Though often described generally, as Latin American, this mini-chain’s roots are in Nicaragua, and it's little touches from that country —- mainly sauces and garnishes -- that distinguish Los Ranchos’ dishes. The specialty here is charbroiled beef (as at parrillada places of Argentina, Uraguay, Brazil and many other nations), but beef tenderloin come with jalapeno cream sauce that saves the steak from generic boredom. Ripe sweet plantains are a standard Latin side, but not served with sour cream. And then there’s vigeron, fried pork skins -— not chicharron. Combined, Nicaraguan-style, with yucca, tomato, onion and pickled cabbage salad, it almost seems healthy.
This is no place for the nibbler or the nosher: The steak here is kingpin, and all the accouterments, even the legendary tres leches, play secondary roles. Many of you know the routine: A tuxedoed waiter arrives to take your order, and then you begin with a complimentary salad, a good one with lettuce, tomato, cucumber, pickle and onion, doused with a homemade vinaigrette.
Should you want a Spanish touch, have some crumbled manchego cheese on top; it's 75 cents. The signature ceviche is vuelve a la vida ($7.99) or ``back to life,'' a mix that's supposed to give the eater a boost when one is down. The combination of fresh clams, shrimp and sea bass is indeed uplifting, but be prepared for the lemony tomato sauce in which it's ``cooked'' to seem a bit sweet to those accustomed to ceviches from other lands.
Appetizers are noted on the menu as Tid Bits, but they're big bites, especially when you spring for a sampler platter for four ($12.99). You can pick four items out of eight Tid Bits. We went with crisp tacos (3) stuffed with minced seasoned pork and lettuce and served with a creamy slaw; a pair of sturdy homemade pork sausages; a nacatamal, a mild tamal of sweet cornmeal with pork sausage, onion and rice, wrapped in a plantain leaf; and a few gobs of fried, but unbreaded white cheese, queso blanco. That is plenty of starter, considering what's next.
Management says Los Ranchos' most popular steak is the 12-ounce churrasco, a boneless center-cut tenderloin. Many will be sated, though, by the baby churrasco ($14.99), and it's one of Miami's best meals. The 8-ounce steak is doused, not marinated, in chimichurri, a homemade mix of vegetable oil, garlic and parsley, and cooked to order on the grill. This is one steak that is good even well done -- the meat is beautifully tender, and the oil from the chimichurri lubricates it well.
To go along, you get tableside service of gallo pinto, a hearty mix of white rice and kidney beans with seasoning, plantains and plantain chips, and they'll spoon as many of each onto your plate as you like. The number of seafood selections is surprisingly ample, and not surprisingly, they are ample. Our red snapper ($14.99) was two large filets, simply seasoned with pepper and salt and grilled. Fish was fresh but was woefully under-seasoned, which made it stand up poorly next to the savory gallo pinto.
No such problem with the grilled pork loin ($12.99), vigorously rubbed with achiote and other spices, imparting a ruddy ham color and flavor, but much more moist and tender than ham. On the table to add color and flavor is a trio of sauces: the chimichurri, a sweet one with tomato and red and green bell pepper, and a spicy one with onion, vinegar and jalapeño. They are good mixed, good alone, good on beef, good on pork, good on gallo pinto. Good.
Yet perhaps not as good or as memorable as the tres leches ($4.25), a Nicaraguan dessert done to its pinnacle, beautifully homemade.
Los Ranchos is at Bayside and Sawgrass and, eventually, CocoWalk, but they never lose sight of what got them there.
