Details

Irene's Restaurant

601 Second St.
Laurel, MD 20707

301-362-3371

Neighborhood: Laurel

Cuisines: South American

Price Range: Inexpensive

Dress: Informal

Noise Level: Chatty

Reservations: Not Needed

Best Dishes:
Baliada with chicken, avocado, and scrambled eggs; chicken soup; pollo guisada; pupusas; berry batida milkshake.

Dirt Cheap Eats 2009: Irene's Restaurant

The space once housed a rotisserie-chicken franchise, but in fact this is a proud, family-style operation that delivers where it counts.

The standout is the baleada ($4.75 for two), essentially a Honduran taco or burrito. A pizza-size flour tortilla is tossed on the griddle, then smeared with creamy refried beans and drizzled with crema. A superb variation adds diced rotisserie chicken, slices of avocado, and scrambled eggs. The baleadas come two to an order for $4.75—the single best dining value in the area. There’s also a generous portion of pollo guisado ($7.95)—two pieces of stewed chicken with rice and beans, two tortillas, and a salad—and excellent pupusas ($1.50 to $1.75) with a mound of the fresh, tangy slaw called curtido.

Open Monday through Friday 9 to 9.

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