3 Salsas

This place is great — it was my go to spot for tasty street style tacos.
Sad to see they closed. I heard there were problems with the building owner. I hope they find a new location!

One of my go-​to spots in Columbia Heights. Delicious fried quesadillas, and the Tortas are off the chain. Pretty small place, so I usually take mine to go. And just thinking about it is making me want to go over there right now!

Excellent food. I’ll be back soon. Sope and Quesadilla de Chicharron are a must try. I love the fact that there are only corn tortillas

Perfect little neighborhood spot with four tables, a counter, and delicious tacos. I knew I was in for something good when I looked past the standard offerings to see grilled cactus, tongue, and hearty soups. And everything delivered, with fresh hot sauce and warm tortillas. The Mexican soda supply is large and cheap. The wait time is blissfully short.

I did really like my carne asada taco and chorizo taco with onion, cilantro and avocado sauce, and the taste of the beef and chicken quesedilla, but prices are quite high. $ 3 for one taco, and $ 3 for a quesedilla. The quesedillas have lettuce and queso fresco in them, none of that American shredded cheese! Very authentic food. They also had tortas, tamales, sopas, moles, lots to choose from.

Amazing authentic mexican food! And this is coming from a mexican girl haha. They have tru tv on soon you can laugh while you eat. The tacos are really really good, and I would say wayyyyy better than the popular District taco in downtown dc. They have tons more flavor and the tortillas are actually really good! Would recommend this place to everyone who likes authentic mexican food.

I’m a pescetarian who enjoys an occasional fish or shrimp taco. Their menu does not have any of these, but I decided to go anyways since they have such good reviews.
I tried two of their vegetarian items, cactus taco and potato quesadilla with the medium salsa which totaled 8 $. Ive never had cactus so I didn’t know what to expect… it was a sort of mix between tomatoes and green peppers served with salsa onion and sour cream. The quesadilla had no cheese and was pretty much mashed potato and sour cream. Both were bland.
Overall, the service was ok, I was underwhelmed, and as a pescetarian it’d be nice to have more options. If you’re a vegetarian or pescetarian I’d suggest you get your taco/​Mexican fix at Chipotle down the street.

Great tacos, I’ve been searching for an establishment that serves Mexican style street tacos for months. So far the best I’ve had in D.C., and I’ll definitely will be visiting this restaurant often. I had the carne asada and lengua tacos with a jarritos soda. Service was great … very fast, friendly and clean.

Yummm! So happy there are more Mexican places in DC now!
I always get the milanesa de res torta. Comes with avocado, beans, and really good cheese. less than $ 8!
This place is also really nice and clean, with very friendly staff. Extra points from me!

Awesome food lil cramped but deff one of the better quick mexican spots to try on this side of 14^th (Ive tried them all).
The vending machine was out of place until i saw the Mexican candy Deff try them. Ive had the torta which was great and unlike other places that stuff you with thick bread. Deff recommend the cuban if you’re really hungry.

This is that authentic Mexican food that we have found!
Food: The flavors are perfect! The tacos are great and the torta was flavorful! The nachos… I can’t even put into words — YUM!
Service: Friendly!
Ambience: Small, only about four tables. However they have an awesome vending machine with authentic Mexican candies! Plus the place was immaculately clean!
Overall: loved it! Will be a regular! Wish they served margaritas!

Tried three tacos (carne asada, al pastor, and tripa) here. All the tacos are topped with onion, cilantro, and hot sauce. There is a very strong corn taste in the tortilla. I wasn’t too big of a fan of it. While 3 Salsas offers unique tacos like cactus, the taste of the tortilla overpowered the meat and toppings. Otherwise, tacos are authentic and pretty good. They’ve got a pretty big menu of tacos, tortas, and quesadillas.

I would go back for the mushroom taco. I wasn’t a fan of the nopale taco or the chips and salsa.

While I’ve never counted to see if they actually only have three salsas, they absolutely deserve more than that in stars. The main reason is that they have the one thing I have looked for at every other «Mexican» place in D.C. and have failed to find. They serve cactus. And they serve it in multiple dishes including some delicious tacos where you can taste the soft cactus in every bite.
These simple tacos, with just cilantro and onions, are not necessarily big enough for a meal by themselves but they are inexpensive enough ($ 3.00 for 2) to order something else off the menu as well. And the menu, which changes all the time, has enough dishes to satisfy meat eaters and vegetarians alike on every new visit. Though being a cheese addict, I go for a queso quesadilla filled with thick and piping hot cheese. Sometimes I even go for additional cactus in it (though I do think this particular dish tastes better without it).
My only big problem with this place is that the wait times are epic. They prepare everything from scratch and with a small kitchen staff, I have waited up to 20 minutes for food despite being the only person in the restaurant. On a limited lunch break, it’s not a great option. And it’s not great for groups either since they only have three tables.
They also have a very small selection of drinks. They do have some incredible horchata though that cuts through any spice that the various dishes have (and some of them are quite hot). They don’t serve free water either which can get a bit annoying. But it’s definitely worth any aggravation since they have the magic ingredient. For authentic Mexican food I have not found any better place in all of D.C. and I’m glad this place is located in Columbia Heights so I can eat there often.

This has got to be some of the best, if not THE BEST, Mexican food in DC. Extremely authentic and delicious. The food is all prepared to order in a very clean, open kitchen. You can essentially watch your food get made!
We ordered the chips and salsa, different tacos (pollo w/​Oaxaca cheese, al pastor, spicy pork), and cheese quesadilla. Each item we tried delivered that distinct Mexican-​street vendor air of authenticity. As for the salsa, I ordered spicy salsa and the green avocado salsa. Both were delicious, but for the chips, I’m glad I got the avocado salsa for those = DELICIOUS combination.
Just go and try them out. They’re the little hole in the wall place located on 14^th Street, across from Le Caprice. They have about 3 tables, serve sodas (Mexican cola, Pineapple soda, etc), and TVs to watch. I can vouch for their greatness because, well, we discovered them on Saturday (thanks to my boyfriend) and I essentially DEMANDED that we have 3 Salsas the next evening (tonight). Yes, two nights in a row. IT. IS. THAT. GOOD.
GO! You will NOT regret it!
PS — they DO accept credit cards (Visa, Discover, MasterCard)…

What a great surprise! This is the most authentic Mexican place I know. Went with my husband and friends (we are all Mexicans) and really liked the food. Papa quesadillas were great! The owner is really nice and also made papa con chorizo quesadillas even though they weren’t on the menu.
My friend said the torta de milanesa was amazing!
These are the most original tacos al pastor I’ve tried in the US. Obviously they are different from the authentic ones because they can’t do the traditional preparation with the trompo. But they were very good anyway. It was also great to drink sidral with our food.
What we loved the most is that they made us feel at home. Great food and great service. If you want to know what is like to eat in Mexico City, come to 3 Salsas!

This place is pretty good, and has different options than my normal taco spot (taqueria district federal). They cooked everything to order and were very friendly.
I got the tacos al pastor, lengua and gringa. The gringa was really good. I added spicy sauce to all of them. It was spicy, but had a nice flavor.
My wife got the cactus tacos, and enjoyed them.
I am looking forward to trying more of the menu.

Great new local spot!
Super clean, and the owners are extremely friendly.
This is much better than the dirty, unfriendly spot that has been the local taco haven for years.
Very small and hidden entrance. Seems to have weird hours. Weekends they have tamales which were pretty good.
Would love a bit more cilantro on the tacos.
Wished that the al pastor actually was just pork.
Hope to revisit and try the egg and chorizo torta!

It’s difficult to open a hundred feet from Taqueria Distrito Federal without inviting direct comparison. Whether due to opening specials or learning curve, the prices have bumped marginally already since opening. When they were ready, we were invited to customize each taco to our liking (we opted for onions and cilantro across the board), and they were happy to include sauces on the side since we intended to carry out. TV in the corner.
3 Salsas pros:
— Extremely friendly service.
— No chips, but the avocado crema salsa is pretty good.
— Weekend pozole includes chicken as well as pork.
— Offers cactus, and more quesdilla filling options.
TDF pros:
— More seating.
— Salsa verde with the chips includes avocado.
— Offal soup on weekends includes cow’s feet.
— Offers goat and pork skin meat options, breakfast items, and horchata.
— Better tortillas.
Cactus is cooked well and topped with crumbled queso fresco, probably one of our favorites. No complaints on the carne asada or al pastor. The fillings were more voluminous in the gringa taco, but I didn’t think the flavors were worth $ 4. Tripe was okay, but I felt that the tongue was worth repeating. Pozole was alright: a good amount of tender pulled meat, rustic hominy corn (not a huge fan of the starchy texture), chopped lettuce, and a decently seasoned broth that invited crumbling of the fried tortillas. 3 Salsa’s salsa verde was a bit watery but not bad, and the hot sauce was reasonably spicy; we verified that the latter invoked gringo sweats. We’ll be back at least once more to try the tortas, mushroom quesadilla, and alambre taco.

New, cheap Mexican place across the street from Allegro in Columbia Heights.
The good:
1. The value of the torta. $ 6 and it is huge.
2. The hot salsa is legit.
3. The avocado salsa
4. The al pastor. Not amazing but probably the best al pastor I’ve had in DC (which says little).
The not so good:
1. The torta. I had a breaded beef one. It was dry and bland. If they would have added one of the salsas to it, it would have been much better. It wasn’t a total disaster though. The bread was very good and the size was substantial.
2. The service. Very friendly but very slow. It was a Friday night and I don’t think they were prepared to deal with more than a couple people at a time. If you come here and see a number of people in line or waiting around, I have some advice: walk out and go somewhere else. If you stay, you’ll be there for a good long while.
3 Salsas is not bad. It’s just kinda: meh:. It’s cheap though. If you want a cheap way to fill up, the torta is the way to go.
Final note: as of now (early February), it is CASH ONLY. I think they’re planning to accept credit cards in the future though.