takes over the downtown address long occupied by the Homestead, which itself had more than one life here.

The style is casual, with a sizable bar, televisions tuned to sports. Exposed brick and subdued lighting identify the main dining room. There's a brighter, smaller room at the back of the eatery. And, if the weather allows, Il Piatto has a patio area for outdoor dining.

What you'll get at any table is robust food, a union of hearty Italian and straightforward steak house. The restaurant is comfortable in either guise.

The combination cocktail of crab meat and shrimp arrives with the familiar cocktail sauce and lemon. It's fine. Baked littleneck clams are marine and tasty, under a mantle of well- seasoned bread crumbs.

Fried calamari, a formidable challenger to linguine with clam sauce as Long Island's official dish, materialize golden and right, a large pile of tender ringlets and tentacles rather than the standard tribute to rubber bands. Fried calamari arrabbiata is even better, properly angry with a peppery kick to spur the appetite.

Maryland crab cakes are a bit bready, but satisfactory, ready for a dip in a mustard-horseradish sauce. Stuffed mushrooms are routine, except for an undercurrent of onion. A grilled portobello mushroom becomes the stage for mozzarella, roasted pepper, sundried tomatoes and salad: more a group of ingredients than a harmonious whole.

The hot antipasto for two is highlighted by very good eggplant rollatine, shrimp oreganata and baked clams. A grilled portobello, stuffed mushrooms and a crab cake finish this production for two.

Il Piatto does especially well with pastas. The version of linguine alla carbonara is an exercise in richness, loaded with bacon, onion, peas, cream and Parmesan cheese. Rigatoni alla vodka, with prosciutto and shallots, almost rivals it. Continue the theme with fettuccine all'Alfredo, which, if not akin to visiting Rome, surely makes the North Shore stop worthwhile.

Penne alla puttanesca could use a little more zest, despite the olives, capers and garlic. Rigatoni with broccoli rabe and sausage: ordinary. And that inevitable linguine with clam sauce, red or white, should appeal to devotees of the dish.

The mega-entree here is a namesake platter for two, which combines chicken scarpariello, porterhouse steak, pork chop, lamb chops, and sausages with peppers and onions, mushrooms and potatoes, sauteed in a garlic-sherry sauce. This particular piatto also may be ordered for four. What makes it notable is simply that each meat is properly cooked, and the vegetables are full-flavored. It's not just an ode to quantity.

Chicken scarpariello, on-the- bone, is recommended on its own. Il Piatto's rendition brings together the chicken, sausages, peppers, onions and potatoes. Chicken Sorrentino is milder, predictable: a chicken breast topped by prosciutto, eggplant, mozzarella and brown sauce.

Veal chop capricciosa translates into Milanese on a grand scale, with a pounded chop breaded and fried, then covered with a salad of plum tomatoes, red onion and basil, drizzled with a balsamic vinaigrette. The hot-cool contrast works. For nostalgia, there's veal alla Parmigiana with linguine.

The unadorned rib veal chop is expertly broiled. The double- cut pork chop, deftly grilled and paired with sauteed hot cherry peppers, also is a winner. Filet mignon with a red wine demi-glace underscores the virtues of the basic grilled meats. Likewise, the marinated skirt steak, with a teriyaki touch.

Instead, sample the sirloin steak with sauteed mushrooms, the rib steak with caramelized onions, or the dry-aged porterhouse, which needs nothing else.

Seafood is secondary at Il Piatto. The better choice most days is broiled salmon oreganata. It's trailed by bland, pan-seared Chilean sea bass, accented lightly with garlic and lemon.

In the unlikely event you have room for dessert, tiramisu will do. It could serve two.

Reviewed by Peter M. Gianotti, 10/3/04.

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