Where to eat this weekend: Water view, good food

For many years, the equation was simple: The quality of food and service falls in direct proportion to a restaurant's proximity to water. Do you remember eating at Jones Beach?

Well, it still requires some searching along the coastlines of Nassau and Suffolk, as well as inland at lakes and ponds. But the odds have improved. Here's a trio where you'll eat well and enjoy the view.

Pine Island Grill in Bayville is situated along a painterly curve of Long Island Sound. The look of the restaurant is contemporary; the food, a mix of traditional and New American. It's open for brunch, lunch and dinner. There's a fine raw bar, skillfully prepared lobster dishes, and crab cakes, steaks, sandwiches, pastas.

Pine Island Grill is at The Crescent complex, 333 Bayville Ave., Bayville; 516-628-3000.

The former Riverview now is View in Oakdale. Great South Bay beckons from the dining room of the stylish New American eatery. The kitchen is especially adept with seafood. Try lobster bisque, Thai-seasoned calamari, crab cakes, sushi rolls, crudo, pan-roasted scallops with lobster risotto.

View, 3 Consuelo Pl., Oakdale; 631-589-2694.

And perched on Preston's Wharf in Greenport: Scrimshaw, a flavor-packed New American restaurant with a lively menu and an easygoing manner that suit the late-summer mood. Consider seafood chowder, steamed dumplings, duck-confit spring roll. Crescent Farm duck with peach sauce, pork with bitter-orange rum sauce.

Scrimshaw, 102 Main St., Greenport; 631-477-8882.

Scrimshaw Restaurant is located on the waterfront in Greenport. (April 16, 2010)