MASSENA — Downtown Steak & Seafood in downtown Massena's Quality Inn has been replaced by a restaurant called Tommy's.

An ad for Tommy's in a local restaurant guide says, "Jazzy blues lounge, Casual fine dining, Live piano dinner music nightly."

Tommy's opened about two months ago. The owner, Tom Williams, also runs Amigos, a Mexican restaurant that's been in Massena for quite some time.

Tommy's really doesn't look much different from Downtown Steak & Seafood. The "jazzy blues lounge" has a few Quick Draw TVs, some old clarinets stuck on the wall and overhead lights that were so bright, a customer asked the bartender if she would turn them down.

There was dinner music being played on an electronic piano in the dining room just over the half wall. I'd rather have some Miles or Bird or Trane being played over the sound system, personally.

I got to look over the menu before the rest of the WDT Reviewing Team arrived.

It's a big menu, physically— poster-sized, I'd say. But if you took all the writing on it and reduced the font, it would probably fit on a large index card.

There are 10 pretty plain appetizers, a couple of steaks, three seafood dishes, two each of chicken and pasta entrées and two risotto creations, plus a kids menu, and that's about it.

I asked the bartender how the jumbo gulf shrimp on the menu were prepared.

"I'm not sure ... I think fried or broiled."

I asked her if they were in some kind of sauce, thinking of shrimp scampi.

"Probably tartar sauce or cocktail sauce."

A waitress overheard the conversation and said she'd go to the kitchen and find out. She returned and told us they're broiled in butter and wine, "but not too much wine, just a little wine."

As it turned out, she was our waitress, and did a decent job — except we asked if the coconut shrimp appetizer ($6.75) was made there (as opposed to the prefab ones that go directly from the freezer to the fryer and onto your plate). She said they were made there and "are a huge seller."

Well, maybe. But we sure thought they were prefab. They were squashed down really flat and had little tails sticking out of them and what looked like golden-fried coconut tasted like that same old fried-food batter.

They were served with piña colada sauce, which sounded interesting, but was really just a side of sicky-sweet coconut milk.

The portobello mushrooms Parmesan ($6.99) were OK, sautéed in olive oil, sliced and sprinkled with Parmesan. Presentation was not thrilling.

Steamed clams ($9.99) were good, sweet little neck-sized clams simply and perfectly steamed, served with drawn butter.

All dinners are served with unlimited salad bar, which is located in a separate room. It was impressive in size but lacked in content: unexciting choices like cottage cheese, canned peaches and iceberg lettuce with basic salad dressings.

The house balsamic was quite good, and blue cheese crumbles were right there in a big container with no additional price tag. We also enjoyed a cold rigatoni pasta with a dark gravy-like sauce. Cole slaw was good, too.

Here's the weirdest thing. We returned from the salad bar to find our table completely cleared. Completely. Silverware gone, glasses gone, napkins gone.

After waiting what seemed like five minutes for someone to notice, we went to the hostess who had inadvertently cleared the table and asked her for silverware. The rigatoni and cole slaw were definitely not finger food.

That crisis behind us, out came dinner. While we were still eating our salads.

For some reason, you don't see a T-bone steak in restaurants much anymore. Tommy's T-bone ($19.99) was great, full of flavor and grilled with a splash of what we thought might have been A-1 steak sauce. It was served with previously frozen vegetables and angel hair pasta with a tasty marinara sauce.

The other steak choice is Delmonico. Eight-ounce portions are $13.99 and 10-ouncers $15.99.

Besides the elusive shrimp entrée, you can get haddock baked or fried ($13.99) or what sounded a little creative, a seafood sauté ($17.99): haddock, shrimp and scallops in a creamy red pepper pesto sauce, served over linguini.

It was very tasty. Small bits of red pepper gave it a colorful confetti-ish look. However, the consistency of the sauce was more gelatinous than creamy. The seafood was cooked nicely except for the haddock, which was mushy.

Another dish you don't often see in restaurants is risotto, a delectably creamy Italian rice dish, perhaps because it's a little labor-intensive to do right. It's usually flavored with fish or vegetables during the cooking process.

I got the wild mushroom risotto with chicken ($12.95). The risotto wasn't creamy, the mushrooms were dried and reconstituted, and the chicken was grilled, sliced and thrown on top of the mound of risotto. All wrong.

I doubt the garden vegetable risotto with shrimp ($13.95) would have been much better.

We had to pass up the chicken Marsala ($14.99) and the chicken parm ($13.99).

Desserts were excellent, made in-house and priced at $3.95 each.

Apple Washington was a Bundt cake, very moist with apples and caramel sauce. It was also a little crisp, adding an interesting texture.

The cheesecake was true New York-style, tall with perfect texture and flavor and a thick, buttery graham cracker crust. Our waitress said there were different toppings, but she never asked us what we wanted and brought it with cherries.

Tommy's truffle is for chocolate lovers, for sure. It was also a moist Bundt cake, with raspberries and chocolate chunks, drizzled with chocolate sauce. It was so chocolatey, the raspberry flavor was all but smothered. Raspberries on the side were still frozen.

Dinner for three came to $94 including tax but before gratuity.

The tables are dressed in full linen, and the waitresses wear starched tux shirts with red bow ties. But the food is just a two dressed up as a nine, as the saying goes.

Tommy's is new, so we have to cut it some slack. The restaurant needs a little work if it's attempting to attract a repeat upscale crowd. I guess we were expecting a little more from an owner who's been in the restaurant business in Massena for close to a decade.

TIDBITS

Massena's own Conrad Story Blues Band will be performing live at Tommy's Saturday evening. If you haven't heard them, here's a good chance.

You can contact Walter E. Siebel via e-mail: wsiebel@wdt.net.

Tommy's

Located in the Quality Inn

10 W. Orvis St.

Massena

764-1122

A new restaurant in the former Downtown Steak & Seafood location serving a compact menu with steak, seafood, chicken and risotto.

HOURS: 11:30 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. Monday through Friday

4:00 to 9 p.m. Saturday

Lounge open later

Rating: 2 1/2 forks