Yambo – Authentic Nicaraguan Food

This place is down right scary, a scene right out of a Central American apocalypse. Don’t go drunk, or maybe it’s best to go a bit inebriated.  Either way, Yambo is an experience to remember.

Pull into the parking lot and you know this is the real deal. You’re greeted by a shrine of the Virgin Mary, cows on the roof and bizarre totem poles.

Throngs of hungry people are lined up at the order window.  It’s open 24/7.  They have a huge take-out business, but you can order at the counter and sit outside where the crowd is most interesting or sit inside where you are surrounded by a nightmare of kitschy artifacts of Nicaraguan history and culture, including tribal dancers, Jesus Christ and lots more totem poles.  Frankly, I loved it.

Deborah Tobis and Totem

Painting

Kitschy Collectables

Cultural Artifacts

The food is really great, the portions monstrous and the prices ridiculously cheap.  It’s all very similar to Cuban cuisine with a little twist.  Our favorite twist was the enormous bowl of salsa picante, hot sauce with lots of chopped onions that we smothered on tacos con pollo (chicken tacos), carne desmenuzada (shredded beef a la ropa vieja), pescado frito (whole fried snapper), carne asada (roasted beef), and pollo asado (roasted chicken).

Salsa Picante

Everything comes with shredded cabbage and carrot lightly marinated in white vinegar and your choice of rice, beans, moros, yuca or maduros (fried sweet plantains).

Stick with cerveza.  The vino is carbonated and sweet.  I’ve actually been to a few hole in walls with a wine list, but Yambo is not one of them.

Located on the outskirts of Little Havana

If you would like to read some of my other restaurant reviews, you can check them all out within my RESTAURANT category.  If you have ever been to this restaurant, please share with us your own experience by leaving a comment below.  I would love to know what you thought about it.