Samba Room brings a Caribbean feel to Larimer Square

The Samba Room in the heart of Denver's Larimer Square provides good, basic cuisine of mostly Latin origins in a space designed to evoke an island feel — with the sounds salsa and samba playing to a crowd of young professionals, tourists and business people.

The menu concentrates on the few and the good. There's the signature ceviche appetizer of seafood and shellfish for $8.95. The coconut shrimp costs a dollar more, and the pork and sweet corn empanadas a dollar less. 

The Maryland Bluefin Crab Cakes, for $10.95, don't exactly fit the Caribbean theme, but the mariquitas — plantain chips — served with black bean corn salsa for $6.95 definitely do.

The dinner entrées range in price from the traditional Spanish paella, at $25.95, down to the $15.95 Samba Soba Noodles, a Japanese dish of buckwheat noodles, bok choy, shitake mushrooms and soy ginger sauce.

The Argentinean skirt steak ($22.95) at least reminds you of a Spanish-speaking land, while the pork barbacoa might have come straight out of Puerto Rico or Cuba. Tucked into a roasted banana leaf, the shredded pork in a salty-sweet sauce is both tender and tasty. As with other items on the menu, there's not a huge amount of it, but the portion isn't tiny, either.

For lunch, of course, you'll pay a lot less, with sandwiches such as the Ropa Nueva topping out at just under ten bucks. There's arroz con pollo for $9.95 and a rum-glazed salmon for $12.95.

Although the food makes the Samba Room worth a try, a lot of people come here just to drink. They'll get some delicious and beautiful cocktails, but they won't get them cheap: the basic Mojito, of rum, mint and squeezed lime, goes for $7.50, while the Caribbean Cosmo costs $10 and the Samba Tinis range from $9 to $11. 

You can also choose from quite a few wines, as well as the usual ales and beers. You can save a lot by showing up during the Happy Hour, from 4 to 7 p.m. daily and on Sundays until closing.

Latin Caribbean Island spicy food martini Mojito seafood ceviche Caribbean empanadas crab cakes paella Argentina beef pork pork barbacoa arroz con pollo sandwiches ropa vieja cocktails