Linda Falkenstein
A new Colombian restaurant, Smiley's II, has opened at 1272 South Park Street, in the former Mi San Juanito Mexican space.
The decor is, well, Spartan. The menu is divided into chicken dishes, seafood dishes, and "platos tipicos," which translates roughly into something like "native dishes" (these are all centered around beef).
There are daily specials, which are all soups (beans and pork on Monday, chicken with rice on Tuesday, flank steak on Wednesday, fish on Thursday, beef tripe on Friday, oxtail on Saturday, and ham on Sunday,)served with rice and salad. Smiley's also has various plantain preparations, empanadas, and arepas.
The plate of all plates on the platos tipicos menu is the meat-heavy Bandeja Mixta Colombiana ("Colombian platter"), which features grilled steak, pork loin, pork cracklings, a 1/4 of a chicken, French fries, rice, beans, salad, an arepa and sweet plantains (maduras) ($18.45). There's just a little less meat on the Bandeja Campesina ("Farmers' platter") which includes ground beef, pork cracklings, rice, beans, egg, sweet plantains, avocado and an arepa ($12.50).
The seafood menu relies on tilapia and sole. Vegetarians are not likely to find a lot of dishes to try here.
Most dinners are between $4.50 (for 1/2 a rotisserie chicken) and $19.45 (for a grilled sirloin steak with chimichurri.
