Julia's Empanadas

It's been awhile since my last posting. Instead of offering excuses, I'll just dive into another restaurant review.

Julia's Empanadas is located a couple of blocks south of Dupont Circle on Connecitucut Avenue. Empanadas are similar to English/Cornish Pastys - baked pastries with meat or fruit fillings.

The location is a small walkin-walkout storefront. A glass pasteries case showing the various empanadas takes up the biggest portion of the store. The maximum number of people who could fit in the store at any one time is roughly 10.

Julia's offers a half dozen different types of meat and veggie empanadas, and another half dozen fruit empanadas. I ordered the Jamacian Beef and Strawberry empanadas. Both were good-sized portions. The empanadas themselves were good, but not great. The empanadas were warm and flavorful, but lacked the zing I expected from Jamacian spices. The strawberry empanadas were full of syrupy jam, but no actual strawberries. And the pastry casings were firm, but lacked any savory or sweet flavor.

I have had better and worse empanadas. I would be willing to go back to Julia's again - but there are plenty of other restaurants to try.