Spuntino

Grand opening flags never fail to draw me into a restaurant. That's how I ended up at Spuntino, wedged next to a Pathmark in a Dix Hills shopping center. Having recently eaten at a spate of dull and formulaic strip mall Italian places, I can't say I initially expected anything exciting here.

This cheery and colorful 4-month-old spot, however, turned out to be something of a surprise. It wasn't that the menu was unusual or that the dishes were executed in an innovative way. It's just that so much -- including the perennially friendly service -- turned out to be lots better than anticipated.

The first thing to endear me was an individual (12-inch) Margherita pizza, baked in the restaurant's wood-fired brick oven. The thin crust was well blistered, slightly smoky, topped with a bright tomato basil sauce and melted fresh mozzarella. Simple and so good. On a subsequent visit, a Spuntino pie -- a garlicky crust topped, semi-freddo style, with chopped tomatoes, basil, olive oil and house-made mozzarella -- would have worked much better had the tomatoes been bright rather than pale red.

What worked just fine was a Caesar salad, made with hearts of romaine. It had an unorthodox but unintrusive touch of Dijon in the dressing, which just coated the lettuce rather than blanketing it. I was less impressed with the minestrone and pasta e fagiole, soups that tasted overwhelmingly of canned tomatoes.

But spaghetti with meatballs and sausage was so satisfying that I had to order it on a second visit. The meatballs were tender, knowingly seasoned and made with just the right amount of bread; the sausage had been sliced on the bias and pan-fried. I liked the fact that the pasta was served al dente and that the pomodoro sauce blanketing all was a vibrant one.

The friend who ordered grilled chicken semi-freddo -- marinated boneless breasts grilled and topped with cubed plum tomatoes, red onions and fresh basil -- enjoyed the interplay of temperatures as well as the sprightliness of the topping. I liked the dish but, again, wished for deeper-colored, sweeter tomatoes. Shrimp francese, on the other hand, came off as a lush, citrusy treat, the jumbo shellfish egg-battered, sauteed and served in a glossy white wine and lemon butter sauce. Although veal Parmesan could have been a bit crisper, it was, nonetheless, simple and satisfying.

A personal favorite was linguini con vongole, al dente pasta topped with New Zealand clams in a bath of roasted garlic and olive oil. Penne Bolognese, however, needed something to take it beyond the level of just humdrum meat sauce. Although I usually don't like the concept of grilled chicken in a pasta dish, it happened to work well in the instance of the whole-wheat fusille "profumate," a combination that also included radicchio, endive and escarole with garlic and olive oil.

Our charming and forthright waitress told us that desserts were not house-made but still worth ordering. She was right about the tiramisu, which, at a glance, looked beige and dry but was actually quite moist, oddly addictive. I'm not usually a cannoli fan, but the crispy-creamy here won me over.

So did the fact that nobody rushed anybody out, even though our party of four lingered close to an hour one night after the check arrived.

We left it face down. Then, each of us tried to guess the amount. The total came out to less than what anyone had supposed -- another welcome surprise.

Reviewed by Joan Reminick, 3/9/07.