Cuban food is simple and soulful--the antithesis of most restaurant
cooking. The places that do it best don't try to pretty up their plates
or embroider them with detail to try to woo an upscale audience.
This newcomer is a mom-and-pop that knows how to translate home cooking
into a restaurant setting. It's pretty--a narrow slip of a place with
red walls and handsomely framed pictures of antique cars--and the
food comes to the table on sleek plates. But the embellishments end
there. The food is so unfussy and so lovably homely that it could
have come straight from a mother's kitchen.
All the expected dishes are here, all treated with care--even the
rice, well-slicked and fluffy, has been lavished with attention. Ham
croquettes are addictive, two-bite poppers, a crisp armor of fry concealing
a hammy, creamy interior. Beef empanadas boast a wonderfully flaky
pastry crust.
Ropa vieja--shredded beef laced with stewed peppers and onions--is
first-rate, the beef properly stringy but more yielding than most.
A plate of masitas boasts thick hunks of pork marinated six hours
in a sour-orange juice, then deep fried; the outsides are brown and
crisp, the insides succulent. Picadillo, the popular beef hash that's
often a catchall for the kitchen's leftovers (and often tastes like
it), is given its due; the kitchen doesn't stint on the raisins, olives,
or white wine. There are also wonderful plantains, sticky-sweet without
being greasy, good black beans--soupy, lightly garlicky, and not mushy--and
a Cubano sandwich that won't make anyone long for Miami.
A square of tres leches cake is irresistible, as creamy as any we've
had.
Appetizers $2 to $7, entrées $8 to $15.
Open Tuesday through Friday for lunch, Tuesday through Sunday for
dinner.
