HOGANSBURG — When's the last time you called a restaurant to make a reservation and they asked "smoking or nonsmoking?"

That's what happened when we called 37 West Steakhouse & Lounge, located on the Akwesasne Mohawk Indian Reservation 12 miles east of Massena. This new restaurant on "the res" opened in mid-August, under the proprietorship of veteran restaurateur Amadeo "DeDe" Cappione of Massena.

First impressions mean a lot. Since it doesn't have a Web site, we asked the person on the phone if she could fax a menu to us. When that didn't happen overnight, we called the next day. Another phone person said she'd try, but that didn't happen either.

But her directions were right on: "It's a huge place with a huge sign — you can't miss it." And there it was, all 4,400 square feet of it.

The swanky reception area just inside set the tone. The smoking dining area is directly to the right with two of the biggest smoke eaters I've every seen bolted to the ceiling.

The receptionist led us through a narrow dining area to the nonsmoking dining room. It's got a steakhouse look, with some red leather-looking booths, quite a few four-tops with Tiffany lamps lining the walls, and tables with sturdy wooden chairs in the middle.

Acoustically, the room's a little loud. Frank Sinatra was crooning over the sound system, bouncing off the tile floor. Not him. His voice. When waitresses moved the heavy chairs to accommodate a party of eight, it almost drowned out our conversation at the table.

The menu is huge, too, a multipaged faux leather binder that you need a few minutes to take in. It being a steakhouse, we expected steaks to be toward the front of the menu. But they followed appetizers, salads & pasta, low-carb, chicken, pork, burgers & specialty sandwiches and seafood. After steaks were combo plates, Mexican dishes and a kids' menu.

We started with a bottle of champagne. They were out of our first choice. "Sold four bottles last night," boasted our waitress. Our second choice arrived. She popped the cork, letting it bounce off the ceiling. Never saw that act before.

Then she began to serve our champagne in goblet-like wine glasses. Whoa — no champagne flutes? "They've been on back order since we opened," she said.

The champagne wasn't really cold enough, so we asked for a wine bucket rather than the metal wine chiller she put it in. She said they didn't have wine buckets, but offered to keep changing the chiller, which we appreciated.

We were impressed with the appetizers, which were all nicely decorated and served on classy square Syracuse china plates.

The calamari ($6.95) was lightly breaded in house, deep-fried and served with a zesty marinara. Our plateful was mostly tentacles, which we liked.

Shrimp cocktail ($8.95) consisted five quite large, slightly watery shrimp. They were nicely displayed, hanging from an off-centered highball glass filled with ice. A just-hot-enough cocktail sauce accompanied.

Baked French onion soup ($4.95) was a winner, the traditional crock chock full of caramelized onions in a rich, dark broth, topped with baked croutons and provolone melted to a golden brown.

We weren't knocked out by the stuffed mushrooms ($7.95). The "special crabmeat stuffing" tasted more like bread than crabmeat.

Right about now we were hoping our waitress would have refilled our water glasses (we even put two empty ones at the edge of the table) without our asking. She took the time to change the chiller twice, but never offered to pour additional champagne.

We enjoyed the basket of warm, crusty bread as well as the salads and soups that came with the meal. Salads were a nice mix of fresh field greens with a little romaine, a bit of red onion and grape tomatoes. Blue cheese crumbles looked and tasted a little old. Soup of the day was chili. Not chili soup — chili. It was quite tasty, but we thought it a little strange for a warm day in September.

For steaks, the menu says they serve "choice or higher" grade. Supermarkets sell select. Most steakhouses serve prime. Choice would be between select and prime.

Low-carb "filet of greens" ($24.95) was a beautiful 8-ounce peppercorn-encrusted filet mignon, grilled to a perfect medium-rare, sliced and served over the same mix of greens that came with the house salad.

The prime rib lover at the table thought 37 West's was "cut-it-with-a-fork, melt-in your-mouth-good." He got the largest of three cuts, the 14-ouncer ($21.95). And the kitchen accommodated his request for a side of linguini with butter. He was in heaven.

I almost got chicken Marsala, but figured I could get that anywhere, so I tried "Alice Springs chicken" ($14.95). This was a heart attack on a plate: two grilled breasts topped with buttery sautéed mushrooms, bacon and melted provolone. Per the menu description, honey mustard was added somewhere along the line, giving it a curious sweetness. I'm not a fan of honey mustard, but if you are, you'll probably love it.

Seafood crusted salmon ($16.95) was a nice preparation, fresh Atlantic salmon topped with what appeared to be the same crabmeat mixture used in the stuffed mushrooms. It was finished with a drizzle of distinctive tarragon cream sauce.

Sides were all fine: penne with a cooked-down brown-sugary red sauce, mashed potatoes that we were pretty sure were real, and a delightful veggie sauté of snap peas, sweet red pepper, baby asparagus, and — we've never seen this before — chunks of fresh mango. Kudos to the chef on the veg medley.

We appreciated our server's honesty, telling us that the desserts were not made on the premises, but were of the "signature" variety. It didn't matter — they were all good, priced at $4.25 each.

"Five high" chocolate cake — five moist layers with a rich chocolate frosting — might have been outdone by the "four high" carrot cake, spicy cake studded with raisins, walnuts and pineapple with creamy cream cheese frosting on top.

Chocolate chip cake was quite unusual, topped with what might have been real whipped cream or a real good imitation. The same cream was attractively piped around the classic New York cheesecake, as well as previously frozen strawberries, jazzed up with squiggly lines of strawberry syrup.

Our dining experience came to $124 before tip and without adding in our champagne and wine. We ordered a bottle of red wine with our dinner. They had "just sold out" of our favorite zinfandel, so we enjoyed a Kendall Jackson Cabernet instead. The house pour is Yellowtail from Australia, a very drinkable wine that has gained enormous popularity in the United States in recent years.

Several waitresses worked on our table. When they delivered our food, none of them seemed to know who got what, a definite minus. On the plus side, they were all dressed in smart black outfits, and our primary waitress knew the menu quite well.

Even though it's a smoking facility, we didn't smell a bit of smoke from the dining next to the reception area. A faint odor of smoke occasionally came from the oversized lounge just past our dining room when the door opened.

With the casino two miles down the road, we expected to see stretch limos pulling up with guys wearing gold jewelry and smoking Cuban cigars. However, the dining room guests appeared to be local residents, many of them with their families.

The menu is sizable and generally not too adventurous. Out-of-the-ordinary entrées we'd try next time would be teriyaki salmon and broccoli pork tenderloin wrapped with Applewood smoked bacon, Thai chili pork chops, Mexican paella, and, just to say we did, the 37-ounce flame-grilled prime rib topped with mushrooms and 37 West steak sauce for $44.95.

37 West may not have hit its full stride yet, but has lots of possibilities. It will be interesting to see how it evolves in the coming months.

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

37 West Steakhouse & Lounge

516 Route 37 (2 miles from Akwesasne Mohawk casino)

Hogansburg

1 (518) 358-6100

A new steakhouse on the reservation with above-average steaks and an extensive menu that includes appetizers, salads and pasta, low-carb entrées, chicken, pork, burgers and specialty sandwiches, seafood, combo plates, Mexican dishes, a kids' menu and, of course, steaks

HOURS: Lunch 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday through Friday

Dinner 3 to 9:30 p.m. seven days a week

Rating: 3 and one-half forks