Mama Leo's

By Lizzy Acker

6728 NE Sandy Blvd. 284-2033, mamaleosrestaurant.com. Dinner Tuesday and Thursday-Friday; lunch and dinner Saturday; lunch Sunday.

The "fresh Caribbean homestyle" menu at Mama Leo's is extensive and written first in Spanish. That, plus the spare decorations and linoleum floor, make this place so unassuming as to be easily missed, even by people who drive down Sandy all the time. But do not let this lack of ego fool you. The succulent shredded beef in the Colombian arepas ($9) is juicy and tender enough to get even the most city-centered cool guy to hop in a Car2Go and make it out to Roseway—but can be pared down to Venezuelan size (6.50-$8.50), arepa bites ($8) or even, for the kids, an arepa pizza ($4.50). But make sure that somewhere on your plate you get that shredded beef—the kind of perfectly seasoned meat you start daydreaming about, inexplicably, in the middle of the afternoon.

Check out Willamette Week's 2016 Cheap Eats guide here.

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Lizzy Acker

Lizzy Acker

Lizzy Acker is Willamette Week's former web editor. Her first book, Monster Party, came out in 2010. She was born in Oregon, lived in San Francisco for almost eight years and then moved back to Oregon, just like everyone always knew she would.

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