Queens Tribune

Iavarone’s Prime View
37 Shore Road, Port Washington
(516) 767-0022
Cuisine: American
Hours: Mon.-Thurs., 5 p.m. to 10 p.m.; Fri.-Sat., 5 p.m. to 11 p.m.; Sun., 4 p.m. to 9 p.m.
Parking: Yes
Credit Card: Yes

Yes.
You could get the Caesar salad. You could get the perfectly fried calamari or zucchini, the New England clam chowder or the wild striped bass.

You will be perfectly pleased - may even fall in love - with Iavarone’s Prime View’s interpretation of these classics.
But be warned, there are some items on this menu - the beet salad for instance - that are practically their own event and you would do well to try them.

Prime View, serving primarily American fare, is situated on the water in the hamlet of Port Washington, located in Nassau County. The interior of the restaurant is much like the food: elegant and defined, it knows what it wants to be. Still, it’s just casual enough to play the Red Sox-Yankees game at the bar.

Photos of the building in its various guises hang from walls and large glass vases holding flowering branches radiate a soft lighting through the dining room. At 7:30 p.m. on a Thursday, the sun was setting, “My Funny Valentine” was being played by a keyboard-vocal duet and the bourbon-espresso glazed ribs needed little prompting to fall off the bone.

One should be warned of the ribs prior to their first experience at the restaurant. These were the highlight of a round of appetizers that had fierce competition from Prime View’s take on meatball sliders - a meatball lightly covered in marina sauce and sandwiched between gorgonzola puffs - and a baked clam, casino style. But the ribs were covered in a sweet, tangy barbecue sauce and gently caramelized on the outside, leaving them irresistible.

Of the salads, the spinach tomato salad with goat cheese and pecans would have been a show stealer if it wasn’t for the beet salad. Those who want to leave a restaurant remembering a dish would do well to try it. With three types of beets, fennel, blue cheese and pancetta roasted apples, the dish was loaded with big, contrasting flavors that competed for attention.

A round of New England-style clam chowder and New Orleans gumbo led into the selection of entrees for the evening. The sesame encrusted tuna was superbly presented, with the sliced fish served over a bed of napa slaw and a smudge of Wasabi aioli on the side, as was the wild striped bass over couscous. The beef short rib braised in merlot and accompanied with a parsnip puree was another melt-in-the-mouth kind of dish, but the course belonged to the pork chop with poached pear. Unlike many a pork chop, the meat was spared the fate of being cooked until it was unrecognizable. Instead, it was succulent and tender and the pear, along with the bitterness of the arugula and the licorice taste of the fennel, played perfect second fiddles to the pork.

While meals are on the pricy side, with entrees between $15 and $30, Prime View is the perfect spot to celebrate a special location, yet the menu is expansive enough for the restaurant to be a focal point for many of the locals looking for quality fare.