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In any town, but especially Naples, there is room for a restaurant that sells perfectly prepared classics. Chardonnay Nouveau is that place.

The kitchen won’t wow you with molecular cooking or outrageous ingredients. But it doesn’t need to.

This is the food you’d imagine Sinatra eating. It’s steaks and chops and flaky white fish covered in buttery sauces. It’s crème brûlée and chocolate souffle, wedge salads and pâte.

And all of it is done at the highest level of execution.

So while it is a bit disappointing to see yet another Naples restaurant that doesn’t step outside of the familiar (outside of what the chef puts on his daily flatbread pizza appetizer), it’s refreshing to see a continental menu where the food lives up to expectations.

Jon: One thing that is immediately clear when you sit down to dinner at Chardonnay Nouveau is the age of the other patrons. We are in our late 20s, and were the youngest people in the dining room by 35 years. At least.

This is a shame. Because while the more modern-looking restaurants elsewhere in town are drawing the younger crowds, few serve better food.

Jenna: From my first spoonful of the French onion soup ($7) to the last bite of my chocolate souffle ($12, needs to be ordered at the beginning of the meal), Chardonnay didn’t disappoint.

The flavors were bold where they needed to be — the soup’s impossibly beefy broth and the New York strip steak au poivre’s ($39) potent green-peppercorn sauce. But nothing was out of balance.

Jon: It’s one thing to use powerful flavors. It’s another to use them judiciously. The kitchen at Chardonnay knows how to do both.

The one time the kitchen might have gone a little overboard was with the white anchovies on the flatbread pizza ($12). But you can’t blame them for shaking things a bit.

Jenna: There were plenty of occasions where the chef used subtlety as deftly as he used boldness. The Dover sole ($38 at the time of review, but $40 on a more recent visit), was topped with a Meunier preparation, a rich but delicate butter sauce perfect for the tender fish.

The lobster ravioli ($10 for an appetizer portion, $23 for an entree), with its amazingly fresh pasta, was almost too tender, falling apart with the lightest touch of your fork.

Even subtler still was the use of banana puree as a thickening and sweetening agent in the soy-ginger dipping sauce, one of three that accompanied the calamari appetizer ($10). Its contribution was almost imperceptible (we might never have noticed it if the manager hadn’t mentioned it to us), but it adds a great depth of flavor.

Jon: Most of the preparation was to the letter what Escoffier and his contemporaries would have cooked. But there were little extra touches that, for the most part, paid off well in the food. A black sesame-crusted strip of bacon added to mashed potatoes was a salty and nutty counterpoint to the creamy side.

Black sesame seeds came up again in a rice side that unfortunately had a bit too much sun-dried tomato.

Jenna: As with the rest of the meal, the desserts were appropriately elegant. From the gooey souffle to the crème brûlée ($8.50) the desserts were, again, classic and perfectly executed.

THE VERDICT

Jenna: If you are looking for a place to take out-of-town visitors or business clients, this is the place to go. The food is outstanding and elegant, certain to impress.

Jon: A three-course meal, with no alcohol, cost us $125, which isn’t cheap. But the amazing food justified the expense. And if you want to try the food without breaking the bank, do what we did on another visit: We had a meal of three appetizers, a salad and a dessert for $45.

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Dinner Date: Chardonnay Nouveau

2329 US 41 North, Naples, 659-6481, www.chardonnaynouveau.com

Hours: 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday

Cuisine: Continental

Service: Efficient and helpful. Our servers were uniformly accommodating and quick.

Atmosphere: Elegant and old, as in the dining area is elegant and the clientele is old.

Noise and light levels: Quiet and bright. The new regime has brightened up the place extensively.

Prices: Soups, salads and appetizers $6 to $13; entrees $18 to $40, desserts $8 to $14

Value: Good. With most entrees priced $30 and up, it’s pricey, but the food you get is top of the line.

Recommended dishes: Flatbread pizza ($12), calamari ($10), French onion soup ($7), New York strip au poivre ($39), Dover sole ($40), chocolate souffle ($12), crème brûlée ($8.50)

Verdict: Chardonnay doesn’t do anything new, but the ingredients, the preparations and the service all are spectacular. This is the restaurant you take your in-laws to when you want to impress them with your classic tastes.