Latina opens to rave reviews (including this one)!
By Matt Robinson
Though Acapulco’s recently closed and the former site of the dearly-misses Tu y Yois now part of Beth Israel hospital, Needham has ben getting its Latin groove back recently with the immigration from Whitman of the muy autenticoHungry Coyote and from Dedham of Pancho’s and the re-emergence of the corner spot once held by local legend Rachel Klein that recently opened as Latina Kitchen and Bar (https://latinakitchenbar.com).
With its comforting and gently tropical natural décor and easy-to-move-through space (a space that includes a couch-y front lounge and bar area and an open kitchen with fireside seating, as well as a long row of benches and tables for all your larger fiesta needs) and authentic Venezuelan-inspired Latin food and drink, Latina is a great place to drop by for a cerveza or creative cocktail and a pequeña mordida (small bite), to host a family event or just to bring the family for a taste of why our neighbors south of the border need to be welcomed with open arms (and mouths). And while the kids’ menú may not be all that imported (offering, as so many places do, selections such as chicken fingers and pasta), there is p,enty on the main menu to help expand even the pickiest of palates.
The front-area bar is overhung with ivy and flora as well as a single flat screen that is available without being overwhelming. Instead, most guests focus on the tequila selection and the reposado tequila-based sangria that sits reposad-ing in a tall glass pitcher. Lining each side of the TV are columns that double as wine racks, each of which holds plenty of bottles of red, white, rose, and even sparklers from all over. While the beer list is mostly domestic, it does offer some imports, though not many from Latin America. That flavor comes through most in the cocktail list, which also includes a Cuban ginger with Santa Teresa rum, an egg nog-y coquito with Bacardi, condensed milk, coconut, and spices, a grapefruit Pisco sour with egg white, a Pisco paloma (white Pisco) with club soda and lime and grapefruit juice, Mojitos in either shades of strawberry or pineapple, and a set of margarita that range from sweetly tropical to satisfyingly tongue-torching.
To go along with these inspired imbibements, Latina offers a wide range of food flavors that starts with such signature treats as fishy sancochosoup that will put mussels in your mouth (if not on your body) and a Latina salad with hearts of palm, avocado, and citrus supremes and can come to a delicious end by way of dulce de leche-filled shortbread cookies, Vezeuelan flan, or their famed chocolate tres lechescake. In the middle are such satisfying selections as a Gaucho rib eye with a tangy chimichurri, plantain gnocchi with a short rib ragout, Peruvian roasted chicken, a heaping portion of arroz con mariscos(rice with seafood) that includes lobster, scallops, shrimp, mussels, AND calamari, and an Argentinian parrilla(grill) of black Angus beef, grilled sweetbreads, chicken, and TWO kinds of sausage! If you want to try your hand at Venezuelan or just get tastes of more savory sensations, the small plate menu offers ceviches(cold servings of foods that are “cooked” in their own natural juices) with tuna, lobster, or mushroom (the last of which is called an escabacheas it is vegetarian) and two-packs of tasty baked empanadasturnovers) that can come with beef, chicken, lamb, or veggies, as well as perfectly-uncooked beef carpaccio, cheesy cauliflower gratin, house-marinated olives, more mussels, rock shrimp with green plantains, charred octopus, Venezuelan cheese sticks, yucca fries and more diversely-delicious delights.
So for those of you who have waited for the latest taste sensation in Needham to open or those who live here who have been eager to return to the site of many past pleasant dinners, Latina is sure to be a great destination again and again!