Good Eats - Orinoco in the South End

Last night was the third meeting of the Boston International Dining Association.

We ventured to a place that I had wanted to check out for quite some time - Orinoco in the South End on Shawmut Ave. I have heard about this place and how busy it gets due to its incredibly small size, delicious food, and modestly priced entrees.

Definite two thumbs up. And Tuesday night around 7:00 PM is the perfect time to go - no waiting, not packed.

I selected a traditional Venezuelan Christmas dish called Hallacas, which was a meat dish inside of a cornmeal dough, mixed with olives and raisins, wrapped in a banana leaf and served with a piece of pan de jamon and a cold meat salad on the side (which tasted like an upscale chicken salad). We also tried some appetizers and friend plantains, and their molted chocolate cake. All delicious. Outstanding flavors.

My only complaint - which is a common one with many restaurants here in Boston - is that we weren't seated until out entire party was present.

While that's understandable if we were two or three people in a party of, say, six people total...we were three people waiting for the fourth, and either way were were going to be seated at the one empty booth that was large enough and available.

AND...a couple walked in a few minutes after us and asked about that booth before they were told by the hostess that they "reserved it for parties of three or four" and were shown a table for two.

It makes me wonder why we didn't just tell them that we were a party of three all along, or why they didn't just seat us since we were three of four people, and the table wouldn't have changed.