Category: Colombian Food and Restaurants

In the comments section of my post on Tamales from El Salvador Pupuseria y Restaurante; "Black Belt Jonez" (BTW, I love the Handle – I actually saw the movie starring Jim Kelly at the old American Theater on Hotel Street in Chinatown) mentioned Sabores Colombianos which was close by. Funny thing, I had just noticed the place on the drive up to El Salvador Pupuseria. So, I put the place on my "list" and managed to visit a couple of times over the last few months.

The restaurant is located on the corner of University and 37th street. If I recall, this used to be a Thai Restaurant for a while. The folks working here always seemed so friendly and welcoming; though timing and service can be a bit spotty. The dining room is simple and functional.

Part of the strangeness is that the register and reception area is in a totally separate room, so if you walk into the dining area, they might not even know you're there for a while. These days, I grab a menu by the door and just walk to a table.

On my first visit; I went with a favorite from Antojitos Colombianos; the Lengua en Salsa. Here they give you a rather large bowl of soup to start.

Man, this was pretty hefty for an accompaniment. Nice chicken flavored broth, with some whole potatoes and a couple of crunchy, but pleasant pieces of tripe. Decent flavor, not too salty.

The flavor of the Lengua en Salsa was good, the tangy sauce and vegetables; the condensed beefiness of the tongue. The portion size was quite large.

On the other side of things; the tongue was a bit more tough than I enjoy and the yucca frita wasn't crisp. The plantain was delish and I enjoyed the creaminess the avocado brought to the dish.

A few weeks later, I was in the area and thought I'd drop by for a snack….which would be anything but a "small bite".

The experience took on a rather strange tone as this woman walked up to the front of the place and started to display some rather odd behavior; like praying to the trash receptacle, then making stabbing motions at the telephone pole. Then, gasp….she saw me inside the restaurant and started making strange faces, then turned her back and started making bizarre hand signals to me. Since there was no one else in the place, I changed tables. Soon after, the police arrived and sent her along her way….apparently she was bothering some other folk as well. This is sad. I hope she gets some help with dealing with whatever demons she is dealing with.

I ordered an Empanada and also without really thinking the Arepa con Chicharron.

The empanada exterior was light and slightly crisp, though perhaps a bit more chewy than I prefer. The beef filling was tasty, but the shredded beef was a bit tough and stringy which meant that in one bite you'd take some of the nice crust, but pull all the filling out. The salsa was a nice, tangy, not very spicy addition.

I'm not quite sure why I ordered the Arepa con Chicharron. Perhaps it was a moment of weakness. But man, that was so much pork, for such a small arepa.

The arepa was quite nice; this wasn't stuffed, just a plain, moist corn cake. The pork was a mixed bag; the rind was super hard and tough, but everything else was a nice, fried, porky place. I used the salsa from the empanada, along with the lime to combat the richness.

We had a couple of fairly "cool" days this past May and on one my "shopping Saturdays", I decided to drop by Sabores Colombianos for some Ajiaco, the chicken and potato soup.

 The portion size was quite large. Plus, it came with rice, capers, green salad, and the ever present half avocado. The soup had a distinctive grassy-bay leaf-artichoke flavor. When I asked, they told me it was a herb known as guasca, a traditional flavoring component for dishes like Ajiaco. There was a generous portion of shredded chicken and quite a bit of potato in this soup. Great flavor, but my only complaint was that it was served a bit too cold and quickly started to develop a "skin".

Still, quite a hearty meal in a bowl.

A couple of weeks later; after returning from our trip to Lima, Santiago, and Easter Island, I decided to take the guys to lunch. I thought they'd enjoy trying out some Colombian food, so we headed up to City Heights and Sabores Colombianos. I had them try some empanadas and also ordered a Papa Rellena.

  This version was filled with beef, which was on the chewy side and could have used a bit more seasoning. Still, that crunchy crust, with a nice potato flavor with the boiled egg. This was quite filling.

Calvin got the Lengua en Salsa and I decided on the Sobrebarriga, which was flank steak with basically the same sauce as the Lengua en Salsa.

This was a bit more tender than the lengua, but was also no the stringy side. I do enjoy the tangy tomato based sauce. The yucca was as before, on the gummy side.

So JohnF is quite the eater, so I ordered the Bandejas Paisa for him.

Which he said was delicious and to both Calvin and my amazement polished off; after having an empanada and half the papa rellena! Good lord!

On one of my visits, I saw a gentleman who I believe was one of the Servers at Antojitos Colombianos. I'm not sure if there's any connection, though the food is a bit different. In my mind, I thought the dishes at "AC" were a bit better, but its been awhile, so perhaps I need to revisit. Still, I thought the food here was good in a rustic, homestyle kind of way and I don't think you'll leave hungry.

Sabores Colombianos
3695 University Ave
San Diego, CA 92104

*** You can find an updated post here

A couple of months back, I was doing one of my "drives" to check out what's new….this time it was on Imperial. I hadn't been around since they started construction on the "Farmer's Market" site which is going to become a Wal-Mart. During my drive east on Imperial, I noticed some of the food stalls that used to occupy the market, like El Guero had set-up shop on the street. Then something caught my eye. Right next to El Salvadoreno was what seemed to be a Colombian Restaurant, called Antojitos Colombianos.

Actually, this was the original location of El Salvadoreno way back when. I mentioned the place to the Missus and even one of my coworkers, "AaronF" who is from Bogota. It took us a while, like three months, the shop closes at 7 pm, so it's hard to hit after work sometimes, but we finally made it there a couple of weeks ago.

There was one woman working the shop that day…doing everything, taking orders, bussing, making the food, but man she worked impressively! She also seemed a bit unsure of us when we entered, but soon warmed up to us. In fact, during our meal, she came by a couple of times to tell us (as much as she could) about how things were made, while still serving the other two tables, cooking, and cleaning….amazing.

We just had to start with the Empanadas ($1.50 each), which were a nice yellow and still sizzling when they hit the table.

The empanadas looked a bit greasy at first glance, but were not. The texture was crisp at first, with a bit of a chew. The filling, a combination of seasoned beef and potatoes, with hints of spices like cumin was very tasty. The aji that came along with the empanadas was more sour than spicy. I enjoyed the extra dimension it added to my empanada, this Missus just loved Hers straight up.

The Missus also loved the Chorizo con Arepa ($2.99).

I half expected the arepa to be stuffed with a chorizo mixture, but even though it was not, the Missus loves Her cornmeal products and that arepa went down in a second. This chorizo was also quite good, more of a firm sausage, with a mild smokey heat from peppers, along with other good seasonings. Had me wondering where they got this from….I wanted some for my own stash!

The Missus also ordered a true Colombian dish Aborrajado ($2.99), basically a fried plaintain stuffed with cheese.

The plantain was very ripe…which the Missus loves. Me, I'm not a big fan of sweet-milky-sour flavors, so this wasn't my thing. On a future visit, the plantain wasn't quite ripe enough and it was very starchy which the Missus didn't care for, but I didn't mind.

I went all in and order the Bandeja Paisa($12.49), the classic Colombian gut busting platter(bandeja) of protein and carbs that many consider the national dish of Colombia. One does not fool around with a plate of food like this.

The first thing the Missus said when this arrived was, "there's nothing green on the plate!" Of course, I quickly pointed out the avocado, which also provides over 20 essential nutrients I might add! As a whole this was much better then the version I had at Tropicafe. I was probably most impressed with the carne de res….the slice of beef, which looked like it was going to be shoe leather, but was surprisingly tender, if a bit under-seasoned. The chorizo on this plate was more of a Mexican style sausage and totally different from what came with the arepa, which we preferred. The Missus poached the plantain, which She loved. The fried egg was a fried egg, the chicharron on the hard side, but still better than Tropicafe's version. This was served with rice and peruano beans which had nicely absorbed all the flavor of it's cooking liquid….which also nicely included bits of pork.

The woman working really made us feel at home as did the food, so we decided to return for another dinner. This time there was a gentleman working the kitchen who greeted us from behind the counter when we arrived. When we sat, a well dressed man brought us menus…we thought he worked there but he was just another customer who wanted us to feel at home….this is the kind of place Antojitos Colombianos is.

Of course we had to have the empanadas, which were even better this time around.

The Missus also ordered Aborrajado which I mentioned earlier disappointed Her as the plantains weren't ripe enough for Her. The Chorizo en Arepa was still good though! The Missus also ordered this baseball looking thing……

 Which is the Papa Rellena ($3.99). The exterior was nicely crisped, while retaining the wonderful potato flavor. The filling was rice and chicken, which could have had a bit more flavor. But this was still good. I was told that the filling can vary from day to day depending on what's available.

Meanwhile, a nice tall gentleman whom we saw on our last visit entered. I believe he's the owner…he smiled and came over to shake our hands and chat.

Earlier, I had asked the friendly gentleman cooking what I should order, the chuleta (pork cutlet), sobrebarriga (flank steak), or the lengua? He smiled looked me up and down and said, "the lengua, you will like the lengua". So I ordered the Lengua en Salsa ($11.99)…..

This was indeed the right decision. The beef tongue was very tender, mildly gamey, with that condensed beef flavor that well prepared lengua has. Missing was the waxy texture with a strong offal taste that poorly prepared lengua has. The onions, peppers, and tomatoes added pungency and acid to the dish. The yucca frita was crisp and almost light and disappeared quickly into the Missus's mouth. In fact, the "non-meat eater" in the family loved this as well and almost finished half the lengua!

As we left the place, the Missus told me, "you know, we just had five different starches with this meal. Corn, plantain, potato, rice, and yucca. So much for the plate lunch three starch rule, huh?" In spite of eating a seemingly vast amount of food during our two meals, at no time did we feel stuffed, which is kind of strange.

There's a homey, friendly kind of warmth that we feel when eating here. I'm sure we'll be back again.

Antojitos Colombianos
2851 Imperial Ave
San Diego, CA 92102
Open Daily 11am – 7pm