As we entered the restaurant, the place was sparkling with festive lighting - white christmas lights strung along the walls reflected against mirrors and christmas trees beaded with colorful lights reflected off of silver tinsel laced around the trees. But...the music? Not the expected Christmas music we've all been hearing everywhere we go, nor was it some sort of Peruvian music, whatever that might be. Not even soft 90s lover's rock that you sometimes hear at these somewhat inimate/romantic restaurants. Instead, a mix of Weezer, Jay-Z and U2.
Our waiter came by and was very nice, despite various reviews claiming bad service. He kept calling Ryan "boss," which I think he liked. Everyone loves free snacks prior to their meal and here, we were graced with a small dish of fried plantains and hidden beneath, we found roasted corn kernels. Delicious spicy orange and green sauces fused together in another small dish, which was delightfully savory and creamy at first taste, then a welcomed spicy kick crept up seconds later. We ate most all the plaintains before I got a photo.
After grazing the extensive menu for quite some time, Ryan decided on the Salmon Morado, a blue potato crusted salmon served with spinach mashed potatoes and a green salad (based on NYMag's suggestion) and I went for the Paella Cocoroco, a Peruvian paella with chorizo, mixed seafood, ají amarillo (a spicy yellow sauce made from yellow peruvian chiles) and saffron flavors. When the dishes came out, portions were huge. My paella probably could've fed a family of four if it had to and Ryan's salmon and salad were mounted atop a rather large pile of the spinach mashed potatoes, which showed no real signs of spinach except for the almost neon-green color.
All in all, the meal was pleasant, though Ryan's dish seemed a bit luke warm. My paella was piping hot, but the creams squeezed onto each of our dishes were a bit odd since it looked so artificial. There wasn't enough on there to actually taste it, but I think the dishes would've looked much more aesthetically pleasing and appetizing if these puffy paint-like marks were absent. Would we come back again? Yes, I think so - next time the order will be their rotiserrie chicken, supposedly one of their more consistent house specialties. We were happy campers with our meal though and I had enough left over to cover my lunch for the rest of the week!
2 comments:
I always know who to go to for new places to eat. I love those hot kernel apps and the pics are lovely too!
Maybe you guys can go to Chimu in the burg and compare?
You know what? I do like being called "boss."
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