A good rule of thumb: Avoid restaurants where the main draw is anything but the food. The food generally ends up overpriced and underwhelming. A rotating view of the city? A $14 hamburger. Singing cowboys? Iceberg and mass-produced ranch dressing. Indoor jousting? Dried-out turkey legs.

So when Legends Golf Pub & Grill opened this spring, boasting virtual golf driving ranges, an outdoor putting green and a pro shop with lessons, I was expecting template food-service, freezer-to-fryer fare usually found in sports bars — wings, poppers, cheese sticks, that kind of thing. And Legends definitely has wings and poppers.

But it also has unexpected scores like a wonderfully chunky and fresh guacamole spiked with lime zest, or a colorful pizza with a thin, handmade crust and loaded with grilled chicken, baby spinach, Kalamata olives and artichoke hearts.

Legends has some whiffs too, but, in total, the score card is well under par. (For nongolfers: That’s a good thing.)

On entering, Legends certainly looks like it’s going to be done in by gimmicks. The whole thing is golf, from the wall-size homage to the St. Andrews Links near the entrance, to the head-to-toe golf garb on the servers. Two virtual driving ranges stand near the bar, waiting for golfers to hack away at a laser-tracked screen.

Almost everything on the menu, such as the “Divot” blue cheese burger and the “Ace” ahi tuna tacos, has a “pointless” golf prefix. Still, the folks in the kitchen stay out of the rough. (Two can play at this golf punning.)

An order of fresh “Amazing” salsa, guacamole and “house made lime zested tortilla chips” ($6) came with guacamole that tasted like it was made just seconds before. It was chunky and buttery and fresh, with the zip of a little lime juice, a little salt, a flurry of cilantro and not much else. It was good enough to eclipse the impression that the salsa was more “canned tomato juice” than “amazing,” and that the house-made chips tasted like store-bought ones. (A departure from the menu, but a good one — usually store-bought chips end up thinner, crisper and just plain better than restaurant attempts.)

The “Over the Top” Angus Sliders ($8) are an indulgent treat. Three hand-formed patties made from angus ground in-house, mixed with garlic, pepper and other spices, come under sweet unions sautéed in a bourbon sauce, perched on tiny, buttered buns in a nest of fries.

Part-owner Jeff Carpenter says the menu is a greatest hits of family recipes and dishes swiped from other country clubs he has worked at in Florida and the Midwest.

“We try to make it as fresh as possible,” he said. “I think you can taste the difference.”

The “Fairway” Philly Dip ($9), far from being a standard pub cheesesteak, came mounded with moist, flavorful braised prime rib on a chewy, toasted roll and bedecked in a golfer’s plaid of red, yellow and green peppers with slivers of grilled onion and tiny, fresh mushrooms. It wasn’t too oily. It wasn’t too salty. And most important, it wasn’t too miserly with the meat.

Just as generous is the “Dogleg” Pork Tenderloin sandwich ($8), a breaded pork cutlet the size of a golf cap, hanging off all sides of a humble bun. It is crisp, moist and tender, with tart pickles and very good homemade potato chips on the side.

Diners also have the choice of shoestring fries or Onion Chips — basically a quarter of an onion ring — as a side. The fries are freshly cut, and when they are good they sing with real potato flavor. But just as often they are limp and oily.

The Onion Chips are heavily breaded but cooked through so diners never have to have a tooth tug of war with the onion.

Salads here are standard and beside the point. But pizzas ($8.25-$19) go well beyond expectations. Both dough and sauce are made from scratch and piled with unexpected toppings like spicy Capicola, Gouda, Kalamata olives and grilled chicken. The pizzas are baked on a stone dusted with sea salt until the thin crust is crisp but not dry — pleasantly chewy. The cheese is lightly browned and the toppings are not overdone. These pizzas are good enough to take out if you live in the neighborhood.

Service sometimes hooks toward being too cutesy or slices toward neglect. Drinks go unfilled, checks sometimes are slow to arrive. But there is enough promise in Legends that some of the lousy shots deserve a do-over — a mulligan in golf parlance. It won’t take much to get right down the fairway.

Over the top Angus Slider Photo by Photo by: Mark Reis/The Gazette