Punta Cana – (sort of) new Dominican

Punta Cana – (sort of) new Dominican


Punta Cana is a new Dominican restaurant which occupies the old Rudy’s Taste space on Ashland north of Augusta. In fact, the place still has Rudy’s pictures of Guatemala on the walls, along with Time Out’s “Save this restaurant” piece on Rudy’s Taste. And the waitress is the same one who worked at Rudy’s. Not only that, the owners are the same owners from Rudy’s Taste days.

??

Okay. The owners are Dominican and until recently also owned Tropical Taste on North. Their second restaurant on Ashland was originally also called Tropical Taste, but under chef Rudy’s initiative, it became a Guatemalan restaurant. Now Rudy is no longer with the restaurant and the owners gave the place a new name and a Dominican focus. Antonius and I stopped by for a quick lunch yesterday.

We ordered each of the three kinds of empanadas (beef, chicken, cheese) to share. They come two to an order and were quite good, fried to order and not at all greasy. The beef was ground beef with raisins, the chicken (the favorite of us both) shredded and spiced with a bit of sauce, and the cheese a pleasingly modest amount of melted white cheese. A small bowl in the center held crema for garnishing the empanadas.

We also ordered pica pollo, one of the lunch specials, because we didn’t know what it was. It turned out to be chicken on the bone chopped into small pieces, battered and fried. (Paging G Wiv – another place to stop for fried chicken…)

Our waitress explained that the dish is called pica pollo because you have to pick at each piece to get at the meat – not that it is picante at all. The chicken comes with a generous helping of tostones and a salad. We weren’t all that crazy about the mayonnaise based sauce that accompanies the chicken, though.

Punta Cana has a number of interesting juices, etc., listed. I had the morir soñando, a very sweet Dominican drink made with orange juice and condensed milk. The name means ‘to die dreaming’; as I recall, this drink was also on the old Rudy’s menu. Warning: you might want to wait and order this drink as a dessert.

Antonius had a very nice house-made fresh lemonade – these days it seems hard to find anything but artificial commercial lemonades like Snapple, so it’s a pleasure to enjoy the real thing.

Other drink choices include jugo de parcha (passion fruit), jugo de tamarindo, jugo de coco, batida de mamey, … By the way, Punta Cana is BYOB, just like Rudy’s Taste used to be.



Punta Cana
1024 N. Ashland
Chicago, IL
773.252.7200

Calling all mujeres!*

The lemonade I had was very refreshing -- for me, importantly, not overly sweet.


I tried Amata's morir soñando and it was delicious but to my mind more a dessert than a beverage.


The empanadas were all nice but of the three types, the chicken was the one that really stood out.


Eso es el "pica pollo." Bastante sabroso... but the sauce is of a type I'm not much fond of. The chicken itself was really good, with the breading not too thick nor greasy and the meat itself nice and moist. The oddly shaped chunks added an element of mystery into the genre of fried chicken.


The waitress was very friendly and the food all bore the mark of having been made with care. All in all, a very nice lunch...

And I also finally got to see a music video with JLo on a big screen. Agora pueyo morir (soñando)...

¿Qué hice?*
Don Antonio de la Plancha

Thanks for posting this--I spotted this place on the way out of the absurdly crowded El Barco last Friday night, but my sweetie wanted La Condesa. I'll check this place out soon, that chicken looks tasty.

Thanks Team A&A for the recon. I've been eating so much fried food lately (Cuban, Puerto Rican, Cicadian), that I've been taking a vacation from the stuff, but these pix are pulling me back to the fryer.

Hammond

David Hammond wrote:Thanks Team A&A for the recon. I've been eating so much fried food lately (Cuban, Puerto Rican, Cicadian), that I've been taking a vacation from the stuff, but these pix are pulling me back to the fryer.

DH,

I know what you mean, in a general sense... fried stuff can wear thin, especially as one grows fatter (which doesn't seem to be your problem at all!)... And, truth be told, we went to P.C. to look over the menu and see if we could avoid an all-fried session, but standing on the sidewalk, perusing the posted menu, with the sun beating down and the lunch hour almost gone, we said "what the heck"... and the 'pica pollo' was not quite what we expected (though quite good and a nice surprise, as it were)... Anyway, we definitely enjoyed the meal, but took a good bit of it home... today's lunch may be the rest of those empanadas.

Antonius

Did a quick dinner here last night. Not to great, not to bad. We had the chicken and the cheese empanadas and they were good. Not greasy at all, I was very impressed with the texture. Could have used more crema or something with some more flavor. I asked about the beef and having raisans in them , and he said no, just beef. All in all we weren't that enthralled with the flavors in any of the food, it needs more seasoning. The salsa and chips could have been great, but the salsa seemed a bit flat and perhaps even a bit sweet.
The tostones were fried to perfection, but ruined with the pure garlic puree on top. Even just some salt on top would have been nice. I would have liked a flavorful dipping sauce of some kind, but it wasn't served with anything. No homemade salsas or sauces to be found.
I had the ropa vieja, and there is nothing to complain about that dish. It was great. Sometimes when I had it at Rudy's Taste it was over salted. Everything from the meat, peppers, rice and black beans were delicious.
Husband had the chicken breast and shrimp in a light cream pepper sauce that was good, but the highlight of the dish was the chipotle mashed potatoes.
The ambiance of this place, leaves much to be desired. I don't know why they have TV's in there, but they should turn them off and put on some nice latin music and turn the lights down. Of course, we always love a good BYOB, and they had an ice bucket and wine glasses and no corkage fee.

nicinchic wrote:All in all we weren't that enthralled with the flavors in any of the food, it needs more seasoning.

Having lived in the DR for a spell, I'd say that this pretty much sums up the cooking of the eastern two-thirds of Hispaniola. While there are elements of the surrounding Carribean cuisines, DR cooking typically lacks the punch of Jamica and the rich, developed flavors of Cuba. I remember eating alot of boiled plaintains and chicken, while truely "free range" (half pet, half dinner), was mostly boiled in a red gravy that tasted mostly of nothing. There are some interesting eats down there. The "Domiinican Oil Drum BBQ Chicken was pretty astonishing and some of the local piggy preps were quite good as no one is afraid of fat there. But on the over all its very bland. I used to go through a bottle of srirracha every other week (at U.S. $15!!).

So it didn't really float my boat. On the otheer hand, if you don't like spicy food and keep wishing they could dial it down at your local cantina, the food of the DR, and Coasta Rica for that matter, may be just for you.

When I was in Venezulea they made tostones(platanos) the same way, but they served them with a delicious crema type sauce. I've never been able to find out what the true sauce (or name) was, it was some sort of tart, cream cheese type dip. Matched perfectly with the plantains.

Ha. Dominican and Costa Rican pop up from time to time, either when posters are traveling to those places or when a new place opens here. Yes, I know that the DR and CR are not geographically or culturally that close, apart from being Hispanic Caribbean places. But they are very similar in one unfortunate, somewhat baffling regard.

Again, although the DR and CR are two places I adore, great countries with great people, they are puzzling in that they are both surrounded by countries with great food, but have little to offer of their own. As posters above suggest, much of what's best in DR food is borrowed from or common to other places in the Caribbean, though the Dominican version is apt to be blander.

It's sad that a Dominican place would offer you chips and salsa. It's confusing, since chips and salsa simply do not exist in the DR, which has no masa culture. An obvious bow to gringo expectations (after all, "free" chips and salsa aren't particularly traditional Mexican, either) and the overwhelming influence of Mexican in Chicago, which tends to leak into all things Latino.

The chicken is probably the most "Dominican" thing, though it is obviously similar to dishes prepared world-round. Sold at roadside stands, something very similar is called chicharones de pollo.

JeffB,

We wanted very much to order a la dominicana but, aside from the chicken and Amata's drink (morir soñando), there wasn't much that seemed to be specifically from that country. We figured the empanadas were likely to be made in the style most familiar to the owner -- from the DR according to the waitress -- and they were pretty good but I'm not sure that they were highly distinct from empanadas from elsewhere in the region. Whence hails the chef is something one might also want to know.

I didn't comment on the chips and salsa above and they were actually not bad. What I liked about the salsa was that there was a good dose of Mexican oregano in it. Anyway, yes, they must satisfy the gringo expectation of and lust for chips and salsa...

A

Amata wrote:We also ordered pica pollo, one of the lunch specials, because we didn’t know what it was. It turned out to be chicken on the bone chopped into small pieces, battered and fried. (Paging G Wiv – another place to stop for fried chicken…)

Amata,

Speaking of Dominican fried chicken, I was watching Daisy Martinez a few weeks ago and she made Dominican style chicharones de pollo, which JeffB mentions in this thread. Recipe was dead simple, and very tasty especially when paired with tostones and mojito sauce. Looking forward to trying Punta Cana's version.

Daisy Martinez Dominican style Chicharones de Pollo
(A slightly adapted version)

Cut 2-lbs boneless chicken thighs cut into strips
Sprinkle liberally with Goya Sazon
Moisten with cider vinegar
Marinate up to 6-hours.
Pat dry, coat with flour (I add a small percentage of corn meal for extra crunch)
Deep fry crisp.

Enjoy,
Gary

Punta Cana closed recently.
The following week the whole building was painted bright blue with a banner above stating that another restaurant will be opening soon.
I don't recall the name right now.

The new signs at 1024 n Ashland advertise "Veneno Mariscos" "Estilo Nayarit". Hopefully they give (in my opinion) over-rated El Barco a run for their money. In my travels to Nayarit only two regional seafood dishes stand out in my mind- "dry" ceviche tostadas and delicious smoked marlin tortas. We'll see...

No wonder it closed, serving salsa and chips? My Dominican mother didn't have a taco til she came to this county! Now Chicharones de Pollo, that is yummy and very Dominican

Re Nayarit: Pescado sarandeado didn't do it for you?

My daughter and I and JustJoan ate lunch at a place called Punta Cana today. I don't think it has any connection to the place writtten about in the other posts here, but on the other hand it's Dominican and called Punta Cana, so why not continue the the thread. Also, I'll note that we had the pico pollo and it looked a lot different from that served above.

JeffB wrote: As posters above suggest, much of what's best in DR food is borrowed from or common to other places in the Caribbean, though the Dominican version is apt to be blander.

That's funny and not too far off from describing the food, but all-in-all I very much liked this place, and given it's large menu, hope to come back a few more times. The sign notes house specialties of chivo and mangu. I had no idea what the latter was, but Joan did, and for some odd reason, decided to try it for the team. For those not knowing either, mangu is boiled and mashed, and otherwise unflavored, green plantains. As JeffB would say, they're blander than the Puerto Rican version of said dish. Joan got them with eggs and gross salami (which she actually liked). I'd stick with the lunch deals. The goat was really goat, pretty tough, but still enjoyable in that island kinda way (even if pretty plain). The portions are big. Nice service. If you're in a hurry, and get rice not tostones, your stew will be on your table within 3 minutes of sitting. Bottles of DR pop too.

This Punta Cana is on Kimball only a few blocks from Joan's house, so I bet she'd go with you for lunch next time.

http://www.puntacanadominicanrestaurant.com/
2200 N. Kimball
Chicago

...the mangu i ordered also had a slab of fried cheese, which had not much to offer except extra calories. i really like the mashed plantain, but would appreciate it more if served with one of their stews, as it'd benefit from some sauce. VI and daughter liked their meal more than i did, but i'm happy to have punta cana in my neighborhood. homestyle cooking, low prices, a decent cubano sandwich, every neighborhood should have a place like this.