The Salsa Room Quesadillas & Baked Empanadas

Only time for a quick review today, so sorry for the brevity.As my quick tip today mentioned, The Salsa Room serves up fresh hot Bolivian Saltanas. Saltanas are a bit different than Empanadas as firstm they are baked not fried, and second, the ingredients are a medley of meats and veggies...not the typical beef and only beef or chicken and only chicken you will find in an Empanada.Why do they call them Empanadas on the truck and on the menu? Because who has heard of a Saltana before? On the other hand, everybody knows how tasty a good Empanada is!I got one chicken and one beef. Each were stuffed (literally) with about 50% meat and the other 50% consisted of potatoes, peas, olives and other non-meat goodness. I didn't take a complete inventory as I was too hungry to take the time :-)Anyway, I will gladly be back. The ladies at the truck made sure to give me a sample of their delicious flan as well, and I will definitely add that to my order next time.Enjoy DC foodies!

Just so we can all be clear, a saltena is a baked empanada. So I give the Salsa Room props for trying to dumb it down for us non-South Americans ;)I got the steak quesadilla. It came with no frills. Just a load (like, a lot) of cheese and (obviously) par cooked steak in a huge flour tortilla. There was also a cup of salsa and a cup of sour cream involved. Nothing fancy or outstanding. It solves a quesadilla quandry especially in the L'Enfant area where our food options are few and far between.Stick with the saltenas....How to Eat a Saltena like a champ:1. Buy delicious saltena from The Salsa Room truck. I went with the beef saltena. I was happily rewarded with juicy bits of steak.2. Savor your first bite. Strategically, go for one end or the other. If you want to go hard on it, take a big bite from the middle and prepare for this hot juicy pouch to burst. 3. After that first amazing bite, I like to put the folded side down and cut down the middle with my spoon. I like to eat it like this because it's the sweet, spicy, savory sister to the chicken pot pie. 4. If you like it spicy, pour some of their hot sauce on...it goes really well with it. 5. Discover the peas, raisins, and olives swimming with the steak. Yum.5. Proceed to inhale the rest of your saltena. The outside is slightly sweet while the inside is just a little spicy.6. Get another one. Repeat. One is a bit more than a snack. Two is the perfect lunch.

I hadn't had a quesadilla in a while so I was excited to try one from here. I was going to order steak after reading some great reviews about it, but sadly they were out of it. So I went with the bbq chicken instead and it was pretty awesome. Upon receiving my order, I realized that I had to get guacamole. What's a quesadilla without some guac? I'm not sure if it was because the service was slow or because they didn't have any steak left, but when I asked for some, the guy who helped me was nice enough to give me the guacamole for free!As for the quesadilla itself, the portion was prodigious, easily enough for two meals or a meal and a snack at least. The chicken itself was grilled, juicy, not tough at all, and tasted great with their bbq sauce. For my three add-ins, I got pico de gallo, southwestern rice and black beans. The combination worked really well, especially with some salsa, sour cream and guacamole. The salsa wasn't that great (no real spice and only a little bit of flavor) although the guacamole was really good. Definitely a food truck I would get from again, although next time, I hope I get to try the steak!

The Salsa Room has a more subdued, even plain, food truck-black with white lettering-so it would be easy to miss if not for the lines. It's always a good sign when you see a line formed in front of a truck, with another group of people standing on the side to wait for their orders.Besides the crowd, I was drawn to this particular vendor because I saw crab quesadillas listed as one of the daily specials on a dry erase board. Sold!Quesadillas range between six to twelve bucks, depending on the filling. The crab quesadilla was $10. All quesadillas also came with three sides. I later learned that the "sides" constituted part of the filling. To complement the quesadillas, I got black beans, corn, and quinoa. What a perfect combo! The quinoa gave the quesadillas, with their ooey gooey cheese, a lighter yet more filling quality. The black beans and corn went well together and added to the texture of the quesadillas.The "fresh crab" indicated on the menu wasn't as visible, but I could definitely taste it and know it's there.Overall, I was pleased with my pick because portions were plentiful (I have leftovers), the flavors went well together, and the price wasn't bad (brick and mortar restaurants typically charge two to three dollars more for seafood-filled burritos/enchiladas/quesadillas). Will be back to try their empanadas on another beautiful summer day.

I had a Fajita Steak Quesadilla with Black Beans, Sweet Corn and Pico de Gallo. This was very filling and YUMMY! Lots of steak (which was tender and seasoned to perfection), peppers & onions.The ONLYYYY reason why I did not give 5 stars is because the 2nd half of my Quesadilla got super soggy from the juice in the bottom of the container. It kinda sucked because I just had to eat the filling with my fork. I hate soggy bread, tortillas, chips, etc. Otherwise, it was one of the BEST Quesadilla's I have had and I will def be back!

The Yelper who compared the Salsa Room's empanadas to the ones from Julia's is right on the money; if you like Julia's Empanadas you will like these, as the Salsa Room's fare is similar in taste, size, and price to Julia's. Pros: Generally tasty empanadas, quick-to-no wait in line, authentic fillingsCons: Lack of variety in choices and the meat empanadas all taste very similar (the filling for the chicken and beef empanadas is almost indistinguishable).In the battle of the empanada food trucks, I give the edge to DC Empanadas (for the constantly rotating options and unique flavor choices), but certainly the Salsa Room is a good lunch option.

Kind of a hot mess of a food truck. The lines were so long, the service so slow, and the cashier giving estimated wait times so far off the actual wait times that I thought there might be riots. I watched several customers leave with out their orders, others demand refunds, and almost all of the remainder (such as myself) had to be pacified with free flan. The wait was so long (over 25 minutes) that my other friends had already eaten their lunches by the time I got my food. I walked with my burrito back to my office, and upon returning to my desk I discovered the following: they missed 2 out of 3 of my burrito ingredients, the quinoa was undercooked, and what they lack in service they more than make up for in excessive amounts of sour cream everywhere. Oh, and the flan was gross. Most of my lunch ended up in the trash.I liked the idea of this food truck. Maybe on another day it would be better, but I won't be back.

This was my first taste of TSRQ&BE and I should have read the reviews before I tried, since I now agree with some of the other reviewers here that the empanadas are not the best. I've had a lot better.For lunch, I picked up two empanadas for $8 (1 chicken & 1 chorizo at $4 each) with a side of guac for $2. At first glance I was impressed with the appearance, they were larger than most and perfectly baked with a beautiful golden brown hue. However, the insides for both were a hot soupy mess and contained more potatoes and peas than chicken or chorizo. I found that the ingredients lacked any identifiable Latin flavor and the chorizo empanada tasted like bland beef stew and left a not so desirable aftertaste in my moutn (gross!). I was very disappointed.Not sure if I'll come back to try again, but if I do it will be for the Quesadillas, since people seem to rave about those.

I've picked up empanadas from this food truck twice. I've had the veggie, chorizo and the chicken. The filling is a mix of meat and veggies and the dough is very sweet. They remind me of Julia's Empanadas in texture. The spicy salsa that comes with it really helps cut the sweetness of the dough. I enjoyed both the chorizo and chicken, but the veggie empanada was disappointing. The menu claimed it had seasonal vegetables, including zucchini. But the filling seemed to be a frozen vegetable mix and was very bland (and no zucchini was in mine). Unlike the meat versions, the veggie one didn't have enough salt or flavor to balance the sweetness of the dough. Two empanadas make for a very satisfying lunch.

Visited TSR late last week. When they get the order right - man, it's GOOD and completely justified my original 4-star rating. Nicely cooked fajita steak, stuffed chock-full of (the correct) toppings, significant portion, and fresh ingredients. Hopefully they worked out their ordering kinks! Back to 4 stars!