Samantha's

Samantha's is a little Mexican/El Salvadoran restaurant on University Blvd in Tacoma Park. My first impression was that the interior was a lot nicer than I expected from a restaurant in a neighborhood who's chief commercial business seems to be the pawn shop. The tables are nicely set up, not too tightly packed in, with white tablecloths. The prices are a bit higher than I'm used to paying for Mexican food, but not exorbitant. Most entrees were between $10 and $20.

The food was great. I'm not sure that it's better than our long-standing favorite DC Mexican restaurant, Mi Rancho, but it might well be (Allyson liked the food better). I had the carne asada, which was well marinated -- flavorful and tender. She had the taco salad and pupusas. The papusas were very good; the shell didn't overpower the fillings and it was well flavored. The chips and salsa which came out before were superb as well. The margarita I had, on the other hand, was unexceptional. Not that it was a bad margarita, but it was solidly average.

Samantha's is somewhat hard to get to, not being Metro accessible and not having a very large parking lot, but I definitely recommend it for a nice Mexican dinner. 4.5/5.