This week's restaurant reviews

Fair prices make Ruvo in Port Jefferson an easy place to become a regular, Peter M. Gianotti says in this week's review of the restaurant related to Ruvo in Greenlawn and La Tavola in Sayville. It serves very good food — plus relief from trends, tinkering and Twitterati, he says.

Gianotti gives the restaurant two stars, citing its arancini, or rice balls, that are plump and savory, filled with fennel sausage and provolone; a bracing escarole-and-bean soup; yellowfin tuna crudo, a glistening serving of uncooked fish finished with sweet-and-sour cucumbers and citrus-chili oil; and a ginger-wasabi drizzle and braised-lentil salad that works with the lump crab cakes.

Ruvo is at 105 Wynn Lane, Port Jefferson; 631-476-3800

Food critic Joan Reminick writes about Portuguese pleasures in her Cheap Eats column this week, reviewing Caldas Café Restaurant & Bar, which she gives two stars, in New Hyde Park. Among the hits: flaming chourico (chorizo) doused with Portuguese brandy, arroz de marisco that puts a Portuguese spin on the classic Spanish seafood paella, a whole grilled sea bass, grilled shell steak with commendable home-fried potatoes, and “bacalao a bras,” a hash of scrambled eggs, salted cod and potatoes.

Caldas Café Restaurant & Bar is at 2224 Jericho Tpke., New Hyde Park; 516-216-5665

Homemade ricotta gnocchi with Bolognese is served at Ruvo in Port
Jefferson. (Photo by Kirsten Luce / January 23, 2010)