Quick Bite: Don Juan

Don Juan
West Orange
55 Kingsley Street
973-325-9707

Open: Lunch and dinner, daily

Price: $$

Style: A brick wall, bright colors and a small, weathered bar with string lights twinkling overhead enliven this compact, casual eatery where Latin flavors rule. Comfy club chairs flank cocktail tables near a flat screen.

The Scoop: Juan Landaverde opened this under-the-radar spot in a mostly residential area in 2013. Service is attentive.

The Menu: To start, share a pitcher of the fresh-made sangria and an order of guacamole, which is creamy rather than chunky and comes with corn chips or fried green plantains. On a long list of appetizers, garlic shrimp proved a winner—the garlic isn’t harsh and there’s plenty of piquant buttery sauce to sop up with wedges of garlic bread. Mexican mains include lightly spiced fajitas and enchiladas, both of which come with rice and beans. The $14 Costa Rican Casado Tico platter includes choice of meat, plus fried egg, sweet plantains, papaya-avocado salsa and green salad. The menu is quite wide-ranging. It includes grilled salmon with white sauce and vegetables (pictured), grilled skirt steak or chicken, fettuccine Alfredo with shrimp or chicken, and even Cantonese rice.

Heads Up: The daily happy hour includes deals on food as well as drink. There’s no parking lot, so you have to find a space on the street.