Dominican Delightful

They'll take you there...

"El Autentico Sabor de la Comida Dominicana," reads the menu at this Pompano Beach hole-in-the-wall. And it's authentic Dominican Republic fare, all right. Homemade specials at Latin Conga!  change daily, but once they run out, forget your craving for fried chicken chunks or seafood soup. It pays to show up either for lunch or early in the evening if you want to be sure you'll be tucking into a bowl of oxtail stew (Wednesday though Saturday), stewed goat (Thursday and Friday), stewed cod fish (Tuesday) or Dominican soup (Friday and Sunday).

We'd gone specifically for the oxtail stew last Saturday (not surprisingly, they'd run out by 8 p.m.), but we settled for a grilled marinated skirt steak with sauteed purple onions, a big pile of spicy and satisfyingly oily roast pork, many cartons of rather dry plantains, excellent black beans and rice, hearty red bean soup, and what they were calling "fried salami,"  delicious, fiery slices of what looked like thick bologna -- totally satisfying in a very decadent way. Not a dish on this menu costs more than $15, and most of it costs considerably less.

Once you get hooked (and you will, the food's great) you'll find yourself spending a lot of time over at Latin Conga!. Brush up on your karaoke skills for Friday's beer specials and Rey Rumba Karaoke from 8 p.m. to 1 a.m., where if you pay attention, you may even learn some authentic Dominican tunes.

Latin Conga!
1280 S. Powerline Rd.
Pompano Beach
954-969-1646
Open for lunch and dinner