It’s too early to proclaim the East Valley’s best new restaurant of 2007. After all, several highly anticipated eateries — such as Robert McGrath’s REM, Kevin Binkley’s Café Bink and Aaron May’s Leche — are still scheduled to open before year’s end.

Setting the bar awfully high, however, is Luc’s (pronounced “Luck’s”), an upscale Asian-French fusion restaurant that opened in August at el Pedregal marketplace in north Scottsdale.

Taking over a second-floor space formerly occupied by Shugrue’s, Luc’s owners Cliff Skoglund and Robert Hall have transformed it into a luxurious desert hideaway with stacked-stone walls and pillars, and hardwood floors.

Faux-weathered tables are accompanied by an odd assortment of seating: Most have a curved, two-person booth, a high-back chair and a low-back chair. Wine and champagne buckets are stationed everywhere.

Despite the upscale atmosphere, the restaurant is filled with diners whose attire best can be described as “resort casual,” which I guess even includes the 30-something guy at the next table wearing surf shorts and black flip-flops.

“Would you like to start off the evening with bottled water or Scottsdale water?” asks our server.

Yes, service is that formal, with tables cleared and meticulously re-set between courses. Throughout the evening, our server is extremely attentive and professional, yet somewhat cold. Asked several times for recommendations, she offers none.

But recommendations ultimately prove unnecessary: Everything we try on chef Eric DiStefano’s elegant menu is superb.

Like pan-fried ravioli filled with Wisconsin Gruyere cheese and leeks ($10). The appetizers are drizzled with a sweet corn sauce and topped with spinachlike Swiss chard.

And as a beet lover, I can’t pass up the honey-roasted yellow and red beets ($9), halved and decoratively stacked on edge in a blue cheese sauce. They come with micro greens, baby tomatoes and pine nuts wrapped in soy paper, much like sushi rolls.

Our entrees include an 8-ounce filet mignon with a roasted tomato Gorgonzola cap and red potato torte ($39) and King salmon topped with a flaky almond pastry and baby bok choy ($30).

The highlight, though, is the pork tenderloin ($24), tender medallions ringed with a gooey seven-spice coating made with white and black pepper, cumin, clove, cinnamon, cardamom and paprika. Accented with a hot mustard plum sauce, it’s the best-tasting dish I’ve had this year.

We finish with a dessert combo of roasted banana cream cake and a chocolate-ginger pot de crème ($10).

The only blemish on an otherwise excellent meal is a weakly braced floor that vibrates continuously as servers hustle back and forth. It almost feels like there’s a rock concert going on downstairs.

Still, if that’s the price I have to pay for another visit to Luc’s, I say: Rock on.

Luc’s
Where: 34505 N. Scottsdale Road, Scottsdale (in el Pedregal marketplace, just south of Carefree Highway)
Open: 4:30 p.m. (tapas bar) and 5:30 p.m. (dining room), with seating until 9:30 p.m. daily
Prices: Appetizers $9-$22, lobsters $30-$42, steaks $39-$49, chef selections $22-$34, desserts $10
Information: (480) 488-3811 or www.lucs.biz