I knew exactly what I wanted for dinner: rice, some lovely meat with a savory sauce, maybe a few plantains on the side.
My friend Tricia and I planned a night out to enjoy Caribbean food at Marie’s Caribbean Creole on Ellis Street in downtown Augusta. But when we arrived? The doors were open, but the restaurant was dark. Sadly, the restaurant has closed, although happily it remains open as an event venue and is also focusing on its food truck and catering business.
Still, I was disappointed as we headed back to the car. We clicked through some other options on our phones, but once you have a specific dish in mind, sometimes nothing else will hit the spot. Then Tricia said, “What about Latin Flavor?”
The Latin American eatery opened just over a year ago at the far end of a small strip mall onRiverwatch Parkway, just past Baston Road if you’re traveling from downtown. It’s blink-and-you’ll-miss-it, but as we walked up, I was utterly charmed by the patio tables and lights the restaurant has set up outside and that are hard to see from the road.
The weather had just turned a little chilly though, and the outside heaters weren’t on yet. So, we decided to dine indoors, which has equally charming blue and white décor, including tranquil ocean scenes.
On the huge menu, dishes are mostly written out with their Latin names, with detailed descriptions below (note, the menu itself is a little hard to read). Everything sounded delicious and authentic. For example, you could try an appetizer of sorullos, fried cornmeal with a coconut milk and cheese filling, asopado de camarones, a creole-based shrimp stew or unibe, a vegan meal with eggplant “meatballs” with kidney beans, rice and double-fried plantains. There’s also a wide variety of pork, chicken, beef and seafood dishes, including a Cuban sandwich, Better Together (grilled chicken with sauteed shrimp and cheese on top), bistec encebollado (steak sauteed in vinegar and red onion), even salmon or red snapper with a special blend of spices.
There are also empanadas stuffed with cheese and/or meat (including one with Nutella and brownie!), salads (including a power salad with spinach, raspberry, blueberry and nuts with a homemade honey and ginger dressing), sides of rice with beans, even kids’ options with the usual chicken tenders and kids bandera, which are fried pork bites or stewed chicken with rice, kidney beans and double-fried plantains.
Tricia chose a traditional dish that’s one of her favorites: mofongo, or mashed plantains formed into a cake served with fried pork bites. Mofongo is mild, a little earthy, and more like a fried potato cake than the usual sweet caramelized plantains that you might think of. The fried pork bites are nice and crispy, a good complement to the creamier mofongo, and all of it can be doused in the traditional mojo sauce — typically a blend of citrus and/or vinegar, plus garlic, olive oil, black pepper and other seasonings.
I usually get to enjoy oxtails at Arts in the Heart, but I didn’t get my fix back in September since Jamaica wasn’t among this year’s countries. So, I squealed a little in excitement when I saw them on Latin Flavor’s menu. Their version definitely hit the spot.
While I wished they were a little meatier — and my dish included only two sections of fatty oxtail — there was plenty of white rice to soak up that incredible deep brown sauce, with a slight tang that I guessed might be from tomato, plus a little fresh avocado on the side. A dish of fat kidney beans with their slippery skins were lovely and garlicky. The plantains, meanwhile, were a little different. Tricia explained that these were green plantains, so again, they were more like fried potatoes and had been dipped in batter before being fried. While they weren’t sweet, I liked their hearty flavor.
But to add some sweetness — and because it was our birthday month — we decided to share the tres leches cake. This moist, three-milk cake is typically soaked in a mixture of evaporated milk, sweetened condensed milk and whole milk. Latin Flavor’s added whipped cream, a generous drizzle of chocolate sauce and a red cherry on top. It was like eating a mouthful of cream (sorry, Tricia, I’m sure I ate more than my share!).
Throughout the night, the waitstaff quietly came by to check on us. Then when it was time to pay, they brought a scanner right to our table with our individual checks ready to go. “We try to make it easy,” our server said with a smile.
Latin Flavor isn’t a huge restaurant. It’s not flashy. But it’s one of the few Latin restaurants here in Augusta, and it’s quietly doing what it does really well. Great food, great service and great company, all at a reasonable price—it was a night that definitely hit the spot.
Make Your Reservation
Latin Flavor
3568 River Watch Parkway
Find them on Facebook: @LatinFlavorGa
Entrée cost: About $10 to $24
