Luzmila's Cuisine

Falls Church residents looking for a good place to eat lunch may have been driving up and down W. Broad St. for years thinking they knew all the considerable number of fine restaurants that are sprinkled along the strip, from the Haandi at one end to Ireland's Four Provinces at the other.

But there's one that many might have overlooked, because it is modestly-sized, slightly recessed from the street and hidden under an awning in what is currently the City of Falls Church's only operational "mixed use" building. We're talking about Luzmila's Cuisine at 809 W. Broad St.

Patrons will be genuinely surprised at the quality and the value of the Bolivian cuisine at this understated location, and if there's any downside to this business, it's that its fine food is available only during daytime hours, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesdays through Sundays.

Two choices of a different homemade entree special, with soup, are offered every day for only $6.50.

A Falls Church City resident, Luzmila Gonzales lived a dream when she started the restaurant five years ago, having come with her family from Cochabomba, Bolivia, just a few years earlier. She's always enjoyed cooking, says her son, Ariel, who was working the cash machine while on spring break from George Mason Middle School when we visited earlier this week.

But Ariel, who plays lacrosse at Mason, spends more than just spring break time at his mother's restaurant. He's there outside school hours every chance he gets to help operate the family business.

With his mother busy in the kitchen as the wait staff handled a near-full house, including two outdoor tables, Ariel took the News-Press through a tour of the menu after, of course, a number of dishes were sampled first hand.

The first striking feature of the restaurant is the size of the menu – a wide array of soups, salads, appetizers, main dishes and desserts. The main dishes feature beef, pork and chicken. No seafood, as anyone who looks at a map of Bolivia can understand. It is landlocked high in the Andes.

But beef is the most popular meat, and Silpancho, a thin crusted steak served with rice, fried potatoes, friend eggs and sarza (chopped onion and tomato on salt and vinegar) tops Ariel's list of recommended dishes.

There is also the gigantic Parrillada Luzmila's. For $25.95, the customer gets a huge combination of beef ribs, pork chops, flank steak, Argentine sausage, tripas, blood pudding, chicken, rice, french fries and salad. Enough to feed an army, or at least two very hungry people.

Tueday, the two specials were Lechon, a spicy pork with a fried banana and boiled potato, and Picante de Pollo, a chicken dish with rice, along with the two soups of the day – Sopa de Mani, a milk-based peanut soup, and Lawa de Quinua, a beef barley offering.

Perhaps the most characteristic Bolivian item is an appetizer – a saltenas, which is a turnover filled with either vegetables, chicken or beef. Then there are other tasty appetizers, the corn and cheese humintas, empanadas, cunapes and quesadillas.

Corn is a major staple of the Bolivian diet, given it is by far the most heavily grown product in the country. It finds its way into unique dishes in a variety of ways.

Some unique Bolivian art adorns the walls of Luzmila's. It's well worth a visit to this local treasure. If you go once, you will go back often.