Terrific fried chicken, steak and delicate fish done Dominican-style, on the Peninsula

Wasakaka — it sounds like a celebration, and tastes much the same.

Pretty much every Dominican family has their own version of the garlic-citrus sauce, says Ricky Batista, owner of the new Yorktown Dominican spot Tambora Latin Cuisine. And on chicken or fish or anything fried, wasakaka is the liquid equivalent of bright Caribbean sunshine, a lightly tart fillip to the senses.

The base ingredients might always be the same: lime and sour oranges and garlic and Dominican oregano that is darker and more pungent than the oregano you likely have in your cupboard. But from there, the rest is a secret, and Batista won’t say what Tambora chef Esmarlyn Dilone puts in his version.

Douse it on Dilone’s crispy-fried and breaded red snapper, a fish he favors above all others, and it’s a bright burst that somehow makes the fish feel more like itself. Dilone adds his own portion as the final touch, on fish already herbed up with a special blend.

Tambora’s juicy, crisped pica pollo — Dominican fried chicken — also has its own secret blend that includes ginger for an extra bit of earthy pungency. That chicken’s a genuine pleasure, crisp and delicately seasoned breading giving way to a juicy pop from the meat beneath.

It was likely the dish I craved most after a first visit to Tambora, which has managed to create a bright and beautifully welcoming environment in a once forbidding space — a former strip-mall buffet along fast-moving George Washington Memorial Highway. Open the restaurant’s dark-mirrored door, and it’s like entering the Tardis: It seems bigger on the inside.

That renovation was a project for the whole family, from mother to mother-in-law to cousins — of which Dilone is also one — most of whom lived in New York before coming South. Batista had fallen in love with Virginia after coming here with the Air Force, and brought the whole clan along for the ride.

My own preference for the pica pollo is apparently shared by many of the 2-month-old restaurant’s Dominican customers, according to Batista. But Puerto Rican visitors tend to spring for the mofongo, the Boricua favorite made with spices and mashed green plantains.

Tambora makes theirs the Dominican way, with fried and crispy pork-skin chicharron mixed in with the mound of plantain, and jumbo shrimp perched atop it. The secret extra twist, one Batista says he almost regrets revealing, is again wasakaka. Though Puerto Rican adobo is customary, it’s used nowhere at Tambora.

And yet Tambora’s variant is still popular with the many emigres from the Dominican Republic’s neighboring island — gratifying to hear, he says, because Puerto Rican standards for mofongo are notoriously high.

Native Virginians, meanwhile, tend to come in for the churrasco, Batista said, a lovingly and long-marinated skirt steak grilled to the edge of char. And everyone gets the empanadas, lightly fluffy and stuffed with shredded meat. The restaurant makes 700 empanadas a week, a number that keeps climbing.

First-time visitors will likely do well to get a generous “fritura” platter mixing everything fried, from fresh-cut french fries to chicharrons to plantains to a pica pollo wing to a delicately crisped pork belly and multiple takes on Dominican sausage. The last of these must be procured specially on trips to New York, as are many of the spices and ingredients Tambora uses in its food.

Much on the fritura is amenable to a dousing of wasakaka, but for the plantains in particular, spring for the mayo-ketchup — a Latin Caribbean specialty long before Heinz tried to foist it on the public as its own invention — gussied up with garlic and other spices. (“‘Mayochup’ kind of hurt my feelings a little bit,” Batista said.)

Note, however, that for a solo diner the fritura can be overwhelming in its fried meatiness. It works best if you get the already generous one-person version ($14) and then split another entree with a companion.

Add on an intense passion-fruit drink as a beverage, at least until the restaurant gets its liquor license. When that happens, Tambora plans Presidente beer and many variations on ways to serve the DR’s beloved Brugal rum and herbal wine-and-rum-based Mama Juana.

Even without the liquor, or the live music and Latin dance nights Batista plans when the pandemic is in the rear-view, Tambora already feels like a fully realized restaurant.

Tambora has a few of what Batista calls “modern” touches, from its attentive plating to a few Continental culinary influences stemming from Dilone’s long career in Italian kitchens in New York. The seafood soup now takes some cues from Italy. And a couple pasta dishes adorn the menu, should you like to try the noodly wares of a former New York chef.

But the room is also filled with touches that make it known to Dominicans as a piece of home. In particular, on one wall, amid fake foliage surrounding the fire lights, stand the words, “Dominicano hasta la tambora.”

Dominican till the drum. Dominican to the max. Dominican to the end.

Matthew Korfhage, 757-446-2318, matthew.korfhage

—

if you go

Location: Tambora Latin Cuisine, 1900 George Washington Memorial Hwy., Yorktown, 757-782-2232, www.facebook.com/tamborava.

Prices: Most entrees $10 to $16. Empanadas 2 for $5. Churrasco steak, $22. Whole snapper, $25. Menu here.

Hours: 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday with extended dinner hours until 10 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays. Closed Tuesdays.