RESTAURANT REVIEW : A Culinary Caribbean Cruise

It’s been seven years now since Toribio Prado’s neo-Caribbean--or should we say neon-Caribbean--cooking burst upon the city like a big, colorful, deliciously edible firecracker. In those days, when meat ‘n’ fruit was all the rage, and many chefs offered barely palatable experiments, Prado at Cha Cha Cha--madly hip, moderately priced, supposedly on the “wrong” side of Melrose--proved that food this lively could not be ignored.

Over the years, we have seen Prado’s (and his brothers’) magical, spirited touch in a variety of establishments at a variety of price ranges: the Ivy, Cafe Mambo, the ill-fated fancy El Mocambo, and, of course, at Prado itself, a small restaurant in Larchmont Village that is now almost 3 years old.

Inhabiting two storefronts, Prado has a dreamy, comic interior. The chairs are mismatched old-wood-and-iron specimens, often wobbly. The crockery is brightly colored Fiesta- and Bauer-ware look-alikes and swap-meet specials. The ceilings are so high they go into the ether; indeed, in one room there are angels and clouds in a light blue sky overhead. In the other room it’s night, with cherubim adrift among golden constellations.

On one visit, my friends are impressed that the waitress takes our extensive order without writing down a single thing. I am more cynical. It’s a busy night, Prado’s full of well-dressed adults, and our waitress even warns us we might not get the best service because she’s responsible for far too many tables in this rush. For the most part, we’re served promptly and graciously enough, with only a few details smudged. When the bill comes, however, it lists an appetizer we never ordered, Chardonnay instead of soda water, a dinner-sized portion (as opposed to the appetizer portion) of soft shell crabs, three instead of two coffees--all of which adds up to $30 in overcharges.

When there’s no rush, the service is good-natured and friendly in the way that only a neighborhood restaurant can be; the staff seems happy to see you return, happy to make you happy.

Much of the food at Prado is from the familiar Prado family repertoire. The Jamaican corn tamales are sweet and sticky, perked up by golden caviar and a great tomatillo sauce. The Caesar is also on the sweet side, but so juicy and refreshing, it’s right up there with some of the best versions around. The tarragon-scented spicy corn chowder is as good as ever. We are less thrilled by the ordinary crab cakes, and downright disappointed by the $9.95 appetizer portion of soft-shell crabs, which proved to be a single crab coated with spices, pan-fried until scorched.

The chicken breast in black pepper sauce, one of the house specialties, is hot, really hot, a dish that treads the razor’s edge between pleasure and pain. The murky black sauce hurts so much yet tastes so good, one is perpetually seduced into yet another incendiary bite.

A similar, sweeter sauce is on the flaming papaya shrimp, a generous number of nicely cooked, sweet shrimp and pineapple chunks finished with a small rum-fueled conflagration. Even so, I prefer the camarones con cerveza, shrimp cooked in beer. The shrimp meat tastes sweeter to me, and while the dish is still deliciously spicy, it’s less doggedly so.

Those more wary of a Jamaican spice arsenal will find that the Argentine beefsteak is a good New York cut topped with a savory, non-aggressive saute of tomatoes and, to my taste, undercooked purple onions. Vegetarians should be thrilled by the flavors in the house plate of fresh grilled vegetables, beans and a grain that changes daily--I tried it with rice.

The grill-work on a good piece of swordfish was a little too bitter for my taste. A barbecued salad, full of grilled vegetables, on the other hand, was quite delicious.

Desserts, especially a bright red raspberry cake with white buttercream frosting, are enticing and disappointing. The raspberry cake was dry, the lemon-hazelnut tart way too sweet, the chocolate-marble cake dull, and all the various frostings were gritty.

Those who are familiar with Toribio Prado’s cooking will find nothing new at Prado. The food that was once so new, so flashy, so surprising, is now comfortable, settled down . . . all grown up.

Prado Restaurant, 244 N. Larchmont Blvd., Los Angeles, (213) 467-3871. Lunch Monday through Saturday, dinner seven nights. Beer and wine. Street parking. American Express, MasterCard, Visa. Dinner for two, food only, $42 to $70.