If you have heard of or been to this place before I applaud you. On second thought, there is no way you have ever heard of or been to this place so allow me to enlighten you. A friend of mine and I decided that this would be the venue for one of our weekly "power lunches". Thank god I had the day off because I left so satisfied and stuffed that the rest of my day was a scratch.
When Schoener told me there was a great Bolivian place near his office I thought to myself "great compared to what? the maybe one other Bolivian place in the area??". He assured me that it would be worth the trip and that it wouldn't k.o. my wallet either. I got to the restaurant before him and it was pretty much the Latino interpretation of that scene in animal house when the white frat guys walk into the black club and the music stops. Nobody in the joint spoke a lick of English which assured me that this was gonna be really good.
The menu here ranges from 6 bucks for sandwiches to around 50 for family-portioned dishes meant to be split between several. Schoener and I both decided on the house specialty Silpancho. Silpancho is a traditional Bolivian food that is carb fest and verrry delicious. There is a base layer of white rice topped with chooped and boiled potatoes. Then, covering the entire plate is a "meat pancake" esque layer of a schnitzel type meat. On top of the meat there is two fried eggs with a helping of diced tomatoes, onions, cilantro, onions, and parsley. Ok so this sounds like a lot...because its a shit ton of food. My one worry was that the dish would be dry because of all of the potatoes and rice, but this wasn't the case at all. The silpancho was delicious and there seemed to be different sections of flavor depending on what you got in your bite. The eggs mixed with the meat and fresh salsa was very refreshing and filling at the same time. I couldnt finish my portion as hard as I tried, but what I had was fantastic and I will definitely be back.
The atmosphere is travel channel worthy and would be a great place to watch a world cup match. The dish I had was fantastic and I am anxious to go back and try something else that I have not heard of so I can add that to my list of favorites as well. For a cheap, quick meal in Arlington I give Don Arturo a mid A.
Highlight: Authenticity and the Silpancho
Lowlight: Service is slow, but they don't pretend to be a high-end restaurant.
Glad you cleared this up Guru because who the F is Don Arturo?
ReplyDelete-Magnus Papa
It's always a pleasure to share a meal with you Guru. Glad you came out for a visit.
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