Caribbean flavor to a Cuban beat

THE mojitos are lined up three deep on the bar. Conga drums throb, vibrating through the bones of every customer in the dining room. On the tightly packed dance floor, people move to the frenzied rhythms of salsa-like timbas belted out by a local Cuban band. Everyone else -- including little kids -- beats time to the rhythms at their tables.

It’s a typical Saturday night at Mayumba Cuban Restaurant, a place so full of personality you’d never expect to find it among the big-box mega stores in a suburban mall in Rosemead.

But the lively weekend scene is a stark contrast to the laid-back mood on a weeknight or at lunch. In the daytime, Mayumba has a Caribbean feel lent by mottled sunlight filtered through the swaying palms planted just outside its many windows.

The starched white tablecloths, upholstered chairs and attentive waiters conjure a lush, if imaginary, turn-of-the-last-century colonial setting. It’s a good place to luxuriate over a decadent afternoon meal because the restaurant is open throughout the day.

This kitchen takes Cuban sandwiches to new heights. The voluptuous sandwich de cerdo holds a juicy slab of marinated roast pork topped with soft, slightly caramelized strands of sauteed onions that meld into the grilled Cuban bread.

An equally bodacious media noche sandwich layered with thick slices of lean pork loin, ham and Swiss cheese comes on a slightly sweet, grilled roll. It should feed four, but it takes the discipline of a drill sergeant to leave enough for a doggie bag.

You may hear the whir of a coffee mill, indicating your after-lunch coffee being ground to order. It’s the kind of touch indicative of this kitchen’s MO.

Servings are so generous that a group of four or six could easily do a small plates or family-style meal sharing several appetizers and entrees such as paella. Paella is often iffy in local Cuban restaurants, but Mayumba’s fresh, light preparation is a standout. It’s loaded with shellfish, chicken, bits of sausage and just enough perfectly cooked saffron-tomato rice to hold everything together. At $20, it’s the most expensive dish on the menu.

Appetizers are all classics: papas rellenas, their paper-thin, crisp crust covering a sphere of creamy potato that encapsulates a ground beef picadillo filling, come in pairs. They’re great with drinks or wine. The empanadas have the same picadillo filling, and the yuca frita, crunchy starchy fingers of the fried potato-like root, seem to evaporate in your mouth. But salads, rarely a Cuban kitchen’s strong suit, aren’t particularly interesting here.

Light eaters may opt for the sopa marinera as an entree, although this Cuban-style bouillabaisse is listed as an appetizer. Its generous helpings of briny shell-on clams, fat crab legs, shrimp and fish float in a delicious garlicky, tomato-accented broth.

Rabo encendido, loosely translated as “tail on fire,” might suggest chile heat, but this traditional soupy, meaty, beef-tail stew has none; instead the broth is rich with wine, onions and garlic. Such dishes seem designed to be mopped up with sides of fried plantains, either sweet (maduros) or green (tostones), and black beans and rice or a combination of the two (moros y cristianos).

The menu is filled with homespun favorites that every Cuban grandmother has mastered, including boliche mechado, lean sausage-stuffed brisket braised to fall-apart tenderness in a tomato-based sauce.

Cuba’s Caribbean nature is evident in its famous sour orange juice-garlic marinade, which Mayumba uses with great skill to flavor its splendid lechon asado, or roast pork, and to add fragrance to a juicy roast chicken.

You can taste it too in a plate of masitas de cerdo. Clearly a relative of carnitas, these lean marinated pork chunks have a fried-to-a-crisp exterior that breaks through to a meaty center exploding with porcine flavor.

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Juicy kick to beef

THE marinade is even used, though sparingly, to season the house skirt steak, providing just the right kick to accent its beefy flavor. And hallelujah, the kitchen cuts the steaks moderately thick rather than in the paper-thin style usually seen in Latino restaurants; it also pays attention to requests for medium rare.

A short list of modestly priced wines, primarily from Spain and Latin America, includes Marques de Riscal Rioja, a perfect balance for the garlicky goodness of a Cuban meal.

But though the kitchen lavishes attention on its entrees and sandwiches, it is surprisingly dismissive of desserts.

An unexceptional tres leches cake seems of supermarket quality. A reasonable flan and huge portions of glaceed fruits (papaya, coconut or guava) make a nice post-entree bite of sweetness for everyone at the table, but the traditional accompaniment of cream cheese is a minuscule commercially packaged cup.

Never mind. You’re likely to have more fun forgoing the sweets to join the action on the dance floor.

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Mayumba Cuban Restaurant

Location: 3514 Rosemead Blvd. (in Rosemead Place mall), Rosemead, (626) 572-9558.

Price: Side orders and snacks, $3 to $7; lunch entrees and sandwiches, $6 to $8; dinner entrees, $12 to $20.

Best dishes: Cuban sandwiches, lechon asado (roast pork), Mayumba steak, paella, boliche mechado (stuffed, braised brisket).

Details: Open from 11 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday; 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 a.m. Friday and Saturday. Lot parking. Full bar. All major credit cards.