RESTAURANT REVIEW : Little Havana Features Big Portions at the Beach

Little Havana, like its metropolitan namesake, is near the ocean. Serving Cuban food to a tanned and fit Manhattan Beach clientele, it’s been touted (according to a framed article on the wall) as a great place to eat for less than $10. These days, while most of Little Havana’s meals still stay close to the $10 cap, a couple new items--crab and lobster dishes--exceed the limit.

Still, this is a nice family-run place that is a good spot to end up after a day at the beach. The interior is small and white and tidy. Black-and-white photographs of Havana pay homage to a bygone era of straw hats and linen suits. The glass-topped tablecloths are pink, and pink silk carnations sit in vases with rather dusty, long over-used baby’s breath.

Service is minimal at best and occasionally neglectful. The waiters are pleasant-enough young men whose collective policy, it seems, is to be tableside as little as possible. I found myself walking to the kitchen area to request water, hot sauce, the check. On two separate visits, the waiters forgot to bring us bread.

The food, however, is plentiful and satisfying. There’s a clean, simple finish to most items--the kitchen uses only vegetable oil, no lard and very little salt. If you come to Little Havana with appropriately trimmed expectations, the experience can be quite pleasant.

There’s something pure about the dress-it-yourself mixed salad, with fresh green leaf lettuce, good tomatoes, ripe avocados, thinly sliced onions, cruets of oil and vinegar. Mariquitas are thin, bright yellow strips of fried plantains. Neither salty nor particularly sweet, they are the sort of thing you find yourself eating up quickly and then wanting more.

Entrees are served with a large plate of white rice, delicious black beans and chunks of ripe, sweet plantains fried to the perfect degree of sticky crispness. Vegetarians could, and indeed must, make do with these accompaniments alone--all other entrees are focused on meat.

Camarones enchilados are six or seven sweet, plump, nicely grilled shrimp in a sauce consisting largely of melted butter. The Little Havana roast chicken is an enormous, well-cooked half of a bird. Its brown crisp skin is topped with thin, marinated onions, but to my taste it could use more oomph--more garlic, or lime, or even salt and pepper. Pargo frito , whole fried red snapper, has crisp, bubbly skin, and for non-Cubans may seem overcooked. Again, there was little seasoning in the dish, although fresh lemon and salt did perk it up.

The most deeply flavored dish is ropa vieja , the wonderfully stringy beef stewed in a savory sauce with tomatoes, onions, peppers and bay leaves. Lechon asado , juicy chunks of roast pork, may not be as spicy, but it’s succulent and steeped in its own sweet porkness.

Though I don’t like to admit it, I love the flavor of a good, inexpensive blade-cut steak, and so I loved Little Havana’s steak, a thin map of meat, seared on a hot grill and served in a light, clear broth with onions and a squeeze of lemon. It’s not particularly tender, but it’s an unabashedly flavorful, meaty piece of meat.

One serving of Cuban fried rice--stir-fried with roast pork, shrimp, ham, egg, scallions and soy sauce--is so large, I managed to make three meals out of my order.

A papaya milkshake made from milk, papaya and ice is mild and un-sweet. Flan , however, is cold and sweet for dessert.

Little Havana doesn’t have the most flavorful Cuban food I’ve eaten, but the portions and the pleasing simplicity of the food go a long way toward engendering customer satisfaction.

* Little Havana, 3713 Highland Ave., Manhattan Beach, (310) 545-3477. Lunch and dinner daily. Beer and wine. MasterCard and Visa accepted. Dinner for two, food only, $20 - $44.