Noches De Colombia

We stopped here on a Sunday at 2:00 PM and the place was packed, mostly with Latinos.  The hostess greeted us with a friendly "Veinte Minutitos" (twenty little minutes) "por favor".  Luckily, it was a hot day and there was an empty table outside we could grab immediately.  The fried empanadas platter we had as an appetizer was quite good.  The Bandeja Paisa (typical Colombian dish) with a monstrous piece of fried pork belly, two fried eggs, steak, rice, beans and fried plantains was just the type of thing your doctor would use as an example of what NOT to eat as part of a healthy diet.  The tres leches we ordered for desert was large but mediocre at best, using some sort of oil-based whipped cream rather than a dairy product (which in the case of a cake that claims to make use of "three types of milk", is particularly disappointing).  Pan de Bono (semi-sweet cheese bread) was very fresh and warm.  We wanted to order some to take home, but stood 5 minutes at the take-out counter without anyone acknowledging us before we left.  Food was plentiful, cheap but of medium quality.  Service was OK.

I went here with a friend for lunch on a Sunday at about 2pm.  Parking was fine; restaurant was a little crowded considering it was a Sunday afternoon. We were seated right away.  Nice crowd and the music was not too loud. I ordered the breaded chicken with plantains and my friend ordered the steak.  Both were excellent and plenty of food to take home as a snack.  Be ready to have a nice conversation with your company because service was SLOW. Other than getting our drink, taking our order and delivering the food, there was no interaction between us and the server. No how's your food? Can I get you another drink, would you like coffee or desert or can I get you something else.  But the bottom line the food was good. For a total of $48 dollars it ok.

The fam had a lovely Sat dinner celebrating mama dukes bday.  Easy to get to right off of rt 21 and tons of parking. Got there relatively early so there were still a few open tables and no wait. The restaurant was very nice, small bar up front, round booths for larger parties and comfy chairs at the tables. Mix crowd of well dressed and very casually dressed. My only qualms were that there wasn't an appetizer menu and also my sweet plantains weren't very good. =( and I love me some sweet plantains. We did see the mini empanadas plate and ordered that to start. Everyone got something different but I'd like to emphasize two of us got the mushroom sauce w/ our meals. OMG! That was the most handsomest sauce of all time. We ordered 2 pitchers of sangria which were magical. I didn't ask or look at the bill so I think they were $25 each but they were huge pitchers and absolutely delish. The server was attentive and ensured none of the glasses were empty, he was very polished and polite.  The nice surprise for us was there was a mariachi band playing and they sang at our table also. All the old school songs  I only recognized but didn't really know. But the momz knew the words so that was a treat for her =)  Speaking of treats we didn't order dessert (Dominican cake waiting at home) but u can see them all in their  frig  in plastic container lol yea I wud change that up. But it's a nice Spanish spot and we have every intention of returning again for another family dinner. Total package: large portions, great drinks, good ambience. Family friendly or even date night ;)