West Caribbean Cuban

You can dress it up with mango or crown it with toasted coconut, but cuisine endemic to the Caribbean isles is, at its heart, tantamount to tropical soul food; meat stews, beans and rice, fried fish, pastries filled with spiced beef and potatoes or guava and cream cheese.

Such are the dishes featured at more and more restaurants here in Polk County, which has a burgeoning Hispanic and Latino population hailing from the West Indies.

Tacos and huevos rancheros are giving way to boliche, a pot roast redolent of garlic and often stuffed with chorizo or ham, and platanos maduros, those golden coins of caramelized, over-ripe plantains.

One of the newer eateries with an island theme to open in Lakeland is West Caribbean Cuban Restaurant at South Combee Road and Commerce Point Drive. It is a duplication of a Boca Raton restaurant founded 20 years ago by Rosabel and Juan Rodriguez.

They've since sold the original and their new restaurant, which opened in December, has a devoted following of diners attracted to the Rodriguezes' style, which is more fanciful than the average Cuban cafe.

West Caribbean is no mere sandwich stand, though it is more than capable of producing a classic, Cuban sandwich, pressed and piled high with lean, thinly sliced ham and roast pork, the sides oozing with melted Swiss cheese balanced by the piquancy of pickle and yellow mustard.

The dining room is a cool oasis of warm colors and earth-tone tile featuring a counter bar with brawny, sun-frazzled laborers downing $3 milk shakes made with passion fruit, or guava, and tables with office types sipping cafe con leche and nibbling on flaky, beef empanadas.

Brassy, Cuban music plays overhead, the volume conversation-friendly, and the ever-smiling servers are eager to please and attentive.

Entrees at West Caribbean are fairly ample and accompanied by a choice of two side dishes like starchy tostones, unripe plantains that are smashed and double-fried to a crisp, and savory congri, white rice turned black after cooking to the edge of dryness in a soupy pot of black beans.

Noon-time customers of the sedentary sort no doubt return to their office cubicles with heavy eyelids following lunches of picadillo ($9.95), that slightly sweet and salty ragu of ground beef, tomatoes and green olives, onions, peppers and garlic. This version is assisted by chunks of potato.

To that, you may add a side of slightly mushy yuca that gets a lift from a mild mojo sauce, or a nicely seasoned yellow rice, or a simple tossed salad.

Cubans take great pride in cooking pork, and the Rodriguezes flaunt special skill in dishes that heighten flavors and tenderize meat with a marinade of sour orange, garlic and onion.

Their lechon asado is akin to pulled pork. It's slow-roasted to render tender shreds of moist, meaty pork flavored with a kiss of smoke and the bitter mojo and onions. Try it with a few dashes of the house-made hot sauce.

In a dish called masas de puerco fritas, chunks of tenderloin are browned, braised and turned into fork-tender nuggets of porcine goodness.

Much like the sidewalk cafes of Miami's Calle Ocho and parts of Tampa, some dishes at West Caribbean are rustic and homespun, like boliche ($10.95), a beef roast simmered in a light stock that gets additional flavor from aromatics like onions and red pepper. This version is sliced thin and a touch overcooked, but the bath of au jus keeps the lean meat moist and pleasingly tender.

The restaurant offers several desserts, including a perfect flan ($2.95) bathed in a light caramel sauce, and tres leches cake ($3.75), a moist, single-layered wedge of white cake sitting in a puddle of sweet milk sauce and covered in whipped cream.

During an April 20 inspection, West Caribbean met standards but was cited for seven violations, six of which were critical, including soiled material in a microwave oven and slicer and food stored on the floor in a walk-in freezer.

An ample breakfast menu is available from 7-11 a.m., and the restaurant treats little ones to chicken fingers, spaghetti, burgers and macaroni and cheese.

Mostly, dining at West Caribbean is a tasty lesson in the varied, sunny flavors of the tropics; home cooking from way, way down south. The restaurant earns .

Ledger Reporter Eric Pera can be reached at eric.pera@theledger.com or 863-802-7528. Follow his dining tidbits at thedish.blogs.theledger.com.