If you follow me on Twitter, you probably are aware that I’ve recently traveled to New York. Today’s restaurant review is from a Colombian restaurant in Jackson Heights called Los Arrieros.
Now even though the point of this post is to share my opinion of the food I had here, but I really need to get something out of the way first – What in the world is an “arriero”?! According to Webster’s dictionary, arrieros is a type of Mexican dance. But since this is Colombian cuisine, I knew that is not what they named their establishment after. This basically causes me to believe the Wikipedia version to be more accurate in this instance:
An arriero is a person who transports goods using pack animals. In South America, arrieros transport coffee, maize, cork, wheat, and myriad other items. They remain common in the paisa region (Antioquia and the Colombian Coffee-Growers Axis) of Co
Well, I thought that was pretty cool 🙂
We went to this place on a whim since Urbanspoon didn’t even have any reviews and I was glad because the food was so good! You would think they weren’t buzzing with business from that, but they actually just seem to rely on their local regulars.
When asked what I’d like to drink, I immediately thought of a Colombian soda. It’s like a champagne soda that isn’t too sweet.
I ordered a 1/2 order of breaded steak, which is served with rice and beans (or other sides you can choose from on the menu). Ruben ordered regular steak, but it also came with fried sweet plantains, which were really for me because he doesn’t eat those. AND THEY WERE SOO GOOD and perfectly sweet! Now I have to stress that these are HALF orders of their meals and it was way too much for either of us. I was in shock that Ruben ate all the steak on his plate, but I could not eat all of mine.
Bottom line is the food was all great. The service was good too – I felt like they knew we were not from around there and were extra courteous. Or maybe they just know we had never been to the restaurant. The waitress was attentive and polite.
Since we stay near Jackson Heights when in New York, it is likely that we would eat here again.
