RAVE - Poquitos

With so many Latin-American restaurants in San Francisco, from generic and pseudo Mexican to Peruvian, Argentinian, Guatemalan and all points between, it's a crying shame we so rarely sample their fare.

Last night was one of those infrequent times we did indulge, and it was rewarded with an excellent, mostly Ecuadorian meal at Poquitos.

We first had to ignore the setting - an unglamorous stretch of 3rd Street - and the bar that occupied the front half of the place, but once sat down in the restaurant itself, we were treated to dish after dish of interesting and flavorful spins on the taco- and empanada-centric menus at most Latino places.

The four of us shared Habas Fritas (fava beans, fried and salted), Llapingachos (Ecuadorian potato pancakes with cheese and green onions), Beef Empanadas with salsa roja, Chorizo Sliders with gorgonzola cheese and caramelized onions, Shrimp Tacos on jicama wrapper with pickled slaw and guanabana balsamic reduction, and Fritada (crisped, braised pork with hominy, pickled onions and spinach salad).

While the pork was a little dry, everything tasted good and fresh, and the marvelous rum cocktails that Josh and I tried several times handled that dry pork. The owner and waitress were both very friendly and informative and - sheesh this is sounding like a review from Mr Nice.