The Palm Beach Post from West Palm Beach, Florida • Page T015

THE PALM BEACH POST FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2010 15 Stuffed, yet deprived Don Ramon Clematis serves casi-casi Cuban cuisine. Staff photos by BRANDON KRUSE a view of Clematis Street in The second-floor dining area West Palm Beach. REVIEW Don Ramon Clematis FOOD: SERVICE: ADDRESS: 300 Clematis West Palm Beach TELEPHONE: (561) 832-5418 PRICE RANGE: Inexpensive to moderate HOURS: Open daily 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. (closes later on weekends) CREDIT CARDS: all major RESERVATIONS: not necessary WHEELCHAIR ACCESS: Yes, including restrooms WHAT THE GRADES MEAN: A Excellent B-Good Average Poor A customer uses Don Ramon's 24-hour walk-up window on Clematis Street in West Palm Beach.

By LIZ BALMASEDA Palm Beach Post Staff Writer Take three Cubans-Americans, raised on great, authentic Cuban home cooking, to a Cuban restaurant and it can be a recipe for disaster. For the restaurant. When it comes to our food, we are an opinionated, coddled lot. We grew up on exalted peasant food, lovingly cooked with keen attention to detail. So when the plantain chips arrived tepid at our dinner table at the Don Ramon restaurant on Clematis Street on a recent night, we took it as an ominous sign.

Who serves lukewarm plantain chips? It would be somewhat forgivable if this had been the first time bad chips happened at this cafe. But on a previous visit to Don Ramon's newest outpost for lunch, I was served cold, stale chips. It may seem a minor enough detail, but details are what distinguish good Cuban food from random Cuban food. I had envisioned a platter of hot, crisp, fresh-made chips (Chicharritas, a dish that takes just minutes to prepare. Disappointed for a second time and seeking a little direction, I asked our waitress to recommend a second starter.

She quickly suggested the Masas de Puerco Fritas fried pork chunks served with sauteed onions. So glad I asked. The pork was flavorful and tender, lightly seared on the outside and served in a cazuelita, a small covered pot that allowed the sweetness of the onions to steam into the meat chunks. These san. But in this version, the ham sat blandly and almost watery over the damp breaded steak as if it had been trapped and steamed between the cheese and the steak.

The Churrasco ($18.95) I ordered proved to be a far better choice of steak, a strip of marinated flap meat grilled to a tender rare finish and served with a respectable side of chi-michurri sauce (parsley, garlic, oil, vinegar) And the Vaca Frita ($9.95) another companion ordered proved flavorful, if a tad dry. Vaca Frita, which translates unpoeti-cally to "Fried Cow," is blade meat that is boiled, then skillet-seared to a crisp. This version, while crispy, could have been more tender. That said, we gave high marks to Don Ramon's black beans ($3.95 if ordered as a soup, free of charge if ordered as a side to your entree), not too thin, not too thick beans lightly scented with traditional bay leaves. And the fluffy white rice served with the beans an obligatory staple on any Cuban table would have made any mama cubana proud.

I should also note that Don Ramon's chef makes a mean Camarones Enchiladas ($15.95) shrimp braised till tender in a deeply flavored tomato-pepper Creole sauce which I sampled on a previous visit. It is in dishes like this that the strengths of Don Ramon's Cuban chef shine through. But cooking Cuban in Palm Beach County can be a in Don Ramon offers customers restaurateur Ramon Vilarino also owns the Don Ramon restaurants on Military Trail in West Palm Beach and in Wellington. A different family the Rubios owns the original location on South Dixie Highway. In the case of Don Ramon Clematis, settling is likely a byproduct of popularity.

With its prime location on a well-placed corner of Downtown West Palm's bustling nightlife corridor, this Don Ramon is quite the hangout. On the night we visited recently, an acoustic musician performed downstairs as a lively birthday party sprawled across the spacious upstairs quarters all decidedly non-Cuban. Our table offered a vantage point from which to take in the street scenes of Clema- Empanadas available at Don Ramon's 24-hour walk-up window. Fresh pastries available for customers at Don Ramon's 24-hour walk-up window. tis, no doubt a reason to return for a beer and a starter.

It's a pleasant place with pleasant service. And those unattached to childhood memories of great Cuban food may find some good-enough, respectable dishes. As for the three Cubans at my table we left feeling stuffed, yet strangely deprived. lizbalmasedapbpost.com daunting thing, even for a real-deal Cuban chef. Unlike Miami, where good Cuban food is a civil right, West Palm Beach is detached from the daily intensity of all things Cuban.

A good 80 miles away, the Cuban exile cauldron is viewed through a prism of detachment. Details lose their edge. The obligatory white rice morphs in to American-style yellow rice (as evidenced by the favored side at Havana Cuban restaurant on South Dixie Highway) It's the same dulling effect that cause plantain chips to cool, restaurants to settle. I can't say this is true for the other Don Ramon restaurants, because I have not reviewed them. The family that owns the Clematis location the Vilarinos, headed by enterprising exile were not the hard-fried chunks often served at Cuban markets and restaurants, but thick nuggets of fork-tender pork.

This dish with a simple side of white rice or a salad would make a superb lunch or dinner entree. Certainly a better entree than the Bistec de Milanesa ($13.95) one of my dining companions ordered. This is a dish that, while not classically Cuban, appears on Cuban restaurant menus all the time. It's a breaded, fried steak topped with a Creole-style red sauce (tomatoes, peppers, onions, garlic), ham and melted mozzarella cheese. Done right, it's Cuban Parme.