Long Island restaurants offering dinner and dancing

While Long Island offers innumerable dock-and-dine opportunities, finding a good place to dine-and-dance can be something of a challenge.  This is too bad, as there are few better, or at least more immediate, ways to work off heavy meals than by heading to the dance floor for a little postprandial cardio. The fare at the following three establishments may satisfy neither the determined foodie nor the committed health nut, but thanks to entertaining meals and free entertainment, each is a prospect worth entertaining indeed.

K. Pacho

1270 Union Tpke., New Hyde Park

Raucous fun, thy name is this Mexican stalwart, living proof that all any Saturday night needs is a makeshift dance floor crowded with lovers of Latin music and any margaritas it takes to get them there ($12-$15). While the DJ starts spinning at 6 p.m., the good times tend to roll a couple of hours later and usually continue until at least 1 a.m., providing you and your dance partner ample time to scale mountainous plates of nachos ($18.95) and fat cigars of chicken taquitos sprinkled with cotija cheese ($12.95). More substantial dishes are available — two of these are the juicy steak fajitas ($22.95) and cheese enchiladas ($23.95) — but be advised that anyone consuming either should avoid dancing for a time, a la the 30-minute, no-swimming rule. More info: 516-358-2222, kpacho.com

Painters’ Restaurant

416 S. Country Rd., Brookhaven

Although perhaps properly understood as a party spot with food rather than the other way around, this place gets points for its live band and lively vibe. Arrive at around 8:30 on Friday and Saturday evenings, and staffers at this longtime haunt will be clearing a lounge area of couches and tables, creating a large space for a crowd of revelers. On a recent night, a studious cover of Amy Winehouse’s “Valerie” induced only a single brave couple to hit the floor, but other bands on other evenings spur a get-up-and-boogie migration. Expect potent cocktails like The Stranger 75 ($15), a marriage of lavender gin and prosecco, along with Painters’ house red or white sangrias ($13). Appetizers are the usual suspects (fried mozzarella, $13; jumbo lump crabcakes $18), while themed burgers headline the menu — The Norman Rockwell imagines America’s greatest feel-good artist as two smashed patties christened with pork belly, while Mexican muralist Diego Rivera gets a blackened burger, pulled pork and charred corn salsa (both $21). More info: 631-803-8593, paintersrestaurant.com

Coco Bistro Kitchen & Lounge

944 W. Jericho Tpke., Smithtown

Upstairs, the mood is white-tablecloth sedate, relatively speaking, but things couldn’t be more different in the downstairs lounge on certain Friday nights (like the upcoming one), when DJ Kazzanova whips the crowd into a terpsichorean frenzy, courtesy a repertoire of well-chosen beats with a heavy reggaeton emphasis and, perhaps, the free mojito offered to patrons who sign up for Coco’s guest list in advance. Back upstairs, the dining room offers a pan-Latin-and-more menu that the former occupant, Cafe Havana, could only dream about: Starters from chicken wings painted with a guava glaze ($17) to baked clams ($16) to yuca frita ($13); entrees like ropa viejo ($30) and a skirt steak sandwich ($25); and Tres Agaves margaritas ($13) guaranteed to erase all memories of past groove thang embarrassment whatever the cause — two left feet, awkward arm movements, ill-timed hand claps, etc. More info: 631-670-6277, cocobistroli.com

By Scott Vogel

scott.vogel@newsday.com

Newsday writer and restaurant critic Scott Vogel aims for a refreshing, gimlet-eyed take on the Long Island food scene, often while drinking a refreshing gimlet.