After having passed by this restaurant on Williamson Road, in Roanoke, Virginia, many times, and having viewed online, their lively menu with color pictures of some of their most popular dishes, I finally decided that it was time to try it out. I invited a friend of mine and we arrived at the place on a Tuesday for an early evening dinner.
The restaurant's sign was very large, in front of their parking lot, and even contained color pictures of some of their popular foods and drinks. After we parked the car, we headed towards the glass doors entrance of the restaurant that had above another large sign of the restaurant.
When we entered the restaurant, the first thing we encountered was the Host's station counter. The floor had white and gray colored tiles, and the furniture was a combination of tables with chairs and booths. The decoration was not at all fancy. Just a few poster size pictures of scenes hanging from the wall and a strip of plastic flags hanging from the ceiling. The Host/Waiter quickly came and greeted us with a friendly welcome and liked the fact that I could speak Spanish because that way he could communicate better with us. He took us to one of the booths near the front window area and handed us the menu. The colorful menu with color pictures of the food contained dishes not only of Honduras but of other Latin American countries as well, like Mexico, Cuba, Puerto Rico, Colombia, and Peru. Each dish was a celebration of Latin food heritage with its authentic Latin cuisine.
As an appetizer, we ordered the Yuca Frita that came with an orange color salsa, which probably was made with ketchup and mayonnaise. The waiter also brought us a basket of tortilla chips with a small bowl with mield salsa for the chips. The chips were warm and crispy, and the salsa was thick and had small pieces of the ingredients it was made with. We both just ordered iced water for drinks, and for our main course, my friend ordered the Hunduran dish Tajaditas con Carne Molida, and I ordered the Colombian dish Bandeja Paisa. You can find these two dishes in the photo of the menu that I posted with the ingredients they contained. The menu had an extensive and excellent selection of Latin American dishes.
When the food arrived, my friend enjoyed his Honduran dish of slices of fried green plantains with ground beef, and I also enjoyed my Colombian dish with beef, chicken, pork, Colombian sausage, avocado, sweet ripe plantain slices, egg, rice, and Paisa beans, with three exceptions: the beef steak was somewhat tough to cut and eat, the egg was cooked too much, and the "Cicharron," fried pork skin, you could tell it was not fried at the moment but reheated and because of this it was dry instead of hot and juicy like it should have been. Because of this, and because I know what a real Bandeja Paisa should taste like, is that I respectfully recommend that management and the cook work on these details that I brought up so that customers with the knowledge and experience of the genuine dishes in the menu could fully enjoy their meal and so the other customers would get a better feel and enjoyment of the real and genuine cuisine.
I also noticed that during the time we were there, their were very few customers eating there. When I eat at a restaurant, I like to see it somewhat full. Yes, there were a couple of takeout orders and one customer drinking at the bar, but that was it. It could have been that it was a Tuesday early evening, so I will give it the benefit of the doubt.
The last thing I want to bring up as positive feedback to management is that they should clean up the Men's Restroom of the restaurant. When I opened the door, it looked more like a storage closet of old things, and this made me feel very uncomfortable, especially after having eaten a large meal that I had. The only reason that I gave this restaurant a 4 Star is because I trust that management will read my recommendations and take action on them, if for nothing else, so that the customers can enjoy a good meal and to better maintain the wonderful reputation of the Latin cuisine that this restaurant represents. I wish them the best of luck. read more