Another Peruvian restaurant round-up. This is one of those never-ending projects. I’m not sure that even if I concentrated solely on Peruvian restaurants I could ever get to all of them. And I now have one that I’ve sworn off ever visiting because of how a reservation was treated, and we ended up not eating at the place. So there’s at least one place that I will likely never try, despite it having a decent food reputation. On to the ones that we have been to!
Henry and I popped in for lunch at this place back in September, before he headed off to Peru for two months. El Maleñito, Ecuador 460, Once, is one of those that has been on the map forever to try, and we finally got there. It is, as many of the places, particularly in Once, pretty spare, with minimal decor, and basic tables and chairs. The menu is extensive, with both standard Peruvian fare and chifa offerings (Chinese-Peruvian).
We split a quite good leche de tigre – well balanced, nicely picante, and very refreshing.
The main courses weren’t pretty, but they were delicious. Henry went with a seco de cordero, lamb stewed in a cilantro and chili sauce, with the classic white beans and rice accompaniment – actually one of the better versions we’ve had at a casual spot. And I went with a chifa dish – taypa, which I’ve talked about before – it’s basically a mix of different meats – chicken, pork, beef, shellfish – and vegetables bubbling together in a pot with a lighter gravy. Add in a bit of the spicy chili sauce on the table and this was a great version. Also, huge, and I brought half of it home for later. Friendly service, very reasonably priced, very happy.
I had headed out along Av. Saenz for other reasons, but of course, hungry as always. This place wasn’t open that last time I was out doing my Saenz of Peruvian Cooking set (1 and 2). I had actually been planning to go to a small cevicheria a half block from here, but it wasn’t open. This place, hole in the wall that it was, beckoned. Sabores del Océano, Av. La Plata 2906, Nueva Pompeya hadn’t even been on the map, but, here I was.
An a la carte menu wasn’t even offered, just a list of the day’s four items from the menú del día. All options, of course, come with soup. Pretty basic chicken soup with some noodles, chickpeas, carrots, and a piece of chicken. Nothing special, a touch saltier than I’d have liked, but decent. And, a wan version by comparison to the one above of a seco, though this one with carne, or beef, instead of lamb. It was fine, but again, nothing special. Then again, the whole menu, with beverage and tip, cost me $2.50. Filling and nutritious, if not overly satisfying to the tastebuds.
We’re going to have a double review of sorts here. Rekuteku has two locations open in the downtown area. One, it turns out, is a nicely appointed restaurant with all the trimmings, the other primarily oriented around takeout and delivery, with a handful of tables shoved on a balcony overlooking the cashier’s counter. Let me hit the latter one first.
We had actually planned a Horde lunch, with a half dozen of us, at a spot on the far reaches of Puerto Madero, that has been recommended by several people. We made an advance reservation, confirmed it the day of, and fifteen minutes before the reservation time, all of us in various cabs and ubers enroute in a pouring rainstorm, I got a text from the owner saying he’d filled up the restaurant with people who’d walked in, no longer had a table for us in the dining room, but we could sit outside in the rain and wind under an umbrella if we wanted to. No apology, no “I screwed up”, just that. We did not want to sit in the wind and rain. Some of the group just decided to head back home, a trio of us ended up at the small outlet of Rekuteku, Viamonte 500. I wouldn’t venture that this place is cleaned regularly, and had it not still been raining, and had I not had good experiences at the other branch, we might have opted to just go elsewhere.
Service was pretty close to non-existent. There was one young woman working there, and she was handling phone calls, takeout orders, and having to climb the stairs to the few tables above. She didn’t seem to favor much climbing, nor could one mistake her glower at having to do so as friendly. But so be it. In for a centavo, in for a peso. We split a classic ceviche – actually pretty good – and a huge platter of calamari rings – also very good. At least the food was decent.
Main courses were less good. They were still fine, and had the setting and service been better, I might recommend this spot, but failing on those two, I can’t bring myself to. Maybe for takeout if you live in the area. A chicken chaufa, or fried rice, seems lacking in chicken, and was massive; the tallarines verdes, Peru’s answer to spaghetti con pesto, was lacking in the verde, the pesto, though the piece of fried chicken atop was pretty good; and, the lomo saltado, basically like a Chinese pepper steak, was okay, though the tangle of pasta with the more or less flavor-free huancaina sauce would be better served with something else entirely. And, bizarrely, this spot is far more expensive than their fancier sit-down restaurant just a few blocks away, averaging out at about $13/person.
I’ve visited their other location, at Paraguay 954, twice now, solo each time. It’s a pretty big space, and both time there were only a couple of other people having lunch. Here, while pretty much the same menu selections are available, the prices seem to be about 2/3 of the cost as at the takeout spot. Very odd. Was it just what I happened to select? I don’t think so, though I’d have to do a side by side comparison of the menus. Service, here, too, is a bit lackluster, but at least not glowering. I’d almost guess that the waitress at this place both times is a sister of the woman at the other place – they look very much alike. The issue here is that again, she seems to be working alone, and while that’s fine for the number of customers, she seemed to spend a lot of time back in the kitchen, leaving the room unattended. On the other hand, she’s friendly.
On one visit I went light and just had a leche de tigre. While nicely packed with fish, onions, and broth, and seasoned nicely, it was completely lacking in picante. On asking, I got a dish of an excellent rocoto based hot sauce that was just perfect to add that spicy touch. My sense is that they don’t make anything picante, nor do they offer the usual Peruvian amenities like the fried corn (cancha) or sauces, without being asked. On the second visit, I got a lovely platter of chicharrón de pollo, fried chicken over fries. The chicken, excellent – juicy, flavorful, crispy – and again with the addition of the hot sauce, delightful. The fries need work. They’re not just blond, they’re undercooked, with the potato inside being ever so edging into still crunchy. Now here, albeit I only had an appetizer one meal and a main course the other, had I had both with a beverage, I’d have only spent about $10 total (and, at the other spot, we split the appetizers, we didn’t each get one). Were the prices all raised at both places in the ten days between my second visit to this one and the visit to the other? Possibly. Either way, while this place was fine, there are other Peruvian spots in the downtown area, and “just good” isn’t good enough.
Recently opened, another downtown offering, Perú Sabor, at Viamonte 731, formerly a branch of the Rincón Norteño chain of pizzerias. The chef-owner is from Chiclayo, in northern Peru, which I found out a week ago when I was passing by and saw that they were offering the “Monday soup” of the north, shambar. Not having planned out anything for dinner, I popped in and ordered two portions to go, knowing it’s one of Henry’s favorites. I spent the time chatting with the chef-owner, who is fairly new to Buenos Aires, and gave her some tips on where she could find some of the ingredients she’s having trouble sourcing.
The shambar was excellent, though very different from the version seen in Trujillo, where Henry’s from. Much more herbaceous, and packed with chickpeas and cubes of pork and beef. That contrasts with the Trujillo style of all pork, including things like pork skin, plus white beans as the main legume. For some reason, I didn’t take a picture, but yesterday we decided to go there and eat for lunch, only to find that she hadn’t prepared shambar, Monday or not. Disappointing, because it really was delicious! We went with the menú ejecutivo.
Started with bowls of chicken noodle soup. Pretty basic, but good.
Among the four choices of main course for the day, we picked a seco de carne and adobo de cerdo. Definitely a better version of the seco de carne at Sabores del Océano noted above, though perhaps not quite as good as the lamb version at El Maleñito. The adobo, classically pork cooked in chicha or beer, with a touch of vinegar and mix of spices, was pretty good. Both good enough to warrant a return and order off the a la carte menu one day soon. Interesting touch that she uses black-eyed peas rather than white beans to accompany the dish (there was also an option to accompany it with boiled potatoes). Friendly service, nice space, decent food, the pricing was very fair – for the two courses, plus beverage, and tip, we spent about $2.75 per person.
Whew! Five more places checked off from the map!
