They say that the best tasting food is made with love. This is especially hard to find when dining out. This is due to the lack of passion that so many fry cooks understandably lack.
So where does one find a restaurant that creates their dishes with passion? The answer is usually driven past, unnoticed, many a time by the unenlightened consumer.
Yes. The answer is the “hole-in-the-wall” restaurant, whose name you can’t pronounce.
Stereotypically, these small restaurants are often family-owned, usually by immigrants, that struggling to pursue their passion and spread their culture to this new world.
A perfect example of this is “Tres Banderas,” on the intersection of highway 100 and Clarkson road.
When I first entered the small establishment, I was greeted by mariachi music, colorful murals, and the friendly face of Senora Carmen Lopez. When I realized that the place was empty on a Saturday afternoon, I knew she was going to treat me as a valuable customer.
‘Tres Banderas’ (Trace Ban-Dare-Uhs) is Spanish for ‘three flags’: The U.S., El Salvador (Carmen’s country of origin), and Mexico (for the genre of cooking). While her style is Mexican, Carmen also features El Salvadorian dishes such as flautas (Flow-Tuhs) and tostadas (Toast-Ah-Duhs). Mexican food, as it typically exists in the US, is not just 40 different ways to make beef and tortillas… so you could have imagined my pleasure when I experienced the variety in the construction of Carmen’s dishes!
It is safe to say that this restaurant makes some of the best Latin dishes I have ever been honored to consume. With that said, Carmen makes everything fresh, with fresh ingredients, and maintains a sense of variety from dish to dish, as well as always achieving the traditional and authentic experience that the Latin culture has to offer. This restaurant is affordable, fun, and has generous portions!
-Authentic music, artwork, food, beverages
-Friendly atmosphere
-Homestyle cooking
-$1 Fish tacos on tuesdays
