This bustling Bolivian restaurant does a brisk takeout business at lunch, when customers line up for the house specialty: salteñas ($2.50), sweet, football-shaped pockets filled with a soupy mix of spiced chicken or beef plus hard-boiled egg, potatoes, and peas. Two could easily serve as lunch, and you could add a cheese-filled sweet-corn tamale called a huminta ($1.75) for a satisfying dinner.
A tip: The best way to eat a salteña is to bite one end and carefully tip it back to avoid spilling liquid out the other end.
Open Tuesday through Sunday for lunch.
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Ann Limpert joined Washingtonian in late 2003. She was previously an editorial assistant at Entertainment Weekly and a cook in New York restaurant kitchens, and she is a graduate of the Institute of Culinary Education. She lives in Petworth.
