Michaels' at Maidstone Beach

Clued-in Hamptonites have long known about Michaels', a gracious year-round retreat that recently changed ownership and chef.

Juan Torres, who has cooked at some of the East End's tonier venues, aims to gratify, rather than dazzle, and does so with elan.

It pays to order one of the three-course prix-fixe dinners, the components of which, a la carte, would add up to a much higher tab. My $17.95 pasta meal began with a well dressed mesclun salad followed by a bowl of penne tossed with mild broccoli rabe, hearty crumbled sausage and roasted garlic, which infused every bite. Dessert was a mini banana cream tart that was homey and light, crowned with freshly whipped cream.

My husband's $24.95 prix fixe kicked off with a huge bowl of meaty chicken wings in a "secret" Chinese barbecue sauce tasting of garlic and Hoisin. That same sauce permeated half a L.I. duck (a $2 surcharge) whose skin was burnished a deep mahogany. Even the accompanying rice, studded with fruit and nuts, proved compelling. A mere $2 surcharge bought a friend's thick and juicy shell steak au poivre. She eagerly devoured it, but not before placing a few slices on my plate. I relished every bite. Her husband's barbecued ribs were meaty, tender, coated with a tangy house-made barbecue sauce.

Finales included chocolate cream pie with a satiny, fudgy filling. A strawberry shortcake paled in comparison to the warm, sticky pecan "square" that was actually a rectangle.

While polishing off dessert, we observed, at a nearby table, two well-dressed couples in their eighties. They ate with gusto and chatted with animation. Not exactly a celebrity sighting, this offered another view of the Hamptons, a place where value is always in style and in season.

Reviewed by Joan Reminick, 8/19/05.