enlarge John Patriquin/Staff Photographer

Server Kaili Thorp presents a bottle of wine for dinner at the rustic Migis Lodge, overlooking Sebago Lake in Casco.

HOW IT RATES

MIGIS LODGE, off Route 302, South Casco. 655-4524; www.migis.com

RATING: ***

HOURS: Daily for dinner 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. from early June to Columbus Day.

CREDIT CARDS: Not accepted. Cash or checks only.

PRICE RANGE: $40 fixed-price, five-course meal

VEGETARIAN DISHES: Yes

KIDS: Yes, and children ages 5 and under dine in the family dining room.

RESERVATIONS: Required if not an overnight guest.

BAR: Full

WHEELCHAIR ACCESS: No

BOTTOM LINE: Dining at Migis Lodge is like stepping into a novel about old families and traditions, but fortunately you can actually eat the up-to-date food and enjoy the good service.

Ratings based on a 5-star scale

SOUTH CASCO — Migis Lodge, a 125-acre resort with 35 immaculate cottages circling Sebago Lake, inhabits a gorgeous part in Maine.

As we left the dining room after a recent dinner and passed an always-burning fire in the "living room" fireplace, the evening light had turned the lake silver and silhouetted a distant, lone canoe and its occupant between tall pines.

That tranquility gives quality of place to this place of quality, adding a unique atmosphere to a meal that was good but not outstanding.

Men and boys are required to wear jackets at dinner, except during the lobster bake held every Friday night at the edge of the water. Women dress up too, and guests socialize at tables on the porch of the main lodge or at tables under the pine trees before dinner starts.

Almost all the folks eating dinner are guests of Migis Lodge. Depending on the season, they pay between $215 to $385, per person per day for three meals and luxurious accommodations that include daily wood and ice delivery and the use of boats and other facilities.

Of course, expectations for dinner, not to mention breakfast and lunch, are high for this crowd. For an outsider, $40 covers a five-course meal that can be enjoyed with an advance reservation (which will likely be unavailable if the resort is full).

Dinner plates feature a pine branch with a pine cone inside a green band, neither very elegant nor too casual. That aesthetic seemed to rule the atmosphere, keeping the food straightforward, the service casual but highly competent, and the evening all about low-key satisfaction.

Drink orders are taken by the "bartenders," who circulate in the dining room with cocktails, beer and wine.

Wines offered by the glass included what I was told was the house wine, Leese-Fitch Cabernet Sauvignon (all wines offered by the glass are $8), a California red from Don Sebastiani & Sons that was medium-bodied and packed with red fruit.

Alaia from Castilla y Leon in Spain features Prieto Picudo, an indigenous red grape, and Redcliffe Sauvignon Blanc from Marlborough, New Zealand, is a citrusy white that might be a good choice with lobster.

Wines sold by the bottle stand on two tables near the entrance of the dining room.

A "relish" tray preceded everything else, providing a snack of carrot and celery sticks, black olives, cottage cheese and gherkins. Other nights, it might hold pickled watermelon rind, other olives and corn relish, according to manager Scott Malm, who started working in the Migis dining room in 1988.

The changing menu started with a first course of grape juice, grilled jerk chicken with pineapple and cucumber salsa, roasted vegetable-stuffed mushrooms or pate with currant Dijon sauce.

The promise of crusty French bread with the pate was kept with soft white bread toasted to a crisp, but the quality of the bread rolls and not-so-French bread was poor.

The small slice of pate had the rough texture of its description as country-style, and it was excellent with the tangy mustard and currant sauce, a sliced gherkin and a strawberry. Two mushrooms filled with cheese in addition to bread crumbs, carrots and zucchini were modestly enjoyable.

Roasted corn and pepper soup had been thickened with flour and had a good mild taste, improved by a few twists of the table's tall pepper mill, a great feature in the dining room.

A salad of spotless baby greens ordered with hazelnut dressing kept hazelnuts unfortunately in the background, but its grated carrot, seeded cucumbers and cherry tomatoes were fine. Cumin took precedence in the dressing on a salad of greens and black beans, roasted peppers and cheese.

A trip to the chef's table for a freshly cut slice of juicy sirloin allowed my companion to load up on steamed, buttery asparagus and roasted small red potatoes that I thought could have been crustier. A reduction of red wine, shallot and rosemary...