Local cuisine goes haute, haute, haute

In 1988, the first year that Zagat Survey published a guide to Boston-area restaurants, only five listed were located in the towns just west of Boston.

In the 2005-2006 edition, there are 48, with several grabbing top rankings for food quality, popularity, and value.

Of the Boston Top 40 in food quality, Oishii Sushi in Sudbury made the guide's ''extraordinary to perfection" ranking for the second time in a row, alongside venerable city spots such as L'Espalier in the Back Bay and Aujourd'hui at the Four Seasons Hotel.

''Nobody every thought a little town like Sudbury would be producing a place of this caliber," said Tim Zagat, founder of the New York-based guides. ''But we're seeing this in a number of suburban areas nationwide" -- Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, and Silicon Valley -- ''places with high-end residential real estate located within an hour's drive of an urban area."

More established eateries including Blue Ginger of Wellesley and Il Capriccio of Waltham were ranked slightly lower in food quality by diners who submitted reviews for the guide, but still kept pace with nationally renowned Hamersly's Bistro in the South End and celebrity chef Jody Adams's Rialto at the Charles Hotel in Cambridge.

Lumière, a modern French bistro in West Newton, and Oga, an understated Japanese restaurant in Natick, also made the top echelon -- one Zagat reviewer commented that the offerings at the Route 9 sushi house ''would make living in the suburbs OK."

As chef/owners continue to flock from an overcrowded city food scene to the suburbs, they are fashioning a distinct style of fine dining -- contemporary and pricey (although often not as steep as their city counterparts) with an emphasis on warm, welcoming service and personal attention.

''Not having the anorexic ice princesses with the attitude at the front door is important," said Roberta Hershon of Blue Plate Communications, which handles publicity for Lumière, opened in 1999, and the soon-to-open Mediterranean bistro Chiara in Westwood.

''It's also about having comfortable and beautiful decor that doesn't feel like 'I'm walking in here and forced to drop a week's salary,' " she said.

The current Zagat ranks Maxwell's 148 in Natick, which specializes in ''Mediterasian" cuisine, alongside Barbara Lynch's exclusive Beacon Hill eatery No. 9 Park in the Top 40 rankings for ''outstanding service." The prestigious listing was a thrill but not a fluke, said co-owner Randy Nason.

Maxwell's servers undergo three weeks of training on listening, talking, and etiquette, said Nason. ''There's a huge emphasis on listening. We fawn over the customer. We want to bring back the day and age of white tablecloth service. All the attention is on detail. We want to steer the customer through a beautiful evening," he said.

That philosophy draws some inspiration from Nason's former job as manager at the uber-trendy Emporio Armani cafe on Newbury Street.

There, the primarily European diners were demanding and unforgiving, their expectations far beyond those of Americans, Nason said.

''Our guests there wanted to be remembered by name and treated well," he said. ''They were there to be taken care of and wanted us to remember they love their Bombay Sapphire martini with a twist." At Maxwell's, the bartender mixes customized drinks and personally delivers them to diners, said Nason.

Maxwell's clientele is at least 25 percent repeat customers, and the restaurant takes the unusual step of keeping a database of customer preferences, including allergies, food likes and dislikes, and ''anything else they want to tell us," he said.

Nason said he keeps an eye on his diners. If they don't seem to be enjoying a dish, he'll offer to bring out another.

The Natick location seems to take some of the tension and edge off the fine-dining experience -- in a good way. ''In Boston, there are so many choices and people roaming in and out," he said. ''Here, people take the time to talk to us about their experience."

Mood is an important factor in suburban fine dining, and locals tend to like places where they won't feel underdressed or out of place. ''Here, it's as elegant or relaxed as you want it to be; in the city, it's generally one or the other," said Jeff Kaye, chef/owner of Fava in Needham.

And, Kaye said, suburban diners have an appetite for more than just prestige, so portions tend to be larger. ''People out here like to have a little something to take home after dinner," he said.

Karl ''Chip" Case, a Wellesley College economics professor, has watched as suburbanites over the last decade have shed a long-held preference to go downtown for serious dining.

In Wellesley, for example, Ming Tsai gave people a reason to stay home in 1998, when the nationally known chef and host of ''East Meets West" on the Food Network, opened Blue Ginger, which is still considered one of the top Asian fusion restaurants in the nation.

Wellesley's village-style shopping areas, on-street parking, and wealthy demographic attracted a slew of followers. Among them were Boston chef/owners such as Olives co-owner Todd English, who already had successful city establishments and wanted to create suburban spinoffs, such as Figs. More recently, C.K. Sau,owner of New Shanghai, left Boston to open CK Shanghai, in Lower Falls, in March.

''Downtown Wellesley has become a destination for people," said Case. ''When you have Ming Tsai and Todd English moving a block away from each other within a short amount of time, someone is doing their homework."

Sau, who sold his Chinatown eatery to move to Wellesley, said he noticed that suburban diners have far more questions and opinions on Chinese cuisine than the local and tourist crowds in the city.

''In Chinatown, they just want to eat," said Sau, laughing. Also, diners arrive for lunch and dinner at traditional and fixed hours in Wellesley, while New Shanghai was frequented by hungry customers at all hours, he said

Aquitaine Bis in the Chestnut Hill Mall and Fugakyu in Sudbury are also top-ranked by Zagat and nationally known suburban outposts of popular city restaurants.

Over the past decade, chef/owners have also struggled with unprecedented real estate growth. Rents for prime city restaurant space currently average $75 to $80 per square foot, versus $35 to $50 for a suburban space, said restaurant consultant Michael Staub. The idea of ''bringing quality food to people where they live, not where they work" has also taken off nationwide, he said.

There might be even more suburban contenders if it weren't for some downsides to locating outside the city, chef/owners say. The extra effort to get ingredients from Boston, a smaller pool of available cooks and wait staff for hire with fine-dining experience, and no steady lunch business are troublesome for some eateries.

Suburban customers are also less likely to splurge. Most are spending their own money, unlike city business tourists with expense accounts.

Also, the word-of mouth buzz that keeps seats filled and can make a new restaurant is noticeably slower in the suburbs, a problem for fledgling eateries without much of an advertising budget.

''Metrowest is a hard place to do fine dining," said Maxwell's Nason. ''All the city restaurants get the constant [media] attention and everyone knows about them. Even two years after we opened, there are still people from Wellesley who don't know about us."

But the upside -- a chance to make a mark in what is still viewed as a relatively open playing field -- inspired Newton native Frank Santonastaso to strike out from his comfortable perch as head chef at Lucca in the North End.

Three months ago, he opened vela (which means ''sail" in Italian) in Wellesley, the town's first high-end Italian restaurant. As the new kid on the block, the 31-year-old chef/owner is working feverishly to prove himself.

Several times a week at 8:30 a.m., he stands ankle-deep in melting ice, examining sushi-grade bluefin tuna at Stavis Seafood warehouse in South Boston, one of the city's biggest fish suppliers.

During one recent visit he scrutinized a gorgeous, crimson slab fresh from Gloucester.

He said he likes the hands-on feeling of inspecting each piece that he'll cook. Someday he may send someone else to do this, as most head chefs do, but right now the food is just too personal, and each customer too precious.

The fish goes into a cooler of ice packed in the trunk of his red Jetta. He'll shoot out to Wellesley on the Pike to get the fish into the restaurant's fridge, where the tuna will later be kalamata-crusted and served with a side of whipped cauliflower, his most popular dish.

The allure of the city still tugs at Santonastaso. In five years, he hopes to maintain a thriving 100-seat vela in Wellesley and expand eastward.

''I want to go into the city with it," he said. ''By the time I'm ready, there will be room in there again."

Erica Noonan can be reached at enoonan@globe.com.