Restaurant review - Luly's Cuban fare transports tastebuds to sunny Miami

This winter's unusually frigid temperatures haven't registered at Luly's Cuban Cafe.

Windows as big as garage doors deliver Miami-like sunshine to counter seating against the kitchen stage.

Soft salsa music stirs grillside cooks and accompanies cheerful, dining room chatter, interrupted regularly by the crunch of irresistible fried plantain chips.

A bronze-skinned waitress with a white-hot smile, delivers Nehi orange sodas, further coloring this Little Havana scene.

For more than a year, the tiny Forum spot sat sad and empty in a corner chef Lee Grossman could not forget. He started his popular Bento Box Asian restaurant here.

When Grossman moved operations a few doors down in 2008, his mind wandered back to the sunny shop.

Its new purpose dawned on Grossman while he was visiting Miami in-laws. Back home, he and Cuban wife Luly went to work on the cafe. They pasted colorful cigar box tops to the front counter, commissioned a vibrant Havana street scene mural and tweaked Luly's family recipes.

Her dishes surprise palates expecting spicy fare. This is not Mexican cuisine, as Cuban food authorities are prone to say about the island's cultural amalgamation of frequently mild comfort dishes.

At Luly's, vaca frita and ropa vieja are piles of soft, shredded beef; the former grilled with onion, bell pepper, garlic and a hint of sour orange, the latter slow-cooked in paprika-sweetened tomato sauce.

Bistec empanizado might be compared to country fried steak without gravy if it were not for the chewy round steak Luly's replaces with tender sirloin, hardly if at all salted one evening beneath its bubbled, cracker meal crust.

Similarly basic Chicken Versailles is a plain but moist seared breast adorned only in raw, chopped onion and fresh cilantro.

Gentle seasonings leave some diners scratching their heads, others requesting extra lime wedges and mojo, the heady Caribbean garlic sauce.

A few drops of lime juice coax smooth and soothing plantain soup's lovely, subdued flavors.

Luly's mojo, a tangy garlic rush, saves thick, often-dry tostones and, recently, a

Cuban sandwich. Flavorful Cuban bread was appropriately packed with ham, shaved roast pork, Swiss cheese and pickles, but the stack arrived barely warmed from the hot press.

Smokey rich black beans, however, require neither condiment, and the small bowls alongside entrees leave room for big, sweet pastelitos beckoning from clear cake stands.

Some of the crisp, puff pastry packages hide sugary guava preserves or saccharine dulce de leche.

The flan is over-the-top sweetness, too - a dense, cheesecakey mound awash in honey-brown caramel.

Either dessert begs a creamy cafe con leche capper, strong defense against heading out into this unpredictable winter or another reason to stay inside.

liz.biro@starnewsonline.com. Twitter.com at @lizbiro