Edgewater Manor

518 Fruitland Road, Stoney Creek

905-643-9332

The look: Big and classy

The feel: Rich, refined

What you'll pay: Lunch openers run from soup of the day for $7 to $14 for baked goat cheese, cranberry- and citrus-scented goat cheese with a sweet red pepper and kiwi coulis. The Burgundy escargots, for $16, are sauteed in a garlic and cheese sauce and wrapped in phyllo pastry.

Mains include crab cakes for $16, snow crab meat flavoured with Dijon mustard, cilantro and scallions and choice of salad. The Atlantic salmon fillet, for $16, is grilled and glazed with a Thai spiced vinaigrette. The New York steak is a 12-oz cut for $19.

Dinner starters include Digby scallops for $18. The blackened seafood is served on mushroom risotto and drizzled with black truffle oil. And the hot garlic shrimp, at $18, features pan-seared black tiger shrimp with a roast garlic, tomato and chive sauce, served on grilled pappadum shell.

Dinner entrees open at $22 for seafood linguine with a tomato and white wine broth, while the supreme of chicken for $26 is a breast of chicken stuffed with crab and brie and treated to a Grand Marnier sauce. The shrimp and lobster platter tops the lineup at $38. It's a Cuban lobster tail with jumbo shrimp in a white wine Provencal herb-infused sauce.

Hours: 12 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. for lunch Monday to Friday, 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. for dinner Monday to Thursday and 5 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday. The restaurant is wheelchair accessible.

In its classic form, with appropriate dress standard, there's little in the way of true "fine dining" left.

The term is often stretched by eateries seeking that higher ground while delivering short of it.

Then there are restaurants like Edgewater Manor, which is clearly in the ballpark in terms of looks, style and taste, based on recent visits.

The big establishment occupies a pristine piece of lakefront in Stoney Creek, a minute from the QEW but a world away in terms of calm.

The big main dining area, the Morris Room, has a soaring ceiling, plenty of deep windows letting the light gush in and a stone and brick wall with faux balconies.

With rich, patterned carpet, avocado walls and gleaming tableware, it's very kind on the eyes.

For a first foray, though, I lurked on the perimeter of the operation, parked at the adjacent bar to enjoy a couple of appetizers and pick up on staff byplay as servers hustled back and forth.

The seafood and salad openers were very nice, the tone and urgency of staff showing a strong straining for excellence.

And the P.E.I. mussels, even at $14, were good value with 24 of the medium shells bearing fat and moist morsels.

They were steamed in a red Thai curry and pesto cream sauce and came with a large basket of warm and fresh baguettes with house-made hummus and butter.

When I'd mowed through the mussels, the beautiful bread sopped up the spicy broth and bits of red pepper and onion remaining.

I alternated these tastes with the garden patch salad ($7), an estimable chorus of sweet and bitter greens.

They were tossed with roasted red peppers, croutons and walnuts in champagne vinaigrette. A crowning touch was crumbled feta cheese. Again, good value.

The appetizers were served promptly and less formally than in the dining room, but still with a certain decorum.

On a second visit, Edgewater's polish was on parade, even at lunch, with waistcoated servers in the main dining room.

And the service was ultraquick, the soup of the day trucked out before I'd fully sampled the two wonderful breads provided -- an olive loaf and slices of french bread.

The seasonal vegetable soup was a silky treat, a rich and lightly spiced puree of butternut squash and carrot.

The provimi veal main ($17) came on the soup's heels, two thick noisettes of provimi veal strip loin draped over crisp vegetables. The medley of red and yellow peppers, sugar snap peas, broccoli, carrot and asparagus was fresh and perfectly done.

Those elements and the juicy, lean, pan-seared meat were heightened by a glaze of caramelized onion, smoked bacon and balsamic vinegar -- with a garnish of purple basil from the restaurant's herb garden.

You can debate what really constitutes fine dining, but the Edgewater experience was surely fine in all regards.

jkernaghan@thespec.com 905-526-3422