RESTAURANTS: Bordino's tiptop staff, eclectic menu please

By Eric E. Harrison

FAYETTEVILLE - It's been so long since we ate at Bordino's that we didn't recognize the place.

Turns out there's a good reason for that. Bordino's moved a couple of years ago. It's still on the same block (the street address used to be 324 W. Dickson, now it's 310), but now it's on the corner. And it is now its own entity, instead of the back room of popular Mexican restaurant Jose's (which is still there but now a couple of doors away, though all still part of the same building).

Bordino's

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Bordino's now has at least three times the dining room space - you could fit the old dining room into what is now the bar - and a fancy, ultra-modern exterior.

You enter into a cozy atrium stocked with couches and magazines, including Wine Spectator, which has given the restaurant an Award of Excellence the past three years.

Through the double metalclad doors and you're in the big, inviting bar area where you also have the option to dine. To the right is the main dining room, with solid, unclothed hardwood tables and comfortable, partially upholstered chairs.

The lighting is just dark enough to make it difficult to determine what shade of earth tone is the paint job, but around the walls are a series of about two dozen backlit "art boxes," one containing a collection of winebottle corks, another a collection of seashells, others watercolor paintings. Two subsidiary dining rooms/party rooms branch off the eastern wall.

Bordino's menu, too, has changed. No longer strictly oldschool Italian, it has added an eclectic range of Italian-accented offerings at, perhaps unfortunately, prices to match, including grilled Tasmanian salmon and dill creme fraiche with grilled red bell peppers and sauteed spinach and grilled Ahi tuna and pecan lime butter with braised leeks and roasted baby carrots, $34.50 each, and grilled lamb chops and a sweet fig reduction with spinach and bell peppers, $45.50.

The good news: You can still get very good food for a comparatively modest outlay. Bordino's does an excellent job when it comes to portion sizes and plate presentation.

And although the black-clad, white-aproned staff looks veryyoung, which in too many other cases also means inexperienced, these employees are all superbly trained. We can't remember the last time we got service this professional that was also genuinely friendly and helpful.

Our waiter brought out a basket generously filled with at least three varieties of house-made bread, including fluffy baguette slices and a sweetish brown loaf (the menu proudly proclaims they are "made from Hartland Mills Organic Flour") to dip in an olive oil-and-pepper pool.

We missed out on a range of attractive-looking appetizers (we saw them at other tables) because they were on a separate menu card that not everybody at our table got. So we didn't get to try the Beef Tenderloin Meatballs with port wine tomato sauce and Parmesan crisps ($9.50), the Mushroom Crepes with smoky brie bechamel and nutmeg ($7.75) or the mussels steamed in a spicy white wine and saffron tomato broth withherbed crostinis ($8.50). Tell the kitchen to keep them ready for our next visit.

Instead, we opened with salads. "Crisp Romaine Lettuce and rich Caesar Dressing with shaved Grana Padano Parmesan Cheese and herbed croutons" ($5.50) is a pretty fancy way of describing a fairly simple Caesar salad. Our Romaine came tossed with just enough dressing to coat. The dressing wasn't quite as sharp as we'd have liked - we like to catch the tang of lemon juice and a hint of anchovies in a Caesar - but we were surprised at how large a portion we got for our money. The crunchy croutons were actually the liveliest part of the salad.It was a little less expensive than a simple mixed-green salad with a nicely tangy vinaigrette, $6.

Cioppino ($21.50), shrimp, scallops, calamari, salmon and mussels in a spicy white-wine-tomato broth, was the chief reason we returned to Bordino's, and it was still worth the visit. However, we were a little surprised to see each seafood variety carefully segregated in the bowl. The broth was just spicy enough to tingle the tongue without causing any lasting distress to the back of the throat.

We also enjoyed the spinach fettuccine ($15.50), pretty close to al dente, with chicken, asparagus, sun-dried tomatoes and shiitake mushrooms in a surprisingly sturdy white-wine cream sauce.

And we can also recommend the pork tenderloin with a mild sausage-tart-apple stuffing in an apple brandy reduction ($22.50). The steamed side of broccoli had a strong, not entirely pleasant flavor, and the plate-center polenta, though tasty, was a little soupy.

Other pasta options we're looking forward to trying: penne, shiitake and cremini mushrooms in a spicy white-wine sauce drizzled with extra-virgin oliveoil, $14.50; penne, shrimp, calamari, tuna, salmon and scallops in a rich bourbon cream sauce, $24.50; and goat cheese gnocchi and smoked duck confit with a white wine cream sauce, asparagus, dried cranberries and pine nuts, $16.75.

The two daily varieties of sorbet we tried were a little pricey($7) but excellent - a pleasant soft pear and a very tart and tangy lemon, both bedecked with blueberries.

Our waiter was just one example of the professionalism of the staff - we saw it in the food runners, the hostesses, the bartender and the folks who waited on other tables.

Bordino's Address: 310 W. Dickson St., Fayetteville Hours: 11 a.m.-2 p.m. Tuesday-Friday; 5-10 p.m. Monday-Thursday, 5-11 p.m. Friday-Saturday Cuisine: Italian/eclectic Credit cards: V, MC, AE, D Alcoholic beverages: Full bar Reservations: Yes Wheelchair accessible: Yes (479) 527-6795 www.bordinos.com

Weekend, Pages 47 on 01/02/2009