La Casa del Mojito has mo' to offer than just drinks

With a name like La Casa del Mojito, you might expect the food at this small Roosevelt neighborhood cafe to be mere ballast for the booze. There are stacks of drink glasses — ice already loaded, mint already mulled — next to the door, a pyramid of limes in the kitchen and a pair of bongo drums on the way out to the patio that invite well-lubricated diners to pound away.

But there's also an intriguing menu of Venezuelan and Cuban dishes, making it clear La Casa del Mojito is more than a cocktail factory. This is a neighborhood joint looking to fill bellies as it has fun.

The menu: A selection of meat and fish — slow-cooked or seared — offers a quick trip through Latin cuisine at the Roosevelt cafe and its newly opened sister restaurant in the University District. The appetizer of fried sweet plantains ($3.95) had a dollop of tangy garlic sauce. We tried the Pescado de Tito ($13.95), tilapia rubbed with lots of cinnamon and paprika. The white fish rested on a delicious bed of sweet onions cooked in wine and garlic. The house specialty, Parrilla de Luigi ($15.95), a marinated flank steak, was tender but lacked the zest of the fish. It came with a tasty yuca frita. The Pabellon ($12.95) — a traditional Venezuelan dish with shredded beef, red peppers and onions — gets raves from loyal diners.

What to write home about: The owners of this seven-year-old cafe use authentic ingredients, which are refreshingly stripped of any pan-culture fusion or pretension. The mojito sauce — a garlic aoli — was yummy.

The setting: The canary-yellow cafe, tucked off Lake City Way at the junction to I-5, began filling after 8 p.m. for drinks-on-the-patio diners. And it's kid-friendly, judging from the bangers on the bongo drums. There's salsa and merengue dancing at the U District location on Friday evenings.

Summing up: The plantain appetizer, two good-sized entrees and a flan for dessert came to $41.39. The namesake mojitos ($7) are strong. Any neighborhood should be so lucky.

Jonathan Martin: 206-464-2605

or jmartin@seattletimes.com