Restaurant review, Sol de Quito Helps You Get High in Bushwick.

For a first-timer, the best way to explore Ecuadorean food is with one of Sol de Quito's combo platters. The montanero ($13.99) features a thick hank of way-garlicky sausage; a heap of meat chunks fried to super-concentrated porkiness; a bowl of plain brown beans; a pounded and breaded beefsteak; two comical cocktail franks that never saw the inside of a can, quizzically forked at both ends like snake tongues; a mesa of rice, sculpted by a pint plastic carryout container; and a pair of poached eggs that, when you cut into them, spill liquid gold over everything else. The "mountain climber" (as the name translates) is way more food than one person can eat, but two can scale its heights quite comfortably. Sol de Quito refers to the sun of Ecuador's capital, which nestles between mountain peaks in a valley nearly two miles above the ocean, an altitude that leaves visitors perpetually out of breath. Though the magnificent colonial city is only a few miles south of the Equator, the high temp hovers around 65 degrees all year. By contrast, the boxy Bushwick restaurant is warm and filled with good smells from the kitchen at the far end of the room, just beyond the small bar, where fruit shakes in exotic flavors and Corona beers are dispensed. An absurdly large crystal chandelier descends on the room like a spaceship, polished granite wainscots the walls, and heavy red curtains shroud the windows. This décor—and the location just south of Ridgewood, Queens—suggests that the place might have been an Italian restaurant in a former incarnation.

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