Three Restaurants, Three Corners of Reston
Reston's Latin American food is spread across the community rather than packed into one strip, which is exactly why a short list is useful. These are our three picks, chosen because each is trading today, each does something different, and each sits in a different part of Reston — so between them they tell you a fair amount about how daily life works in each corner of town.
- Pisco y Nazca Ceviche Gastrobar — Peruvian, full service, 1871 Explorer Street in Reston Town Center.
- Pollo Peru — Peruvian rotisserie chicken, quick service, 1675 Reston Parkway, Suite D, in north Reston.
- Taco Zocalo — Mexican, known for birria tacos, 1810 Michael Faraday Drive, a few blocks from the Wiehle-Reston East Metro station.
One name is missing that older lists still carry: Maizal, the Latin street-food counter at Plaza America, has closed. More on that, and on the other changes since 2025, further down. Every restaurant here was checked in early October 2026.
Pisco y Nazca Ceviche Gastrobar: Peruvian Cooking at Reston Town Center
Pisco y Nazca opened at 1871 Explorer Street in July 2023, according to FFXnow, taking over the former Vapiano space in the middle of Reston Town Center. It is a sit-down Peruvian restaurant with a bar that looks into an open kitchen, and it serves lunch, dinner and weekend brunch, with a late-afternoon "Hora Loca" happy hour at the bar.
What to order. Ceviche is the reason to come: the current Reston dinner menu lists a Ceviche Tradicional and a Ceviche Cremoso de Ají Amarillo, alongside a causa sampler, anticuchos of beef, heart or chicken, lomo saltado, ají de gallina, arroz con mariscos and tacu seco de cordero. There is also a Nikkei thread running through the menu — the Japanese-Peruvian cooking that produced tiradito and ceviche Nikkei — which makes it a good table for a group with mixed tastes. The menus page has the current lunch and dinner cards.
The setting. This is the dressed-up pick of the three: reservations, a full bar and private dining for larger parties. It is the restaurant you book for a work dinner, a birthday or the first weekend after a closing.
Where it sits. Explorer Street is in the walkable core of Reston Town Center, a few minutes on foot from the Reston Town Center Metro station on the Silver Line, with garage parking throughout. If you live in the Town Center condo and apartment towers, this is a walk; from most of the rest of Reston it is a short drive.
Pollo Peru: The North Reston Rotisserie
Pollo Peru is the everyday pick. Enrique Lenz, who came to the area from Peru for graduate school, opened it with his daughter Amy in June 2011 in the Home Depot shopping center at 1675 Reston Parkway. The family told Patch the chicken is built on his grandfather's 25-spice recipe, mixed in a locked room in the back, and marinated for 24 hours before it goes onto rotisserie equipment brought in from Peru.
What to order. Pollo a la brasa — Peruvian rotisserie chicken — by the quarter, half or whole bird. The restaurant's own menu calls the half chicken its most popular order, the yuca its top-selling side and the house-made green sauce the thing everyone raves about, and it lists a Pollo Peru melt sandwich, a lomo saltado lunch special, chicha morada, Inca Kola, alfajores and tres leches.
The setting. Quick service: dine in, pick up or order delivery through its own site, with catering trays for larger groups. This is a weeknight solution rather than a destination, and it is the kind of place that becomes part of a household's routine within a month of moving in.
Where it sits. The shopping center sits on Reston Parkway near the North Point Village Center, a short run from Baron Cameron Avenue. It is closest to North Reston neighborhoods — North Point and the Lake Newport side of town — and an easy stop off Baron Cameron Avenue on the way home.
Taco Zocalo: Birria Near Wiehle-Reston East
Taco Zocalo began as a food truck. Its founder, Chef Basir, started the Chef On Wheels truck in 2012 and opened the first bricks-and-mortar Chef on Wheels restaurant in Reston in November 2017; the restaurant now trades as Taco Zocalo, with sister locations elsewhere in Northern Virginia. The kitchen makes tortillas by hand and slow-cooks its meats through the day, and the restaurant says the halal meat it serves is certified by its suppliers — a practical detail for a lot of households.
What to order. Birria tacos, which the restaurant calls its signature: slow-simmered meat tucked into tortillas and served with a cup of consommé for dipping. Beyond that, a mix-and-match plate of street tacos or carne asada tacos, burritos and burrito bowls, enchiladas, elote and hand-smashed guacamole.
The setting. A small neighborhood taqueria with dine-in, takeout, delivery and catering, including taco trays and build-your-own taco bars for office lunches. Hours differ between listings, so check its ordering page before you go.
Where it sits. Michael Faraday Drive runs off Sunset Hills Road near Wiehle Avenue, in the office corridor a few blocks from Wiehle-Reston East. That makes it the natural lunch spot for anyone working around Reston Station, and a short drive for the Lake Anne and Tall Oaks side of town.
How the Three Compare
Pisco y Nazca | Pollo Peru | Taco Zocalo | |
|---|---|---|---|
Cuisine | Peruvian, including Nikkei | Peruvian rotisserie chicken | Mexican |
Format | Full service, bar, reservations | Quick service, takeout, delivery | Taqueria, takeout, catering |
Order this first | A ceviche and a causa | Half chicken, yuca, green sauce | Birria tacos with consommé |
Part of Reston | Reston Town Center | North Reston, Reston Parkway | Sunset Hills, near Wiehle Avenue |
Nearest Metro | Reston Town Center | None within walking distance | Wiehle-Reston East |
Best for | Celebrations, groups, date night | Weeknight dinners, family takeout | Weekday lunch, office catering |
Honorable Mentions Around Reston
Fogo de Chão — Brazilian churrascaria at 11915 Democracy Drive in Reston Town Center. Gaucho chefs carve fire-roasted meats at the table, with a Market Table and feijoada bar and warm pão de queijo; the restaurant has an indoor bar and an outdoor patio. It is the large-group celebration option.
Uncle Julio's — Tex-Mex at 1827 Library Street, listed by Reston Town Center as Uncle Julio's Rio Grande Café. If you remember the Rio Grande Café, it has not closed — it is the same restaurant under its current name. Mesquite-grilled fajitas, tableside guacamole and a full bar.
King Pollo — wood-charcoal Peruvian-style chicken plus Salvadoran pupusas at 2254-G Hunters Woods Plaza, in the Hunters Woods Village Center. Reston Now covered its opening in 2017; it is the south Reston counterpart to Pollo Peru.
Super Chicken — Peruvian charcoal chicken, pollo saltado and lomo saltado at 11830 Sunrise Valley Drive, on the south side of the Toll Road from Reston Town Center.
Señor Ramon Taqueria — street-style Mexican tacos and empanadas at 11790 Baron Cameron Avenue, Unit A, in north Reston, open daily.
Alegrias Bakery and Pupuseria — Salvadoran pupusas, pastelitos and pan dulce at 2303 Soapstone Drive, Suite B, in south Reston. A small bakery and pupuseria, and worth knowing about if you live near Soapstone or South Lakes.
What Has Closed or Changed
Maizal, Plaza America — closed. The Latin street-food restaurant at 11690 Plaza America Drive opened in late 2023 and was gone by spring 2025; when the Wonder food hall filed to take over the space, FFXnow noted it was unclear exactly when Maizal had closed. Wonder opened in October 2025. Any Reston list that still sends you to Plaza America for Maizal was written before then.
On the Border, Spectrum — closed. The Tex-Mex chain's Spectrum at Reston Town Center restaurant closed in February 2025, its last in Fairfax County.
Coming, with no date yet. The family behind Guapo's is planning a new concept, Guapo's Mar y Tierra, at 1845 Fountain Drive in the Spectrum. Until it opens, treat it as news rather than a recommendation.
This is normal churn for a restaurant market, but it matters for anyone using an older guide to picture daily life in Reston: the Latin American options that remain are concentrated in the Town Center, north Reston, the Wiehle corridor and the south Reston village centers.
A Short Ordering Guide
If Peruvian, Salvadoran or regional Mexican cooking is new to you, a few terms cover most of what you will see on these menus.
- Pollo a la brasa — Peruvian rotisserie chicken, heavily spiced and slow-roasted, usually served with fries or yuca and a green ají sauce. Pollo Peru, King Pollo and Super Chicken all build their menus around it.
- Ceviche — raw fish cured in lime juice with chili and red onion, served with sweet potato and corn. Pisco y Nazca's version with ají amarillo, the yellow Peruvian pepper, is creamier and milder.
- Lomo saltado — beef stir-fried with onion and tomato and served with fries and rice; a product of the Chinese influence on Peruvian cooking, and the safest order for a cautious eater.
- Causa — chilled layers of seasoned yellow potato with a filling such as chicken or seafood.
- Anticuchos — grilled skewers, traditionally beef heart, now often beef or chicken too.
- Birria — slow-braised, chili-rich meat; birria tacos are dipped into the cooking broth, the consommé.
- Pupusas — Salvadoran griddled corn cakes stuffed with cheese, beans or pork, eaten with a tangy cabbage slaw called curtido.
- Churrasco — Brazilian grilled meats, carved to order at a churrascaria like Fogo de Chão.
Reston's Food Map Follows Its Village Centers
Reston was planned in the 1960s around village centers — Lake Anne first, then others including Hunters Woods, South Lakes and North Point — with Reston Town Center added later as an urban core and the Silver Line stations following from 2014. Restaurants follow that layout. Instead of one restaurant row, you get small clusters: a pupuseria in a strip center, a rotisserie next to a hardware store, a churrascaria on the Town Center grid.
That has a practical consequence for anyone moving here. Which restaurants become "yours" depends heavily on which village center or station you live closest to, because a five-minute errand and a fifteen-minute one feel very different on a Tuesday night. Lake Anne Plaza, the original village center, is also where the Reston Farmers Market sets up on Saturday mornings in season — useful if you would rather cook at home some weeks.
Connecting it all is the community's path network: Reston Association maintains 55 miles of paved pathways along with pools, tennis courts and playgrounds, and the W&OD Trail crosses Reston near Sunset Hills Road. In several parts of town, walking or biking to dinner is a realistic option rather than a novelty.
What Each Pick Says About Where You Might Live
None of these restaurants should decide where you buy. But mapped against Reston's neighborhoods, they make the trade-offs between the different parts of town easier to see.
- Reston Town Center and West Market — Pisco y Nazca, Fogo de Chão and Uncle Julio's are walkable, as is the Reston Town Center Metro. Mostly condos and apartments, with the most restaurant density in Reston.
- Reston Station and the Wiehle corridor — Taco Zocalo is the local, Wiehle-Reston East is the commute, and newer mid- and high-rise buildings dominate the housing.
- North Point, Lake Newport and North Reston — Pollo Peru and Señor Ramon are the everyday options; housing leans toward townhomes and detached homes, and the drive to the Town Center is short.
- Hunters Woods, South Lakes and Soapstone — King Pollo and Alegrias are close by, with Reston Community Center at Hunters Woods and a mix of townhomes, condos and single-family streets.
- Lake Anne and Tall Oaks — the oldest part of Reston, with the farmers market on the plaza; Taco Zocalo and the Wiehle station are a short drive south.
You can browse what is currently available across these areas on our Reston home search, or read the wider Reston neighborhood guide. For comparison with the next town east, our Vienna Latin American restaurant guide covers a very different set of picks.
Reston Market Snapshot
Bright MLS closed residential sales in Reston ZIP codes 20190, 20191 and 20194, for the twelve months from 9 September 2025 to 9 September 2026.
Measure | Reston (20190 / 20191 / 20194) |
|---|---|
Closed sales | 1,047 |
Median days on market | 8 |
Mean days on market | 22.0 |
Median close-to-list ratio | 100.0% |
Mean close-to-list ratio | 100.3% |
A median of eight days puts Reston among the fastest-moving submarkets in the DMV. The mean of twenty-two days is the useful counterweight: a tail of homes sits well beyond the first week, so the market is fast but not uniform. A median close-to-list ratio of exactly 100.0% means the typical Reston home sells at its asking price — plan on neither a discount nor a bidding war by default, and judge each house on its own block.
Schools and the Daily Commute
Restaurants are the enjoyable part of the map; schools and the commute are the parts that usually decide it. Reston addresses feed elementary schools including Terraset, Sunrise Valley, Lake Anne, Hunters Woods, Forest Edge and Armstrong, with Langston Hughes Middle School and South Lakes High School serving much of the community and some northern addresses assigned to Herndon High School. Boundaries change, and listing descriptions are not authoritative — confirm any specific address with the FCPS Boundary Locator.
For the commute, the Silver Line's two Reston stations serve the Town Center and Wiehle corridors, and the Dulles Toll Road runs through the middle of Reston, with Reston Parkway, Wiehle Avenue and the Fairfax County Parkway as the main north-south routes. Outdoor time tends to happen at Lake Fairfax Park, along the lakes and on the pathways. Most of Reston falls in Fairfax County's Hunter Mill District.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are the top 3 Latin American restaurants in Reston, VA?
Our three picks are Pisco y Nazca Ceviche Gastrobar (Peruvian, Reston Town Center), Pollo Peru (Peruvian rotisserie chicken, Reston Parkway in north Reston) and Taco Zocalo (Mexican, near Wiehle-Reston East). They were chosen to cover three different formats and three different parts of Reston.
Is Maizal in Reston still open?
No. Maizal at 11690 Plaza America Drive closed by spring 2025, and the space is now the Wonder food hall, which opened in October 2025.
Is the Rio Grande Café in Reston Town Center closed?
No. It operates as Uncle Julio's at 1827 Library Street, which Reston Town Center lists as Uncle Julio's Rio Grande Café.
Where can I get Peruvian chicken in Reston?
Pollo Peru on Reston Parkway in north Reston, King Pollo at Hunters Woods Plaza in south Reston, and Super Chicken on Sunrise Valley Drive near Reston Town Center all specialize in pollo a la brasa.
Which Latin American restaurants in Reston are near Metro?
Pisco y Nazca, Fogo de Chão and Uncle Julio's are in Reston Town Center, near the Reston Town Center Silver Line station. Taco Zocalo is a few blocks from Wiehle-Reston East.
Is there a Brazilian steakhouse in Reston?
Yes. Fogo de Chão is at 11915 Democracy Drive in Reston Town Center, serving churrasco carved at the table, a Market Table and a feijoada bar.
How fast do homes sell in Reston, VA?
Across 1,047 closed residential sales in ZIPs 20190, 20191 and 20194 between 9 September 2025 and 9 September 2026, the median days on market was 8 and the median close-to-list ratio was 100.0%. The mean was 22.0 days, so the pace varies a lot from home to home.
Thinking About a Move to Reston?
The fastest way to understand Reston is to eat your way across it: dinner at the Town Center, takeout from north Reston, lunch by the Wiehle station. The Keri Shull Team helps buyers relocating into Reston, Vienna, McLean and the wider DMV work out which corner of a community fits how they actually live, before the eight-day clock starts on the house they want.
Get in touch to talk through neighborhoods and timing, or request a home valuation if you have a property to sell first.
Menus, hours and openings change. Every restaurant named here was checked in early October 2026; confirm directly before you go. Market figures are Bright MLS closed residential sales for the twelve months ending 9 September 2026. Local restaurant reporting via FFXnow.
