Scrolling through the Bend Foodies Facebook page, I came across a photo of three long dishes of daintily plated fish: poke nachos, oysters and sashimi. The caption credited chef Ian Skomski at El Kussho, which I soon learned is a pop-up currently located at El Sancho’s Super Secret Side Street Saloon.

The saloon is El Sancho’s commissary kitchen on Century Drive. And the pop-up currently located inside, El Kussho, is open evenings, Thursday through Saturday, for the next several months.

I navigated to the restaurant and didn’t see it at first. Eventually, I found the saloon, tucked around the side of the building between Cascade Cleaners and Lush Salon.

The side street saloon indeed feels secretive. It’s marked by El Sancho’s glowing logo above the door and a small, tubular mobile fire pit outside.

Inside, it feels cozy. Candles glow on the tables in the low-lit room with a handful of mismatched wooden tables and a wall entirely dedicated to a collection of framed paintings of animals. The intimate, quiet space and cobbled-together decor gives the sense of enjoying a meal in someone’s dining room. Throughout our meal, my partner and I were the only patrons in the restaurant, further contributing to the sense of intimacy of the space.

There’s very little overlap between the menus at El Sancho and El Kussho other than chips and salsa ($4) with the option to add guacamole ($4). As a pop-up, El Kussho can be nimble in its offerings. Not only does the menu include specials, but “daily” specials written on a board with a dry-erase marker.

My partner and I shared one of the daily specials, the lomo saltado ($20) with the poke nachos ($13). Not only were the poke nachos exquisite in presentation, but also in flavor and texture. Chopped tuna, cucumber and avocado salsa sat atop a paper-thin, crispy wonton chip. The chips were drizzled with a bright green wasabi sauce, sesame seeds and yellow tobika fish eggs. The attention to detail made for a fantastic explosion of flavor.

The Peruvian-inspired lomo saltado was more substantial at no cost to the flavor. It was served in two dishes — one for the main ingredients and another for the rice, allowing us to mix the two at our leisure. It included several rounds of tender tri-tip Peruvian steak, green onions, sliced potatoes and tomatoes in a delectable, yet unobtrusive sauce. The potatoes were lightly salted, allowing the mild, earthy flavor of the vegetable to shine.

We each ordered the pisco punch ($12) to enjoy with our meal. It tasted like a complex, adult lemonade and went down easy. The combination of pineapple-infused pisco, citrus syrup and lemon juice toed the line between sweet and sour. And the cocktail’s punchy, yet refreshing citrus flavors were versatile enough to pair with a range of flavors.

El Kussho will be serving out of the El Sancho Super Secret Side Saloon through the first week of March, excluding Dec. 22-24, when it will be closed for Christmas.

More info

Location: 113 SW Century Drive, Suite 204, Bend

Contact: 541-797-0454, facebook.com/kusshinw

Hours: 4-9 p.m. Thursday-Saturday through the first week of March (excluding Christmas)

Price Range: $6-$30 per menu item

Cuisine: Japanese and Latin food bar with small plates