Review: At Tortuga, Central American flavors tuned in to your diet

Kenmore spot offers salads, grain bowls, potato boxes, not just sandwiches

Quesabirria tacos, three to an order, vie for best-in-Buffalo crown, at Tortuga

The only place in Buffalo offering Peruvian flavors is Tortuga Sandwich Shop, which opened on Delaware Avenue in March.

The classic Peruvian lomo saltado, sliced soy-marinated steak stir-fried with french fries and tomatoes, inspired Tortuga’s Chivito ($16), which adds aji verde, and cheese sauce.

There’s a dozen other combinations at the heart of Tortuga’s menu. The genius part, for a sandwich shop, is that Tortuga customers don’t have to be a slave to sandwiches. The Chivito - and the rest of its sandwich menu - can be a salad, served over dressed greens.

Or a rice bowl, over saffron rice. Or a grain bowl, over quinoa and brown rice. Or, if the munchies are hitting hard, a potato box, with all the fixings and sauces applied to crispy potato wedges. If you want a tasty meal but aren’t keen on all those carbs, Tortuga is the sandwich shop where you have choices - and gluten-free is never a problem.

Until your sweet tooth kicks in, that is. The alfajores ($4.50), Colombian sandwich cookies with hearts of dulce de leche, rolled in coconut, are made with wheat flour.

Tortuga artwork

Andrew Smiedala, born in Tonawanda, and his wife Carla, born in Bolivia, opened their first restaurant in Sanborn, offering flavors of Peru, Argentina, Mexico and elsewhere. They intended the Kenmore restaurant as a second location, but had to close the Sanborn location for lack of staff.