Why go: The plastic plates and utensils may say fast food, but the cooking at this modest Peruvian/Cuban outfit often befits white tablecloths and cutlery.
What to get: Anticuchos, marinated, salted beef hearts threaded on skewers and grilled; the creamy soup known as chupe, a thick broth teeming with rice, corn, cheese, potato, onion, and shrimp and topped by a poached egg; Peruvian-style ceviche, the fish cut thin and surrounded by sweet potatoes and hunks of corn on the cob; rotisserie chicken; the breadless sandwich known as causa, in which a rich chicken salad is slathered between two rectangles of soft-cooked potato.
Best for: Those with an appetite for adventure—and a big appetite. An order of anticuchos comes with half a fried potato and a salad—an approximation of a steak dinner for about eight bucks.
Insider tip: Resist the allure of the display case in the front; the cooked-to-order food is what soars.
Open daily for lunch and dinner.
See all Cheap Eats 2008 restaurants
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.
