Mirabella Cucina Latina Now Open in Dobbs Ferry
The restaurant features dishes from Cuba, Mexico, Peru, Argentina, Spain, Brazil, Guatemala, Colombia, Costa Rica, and Venezuela
by Kris DiLorenzo
Dobbs Ferry — Mirabella Cucina Latina, a new restaurant at Rivertowns Square, is an eye-opener, in more ways than one.
After a soft opening earlier in the summer, the restaurant is now in full swing — offering lunch, dinner, and brunch on the weekends. The cuisine, adapted to American tastes, features dishes from Cuba, Mexico, Peru, Argentina, Spain, Brazil, Guatemala, Colombia, Costa Rica, and Venezuela.
Why open a restaurant offering such a variety of Latin cuisines, instead of just one? “The answer has to do with the whole purpose of eating here,” General Manager Arturo Carrillo explained to the Current. Anything from the Caribbean and most of Latin America, he says, is based on rice and beans. “It’s what brings us together. That is the common denominator for Latin America.”
The menu includes universally familiar dishes — a mixed bean salad, enchiladas suizas — but with a few twists. The bean salad is dressed with Spanish sherry vinaigrette, the enchiladas arrive with a side of garlic basmati rice. The more unusual dishes include Tiradito and Lomito de Puerco. Tiradito is a Peruvian raw sliced salmon dish with an aji amarillo: a South American hot chili pepper and honey sauce, topped with ginger, cilantro, scallions, dill, mint, and masala spices. Lomito de Puerco is roasted pork tenderloin, marinated in Cuban mojo sauce, with sides of black beans, garlic basmati rice, sweet plantains, and fried yucca.
Some desserts are universally familiar — tres leches, flan — others are less so. Tarta de Santiago (“cake of St. James”) is a Spanish almond cake; the cheesecake is topped with guava coulis.
The cocktails are the classics: Cuban Mojitos, Mexican margaritas, Brazilian caipirinha, Peruvian pisco sours, and more.
The 150-seat restaurant, adjacent to LOOK Dine-in Cinemas, occupies the space vacated by the City Perch restaurant in 2019. Carrillo doesn’t know who created the space for City Perch, but he enthused, “This place had absolutely amazing bones…Whoever designed this place was a genius.”
The bar area floor is stone, the drink tables are glass, the metal and plastic chairs are futuristic. Every corner of the spacious restaurant reveals something unexpected: a gold butterfly chair in the entryway, a shuffleboard in the bar area, fish painted on a ceiling of wooden planks, Ecuadorian hats displayed in an alcove lounge containing an improbable combination of comfortable seating and abstract pieces.
Carrillo has worked in the restaurant business since he was a teenager, first in his hometown of Mexico City, where he fell in love with the business. He then spent 19 years in Dallas before winding up in Dobbs Ferry.
He wasn’t formally trained, but Carrillo loves to cook. He brought some recipes from his past experiences and tweaked them, but didn’t go overboard trying to impress people with elaborate versions. Most of the cooks at Mirabella are Latin American; diners can watch them in action at the open kitchen.
Carrillo noted that the restaurant has a place for special events, in a separate room, curtained off from the main dining area. “There are many places where a customer can have a good time,” he said. The good time extends to outdoor seating, where dogs are welcome. Carrillo’s message to humans is, “Come and have fun.”
The restaurant is open Tuesdays through Sundays (Closed Mondays), 9 a.m.-10 p.m., and offers weekend brunch on Saturdays and Sundays from 10 a.m.-3 p.m.
Mirabella Cocina Latina is located at 1 Hamilton Street, Dobbs Ferry. View the menu at mirabellacocina.com
Please see our recent announcement about the next phase of the Rivertowns Current!