From the look of it, you’d never guess that the stark, garmento row on West 37th Street between Eighth and Ninth avenues holds a restaurant, let alone one as solid as Camino Sur. This pan-Latin newcomer occupies the former Belt Theater, and, along with the former tenant’s tiered balcony and light fixtures, retains a whiff of theatricality.

On a stage in the center of the dining room, a woman shapes batch after batch of empanadas. Attractive Moorish tiles and ironwork lend the room a touch of Latin character, but the educational empanada display, in combination with the yellowish lighting, glassed-in kitchen, and unfinished walls and ceilings, give it an unsettling resemblance to a natural history museum tableau.

Chef Larry Kolar, who was last sighted at the lamented Bolivar, prepares punchy, vigorous food with big flavors collected from all over Latin America. Far from dramatic, his menu takes a fun-loving, exploratory approach to the cuisines, modestly giving equal weight to the carnivorous joys of the Argentine grill and the sweet subtleties of exotic tropical fruits, like lulo and curuba.

The empanadas ($7), which come in two varieties, don’t really merit their place on center stage. The half-moon-shaped morsels come filled with either potato and Cheddar-like cheese or with minimally seasoned shredded beef. They’re tasty snacks, but unimpressive compared to the deeper flavor of almost everything else here. A moist and chewy corn arepa ($9), for example, laden with a plentiful nest of succulent, salty duck confit sweetened with currants, makes a fantastic starter; it’s tempting to order several.

An ensemble of cold fish appetizers includes ceviches (raw), escabeches (cooked), and a tiradito ($14). The later is a Japanese-inspired “Peruvian sashimi” made with bright slabs of tuna and avocado, dressed in a thick sauce of vibrant lime and Peru’s meaty rocoto chili.

If you ate at Bolivar, you may remember the lobster chupe ($14): a sweetly spicy, luxurious chowder of lobster, potato, peas, and a floating poached egg that enriches the complex stew. Ajiaco ($10), the pride of Colombian home cooking, is another deeply comforting soup: in it, strips of chicken share a potato-thickened broth with sliced ears of corn.

Main courses tend toward the fleshy end of the culinary spectrum, particularly the parrillas,big platters of grilled Uruguayan beef.These can be ordered with a choice of meats, such as rib-eye for $25 or, better, a combination of skirt steak and sweetbreads for only $16.The flavorful and chewy steak provides a sturdy backdrop to the sweetbreads, which are the star of the show: creamy-textured and earthy-flavored, with surfaces deliciously charred by the grill. All the parrillas come with a bed of good French fries and traditional accompaniment: fresh-flavored green chimichurri sauce and a bowl of farofa, a breadcrumb-like powder of toasted manioc meal that gives crunch and smoky, nutty flavor to anything it’s sprinkled on.

Mr. Kolar braises beef short ribs ($27) until they almost reduce to their essence, merging with a dark, rich sauce of cinnamon, wine, and raw sugar. He treats Berkshire pork loin ($25) to a fiesta of fruit,glazing it with tangy lulo juice and accompanying it with bright, distinctive-flavored Cape gooseberries tangled in cress. The pork lacks the moist richness expected from the Berkshire breed, but nonetheless offers plenty of taste. A simpler preparation works well for a sauteed striped bass filet ($25), which is served in a mellow broth with kale and pork rinds (chicharrones) and complements the rare-cooked bass’s excellent sweet flesh. Side dishes (all $6) are noteworthy too. The most masterful is a humble wedge of cabbage with its edges deeply and fragrantly caramelized.

The restaurant offers a handsome choice of close to 100 wines from South America and Spain. Delightfully, most bottles fall well under $50, providing an opportunity to sample lesser-known treasures. These include a host of Chilean and Argentinean varietals – malbec, torrontes, carmenere – as well as not one but two varieties of txakoli, the slightly effervescent, compellingly drinkable Basque white.The two are made from the two different grapes of the Basque region and show the contrast – another educational opportunity. By-the-glass choices are few and hitor-miss: a complex, rich Zuccardi tempranillo ($10), full of smoke and spice, outshines the thin, astringent Norton sangiovese ($8).

Desserts ($7) run a tasty gamut from a classic brownie-like mocha torte to an oddly starchy but delicious panna cotta flavored with fragrant curuba, a relative of passionfruit. Special attention is paid to coffee as well, with detailed annotations of each brew on the menu.

Walking into a restaurant with such an immediate, central gimmick instantly lowers one’s expectations for the forthcoming meal; but, it turns out, Camino Sur’s combination of interesting, accomplished cooking and mild, unpretentious theatrics makes for a very satisfying experience.

Camino Sur, 336 W. 37th St., between Eighth and Ninth avenues,212-695-4600.