Cheap Eats - Boning up on Dominican dining

Just inside I-285 on Buford Highway’s international corridor of restaurants, across the street from El Mustacho Bar and Grill and next door to the Koreantown strip mall, stands your Dominican restaurant. Santo Domingo announces exactly that with the Spanish words of welcome across its front, “Bienvenidos a su Restaurante Dominicano.”
The cuisine of the Dominican Republic (the restaurant takes its name from the Dominican capitol city) can be likened to the food of its Caribbean neighbor, Cuba, with each anchored by such starchy staples as yucca, plantains, rice and beans. If Santo Domingo offers a representative sample, stews have greater emphasis on the country’s dinner tables and stand out on the menu.
Housed in a former donut shop, Santo Domingo (which has a second location in Gainesville) spruces up its plain interior with reminders of home, including modest-sized flags and framed banknotes on the wall and tablecloths, in either blue and white or blue and red, that evoke the national colors.
A small cafeteria line shaped like a capital L greets you upon entry. There you place your orders, which will be brought to your table. A white board, with Spanish on the left and English on the right, indicates what’s available, with individual choices varying day by day. (The sancocho soup comes highly recommended, but wasn’t available during any of my visits.) Or you can point to a steam tray full of something that looks hot and rich and you won’t be disappointed.
Any of the stewed dishes feature a hearty sauce redolent of tomatoes and succulent chunks of meat. I’ve been most impressed with the stewed goat, which you needn’t be reluctant to sample. Goat makes an excellent stew meat, with a flavor slightly more akin to beef than lamb, but close enough to either not to taste too gamy or alien to the uninitiated.
But with Santo Domingo’s stews, you have to take some things in stride. The cubes of meat can be fatty, which can be a juicy bonus in the case of the stewed pork. And several items come “on the bone,” often necessitating the use of fingers instead of silverware, and vigilance for small, hard chips.
The fried chicken, with a mildly spicy breading and limes on the side, consists of morsels on the bone, so don’t expect McNuggets. Of course, you can always opt for something like the roast chicken, with thick drumstick and thigh pieces that you can eat with a knife and fork, without requiring quite as much care as the other dishes. Roasted with chopped onions, the chicken is undeniably moist.
Each entree comes with rice and beans, and you can specify yellow with beans mixed in or white with beans on the side. The rice portion is massive and makes a terrific vehicle for the sauce or stock. If you order sides, a dash of vinegar gives some extra zip to the thick cuts of fine yucca, while the cooked plantains, with their sweet banana-esque flavor, work easily as a side order or a dessert.
I haven’t seen Santo Domingo overcrowded, but it’s often populous and a bit noisy, occasionally with the CD jukebox competing against the Univision soap operas. (Many low-budget eateries I visit along Buford Highway, from taquerias to pho houses, seem prone to blaring their televisions, but maybe I only notice because I don’t speak the language.) The restaurant’s menu also features fish items, meatballs and mangu (mashed green plantains), but with the cold weather coming you might want to sample something hot and stewy. As far as culinary trends go, stew is still the new soup.