When you have one of the only oceanfront restaurants in town, with spectacular views of Tillamook Head, Seaside’s famous Turnaround (with a bronze sculpture of Lewis and Clark) and the always lively Prom, you could serve mediocre food and people would still come.

But that is not the case at the Shilo Restaurant and Lounge, where Executive Chef Scott Maddox has designed creative menus for breakfast, lunch and dinner, all featuring the region’s freshest local products.

For early risers, breakfast starts at 7 a.m. with traditional favorites and griddle specialties such as Belgian waffles, French toast and biscuits and gravy. Breakfast combinations include the Coast Skillet, made with eggs scrambled with bay shrimp, potatoes and Tillamook cheddar cheese, and huevos rancheros. Shilo omelets include a Dungeness crab and Tillamook cheddar omelet and a Florentino omelet with Gruyere cheese, spinach, tomatoes and red onion. Top off breakfast with a jumbo cinnamon roll or a bowl of seasonal fruit.

The lunch menu features a nice array of soups and salads, including a classic New England clam chowder and a delicious French onion soup topped with melted Gruyere and crostini. The Columbia salad, made with romaine lettuce, is tossed with buttermilk garlic dressing and topped with roasted pumpkin seeds, caramelized onions, roasted red peppers and Oregon goat cheese. A juicy spring salad is filled with ruby red grapefruit, strawberries, oranges, onions, avocado and fried won tons, all tossed with pomegranate vinaigrette. This is not your average hotel food.

A recent dinner with friends started with calamari frits and fried asparagus. Both were delicious. The calamari, served with lemon garlic aioli and cilantro lime cocktail sauce, was crisp and sweet. Battered, deep-fried asparagus (served upright in a unique metal basket with sauce cups attached on each side) was served with the same lemon aioli and a chipotle-chili dipping sauce.

Caesar salad, made with whole baby romaine leaves and crisp croutons, was delicately seasoned with a lemony dressing and topped with grated Parmesan cheese. I did not detect any anchovies, which make up the classic Caesar dressing, but I applaud the Shilo for serving a traditional whole-leaf salad.

One of my dining companions ordered Dungeness crab and artichoke ravioli made with ricotta cheese, basil and caramelized garlic, tossed in a spicy tomato cream sauce. Unfortunately, he liked it so much that he didn’t save me a bite. Judging from the last remaining bit of sauce, it was very tasty.

As seagulls gather on the beach near the Turnaround to wrestle over bread, lunchgoers sit down to oceanfront views inside the Shilo Restaurant and Lounge.Another friend ordered flat top jumbo scallops, which were lightly caramelized and brushed with a lemon-herb pesto. Big, sweet and succulent, they came with a grilled polenta cake flecked with flavorful herbs and red pepper. Fresh vegetables on the side, which included sweet baby carrots and broccoli, were expertly cooked and seasoned. My entrée, the Shilo pepper seared ribeye steak, was perfectly cooked (medium rare). Thick, sizzling hot and rubbed with a special mix of peppercorns, it was outstanding. The steak was served with roasted-garlic horseradish sauce and Yukon gold smashed potatoes flavored with garlic and herbs. A bottle of Oregon’s Cooper Hill Pinot Noir, with notes of spice and berries, matched beautifully with all three dishes.

In addition to the dishes mentioned above, the Shilo’s dinner menu includes a wide variety of seafood, including citrus balsamic glazed salmon, pan roasted oysters and halibut fish and chips, among others. Crispy chicken mole and citron chicken, infused with grapefruit, orange, garlic and olive, both sound enticing, as do an assortment of pasta dishes and more foods from the grill.

For dessert, we sampled the house crème brûlée – a luscious, perfectly made vanilla custard with a crisp brown sugar topping – and a rich, moist chocolate layer cake layered with chocolate frosting and served with a pool of raspberry sauce.

The Shilo’s upcoming Valentine Menu will feature a special Valentine cocktail made with Absolut vodka, crème de cacao and Chambord liqueur, an appetizer of three oyster shooters (a classic aphrodisiac) and a choice of entrees, including prime rib with Dungeness crab legs, and seared ahi tuna crusted with sesame seeds.

For history buffs, this property has an interesting past, some of which is documented with photographs in the restaurant’s entryway. Originally, this was the site of Seaside’s first seashore resort, the Grimes Hotel (built in 1888). It later became the Hotel Moore, the Seasider Hotel (in 1922) and the Seaside Motor Inn, and now is the present Shilo Inn Suites Hotel. The Oates Natatorium, built in 1914, where visitors came to swim, skate and play, known as “The Turnaround Building,” was located right next door at the now famous Seaside Turnaround. The Prom, a 1.5-mile walkway, was once a wooden boardwalk that led to Pacific Pier, a long, stretching wooden ocean pier that was maintained from 1904 to 1914.