Family-owned and operated, Mi Tierra Restaurant serves Guatemalan and Salvadoran food. The atmosphere is bright, vibrant and casual. Inside are two rooms: one large with many tables and a jukebox, the second with a bar and TV. Owners Clara and Nelson have been in business here for more than 10 years. The restaurant is open for every meal, and breakfast is served all day.
Solea, part of Waltham's Restaurant Row, opened in 2002. It was designed to create the feeling of colonial South America, while its cuisine is influenced by the foods of southern Spain. Weather permitting, it opens its large windows onto Moody Street, providing a relaxing outdoor feel. Check out the wine list and menu, which features an extensive entree selection of meats and seafoods.
Las Palmas Restaurant specializes in Spanish cuisine. Some popular items include fried sausages, tostones and batida. Delivery is available.
Bani restaurant focuses on Latin American food. It is a small establishment that offers eat-in or take out services. Pastellios, empanadas, salmon, papa relienos and other options are available.
Chef-owner Deborah Hansen spent eight years in Spain before returning home to Boston and opening Taberna De Haro in 1998. Offering tapas and more than 230 wines, this Brookline eatery feels more like an excursion to Madrid than a local dining spot. Ms. Hansen's goal is to emulate the Spanish near obsession with food. To achieve this end, she returns to Madrid yearly for research. The restaurant, which includes indoor and outdoor seating, has house specialities such as Black paella (made with actual squid ink) and braised oxtail, and is a seven time Wine Spectator's Award of Excellence winner.
Owners Lara Gavigon and Julio de Haro, as well as their friendly staff, strive to make everyone who visits Estragon feel welcome and at home. The decor here is embellished by Spanish Art Deco motifs in the wallpaper, lighting and art objects. These mix stylishy with the travel and movie posters, patterned papers slipped under the glass tabletops, and leopard-print lounge chairs. Every Monday through Thursday from 5:30 to 7 p.m., visitors to the bar may order from a $1 tapas menu. There are 70 seats here, including the laid-back loveseat and stuffed-chair seating in the lounge at the restaurant's back, plus another 12 outdoor seats. The owners, though not South End residents, feel a strong connection to the community and enjoy growing corn, watermelon, tomatoes and herbs in their urban community-garden plot just behind the restaurant. When asked if she has a message to share, Lara replied: "Strive for nonviolent revolution and read more poetry. Those are my messages to the world."
