El Guanaco

I’ve always been curious about Salvadoran food. Is it like Mexican food? Is it spicy? These are questions I’ve always pondered so I thought it was time to investigate for myself. Hopefully, El Guanaco would hold the answers. El Guanaco is a tiny Salvadoran restaurant tucked away in the back corner of a plaza off Lexington Road in Athens. The restaurant is so tiny it’s easy to miss. I myself had to loop around the plaza once before spotting it.
While the interior of the restaurant is small, it’s sparkling clean. Walking into El Guanaco is like walking into a shiny, sterilized world filled with Salvadoran food. As I glanced through the menu, a mild wave of panic swept over me. Now is probably a good time to mention that I’m a pescetarian, which is exactly like a vegetarian except that I eat fish, but absolutely no meat. If you’re a vegetarian pretty much the only choice on the El Guanaco dinner menu would be the veggie quesadillas, which is exactly what I ordered.
Let me tell you, the quesadillas did NOT disappoint. I was skeptical at first because many times when I order veggie quesadillas, they come filled with mostly cheese and maybe a stray onion here and there, but hardly any veggies. However, when my quesadillas arrived I was pleasantly surprised. Each wedge of quesadilla was stuffed with a mixture of veggies, beans, rice and cheese. The different veggies included; carrots, broccoli, cauliflower, green peppers, and onions. El Guanaco goes heavy on the beans and veggies, light on the cheese and rice, which is a nice combination that I’m not used to experiencing in most South American/Mexican/TexMex restaurants. The quesadillas came served with the traditional side of lettuce, tomato, and sour cream. The tortilla itself was cooked perfectly in my opinion, it was lightly grilled and there wasn’t an ounce of oil to be found on it.
Denny ordered the tacos in corn tortillas filled with chorizo, sour cream, salsa, lettuce and rice.
While I couldn’t try a taste because I don’t eat meat, Denny raved about it. He said he doesn’t usually like chorizo, but that the chorizo used in his taco was sweet yet slightly spicy, equating in a delicious pairing.
El Guanaco serves complimentary tortilla chips and homemade salsa before your meal arrives. Salsa is a food that I don’t normally give much thought to, I mean unless it tastes awful, or out of this world insanely good, it’s all the same to me. The house salsa El Guanaco makes falls into the out of this world insanely good category. It’s spicy enough where it has a kick, but won’t leave you guzzling down glass after glass of water. The diced tomatoes are thick and juicy, and the overall flavor of the salsa is mild and slightly sweet. If you prefer your salsa spicy, I’m sure you could request that the restaurant kick up the spiciness factor a notch. When the bill came to our table Denny and I couldn’t believe how cheap it was. Our meal, which consisted of the quesadillas and the tacos, came to a grand total of around $12.00!! As Denny and I were checking out the dessert options on the menu we noticed that El Guanaco serves breakfast as well as lunch and dinner, ALL DAY!! This was great news for me seeing as breakfast is my favorite meal.
Will I go back? Without a doubt, yes. The food is delicious, cheap, and somewhat healthier than your standard Mexican/South American food. I’m also excited to try their breakfast!!