Wade Anderson | Special to The Roanoke Times

The restaurant's green and white interior consists mostly of the plastic booths and vinyl cushions offered by most fast food chains.

Wade Anderson | Special to The Roanoke Times

The restaurant's sign stands high above the Williamson Road traffic.

Open since September, the Latin & Italian Restaurant sits in a nondescript brick building formerly occupied by Subway across from the venerable New Yorker. Inside, the restaurant's decor is basic, but owners Edwin and Zaida Cruz serve generous portions of good Italian and Latin food.

Edwin Cruz said that in a diverse environment like New York City, where he comes from, a restaurant has to offer Latin and Italian fare to survive in the restaurant business. This explains his decision to offer what may seem like an unusual combination in Roanoke.

The menu is divided between the two cuisines, with about one-third Latin fare and the rest Italian. The Latin portion includes carne asada (roasted meat), tacos de pollo (seasoned chicken in deep-fried tortillas) and pollo frito con tajadas (fried chicken with green banana). On the Italian side, you'll find various pasta dishes as well as chicken Alfredo, shrimp scampi and ziti primavera. The menu also features a variety of salads and hot and cold subs.

THE VIBE

The restaurant was spare but clean. The restaurant's green and white interior consists mostly of the plastic booths and vinyl cushions offered by most fast food chains. There was a flat-panel television, though it was not close enough to our table to view (but with two other couples and several infants and toddlers, we had more than enough entertainment). Shortly after we arrived, the only other patrons in the restaurant left, and we had the whole place to ourselves for the remainder of our dinner.

THE FOOD

The toughest choice was whether to order from the Latin or Italian side of the menu. For some reason, we all seemed to be in the mood for Italian but decided to try at least one Latin appetizer. We asked for two orders of fried plantains with sour cream (a bargain at $3 per order) and two orders of breadsticks (another bargain at $2 for six breadsticks). If we had known how many fried plantains came in an order, we would have opted for just one dish.

The breadsticks were terrific and nothing at all like the prefab breadsticks offered by the national pizza chains. These breadsticks have to be pulled apart because they come as a loaf of soft, freshly baked bread smothered with melted Parmesan cheese straight from the oven. The breadsticks were even more heavenly when dipped in the accompanying marinara sauce. I've never eaten fried plantains with sour cream, which surprisingly turned out to be a real treat. The plantains were crispy and caramelized on the outside with a pleasant texture and deliciously sweet taste that was tempered by the sour cream.

Enjoying a brief hiatus from my diet, I opted for the manicotti ($5.50) -- pasta filled with a generous mixture of ricotta, mozzarella, feta and Parmesan cheeses blended with a little garlic and basil. The delicious pasta is smothered with marinara sauce and crowned with melted mozzarella. Other than needing a little salt, the dish was great.

Having previously accompanied me during a review, most of my table mates knew that I would ask to sample their dishes. My wife chose the cheese steak special ($5.75), a very tasty sub with mushrooms, onions and green peppers.

The hearty chicken cacciatore (chicken breast sauteed with white wine, green peppers, onions and mushrooms with marinara sauce; $10) was good, though perhaps a little bland. The peppers and onions were crisp but more garlic might have spiced things up a bit.

The chicken Marsala ($10) was plentiful with lots of chicken and mushrooms, though as my friend pointed out, it was difficult to taste the signature ingredient -- Marsala wine.

Although I found the majority of the dishes pleasant, there were a few disappointments. The eggplant parmigiana ($9.25) was a little too mushy and light on eggplant flavor while the meatballs on one friend's spaghetti ($5.50) tasted slightly bitter and had a squishy meatloaf consistency.

THE SERVICE

Having never been to the Latin & Italian Restaurant before, I called ahead to make sure they could accommodate six adults and three young children about 5 p.m. They said it would be no problem, but I arrived a few minutes early to be sure. The restaurant was nearly deserted, and I told Zaida Cruz how many people were coming. She immediately remembered that I was the one who called and although most of the seating consists of booths, she quickly began moving two tables together and positioning the highchairs. One note: One of the highchairs felt a little wobbly and unstable, which made my wife a little nervous.

We had plenty of room to spread out, and Zaida took our orders quickly once the others arrived. She constantly refilled our drinks and the food came quickly. Luckily for us, Latin & Italian Restaurant is not the kind of place where the server frowns disapprovingly of children who drop half their meals (and half their parents' meals) on the floor. Some of downtown Roanoke's finest establishments could learn a thing or two from this little restaurant's attentive, pleasant and efficient service.

THE BOTTOM LINE

Don't let looks deceive you -- this diamond in the rough offers good food and good service worth your dining dollar.