A pleasant surprise. We never had Peruvian food, so we didn't know quite what to expect. The flavors were quite wonderful and the bill was very reasonable. The staff were friendly and engaging. I had the ceviche and a couple of Peruvian beers. The portions were very generous and the seafood was fresh. The atmosphere was a little odd, but not offputting. The atmostphere is sort of slighly upscale with lots of nods to Incas and Peruvian symbols of power, while the music playing was soft rock from the 80s. Next time I'll try the chicken since that really seems to be their specialty. read more

Clean, neat, and cute establishment, service was great and the food was very delicious.

Friendly, affordable, and tasty Peruvian dishes. My favorite is the Lomo saltado!

In a word: disappointing. One of the first things we were told when we walked in was, "We are out of the rotisserie chicken." This was at 6:30 on a Tuesday... So, we ordered some seafood and Aji chicken/rice. The Aji chicken/rice dish came out cold in spots, which had me suspecting a microwave was involved. I sent it back and it was politely handled, but I was a bit put off. When it returned it was hot, but there was very little actual chicken; mostly it was potatoes and a thick, flavorless sauce (and one olive!). The seafood was underwhelming - with overcooked shrimp. The decor was nice, but the lightbulbs throughout the place were flickering, which definitely detracted from the ambiance. We will not be returning. read more

Simply delicious! We had the pollo saltado and the quarter rotisserie chicken. Both tasted great and we will be back. I was worried when we walked in because the place was empty but the food is really good. A hidden gem in countryside for sure. read more

This is seriously the most ridiculous establishment I have ever walked in to. First of all they close at 7:30 on Tuesday (random) so I walk in thinking I have some time because normally on weeknights they close at 8pm. Well, no! The rude man working there just looks at me like I am crazy and tells me they are closed and that they always close earlier on Tuesday. Ok that's just stupid. So fast forward to Friday night when I know they close at 9pm. I called in an order around 7:50pm. A nice woman answers and takes my order for a quarter chicken. She tells me to come on in it will be ready soon. I drive there and walk in 10 minutes later and the same rude man from Tuesday is standing there looking at me like I am crazy again, and he blurts out "we have no more chicken!" Not "I am so sorry but..." or "Can we get you something else.." etc. No sign of any apology or common courtesy considering I just called 10 minutes before, placed an order and drove there!! I was completely flabbergasted. First of all it's a chicken place. Why are they out of chicken? Secondly, they should have told me this when I called to order. Thirdly, that rude man needs to go! He is a prime example of how not to treat paying customers. They will never again get my business and I will tell everyone I know the same thing! read more

My boyfriend and I have been talking about going to El Estribo for months and finally got around to doing so tonight. I can't speak much for the dining experience as we ordered it to go but the restaurant is very lovely and cozy and clean. The waiter was extremely friendly, polite and helpful (and it was apparently his first night too). The menu was vast and it all sounded delicious. From what I'm told the food is very authentic but I can't speak of that from personal experience. I can just say it was great. It tasted wonderful and neither of us had any complaints about any of it. We also found it to be very affordable especially for the amount of food you receive (I had to share my last few bites of rice with our Rottie and she loved it too). Three new fans in this house! We'll definitely be going again. read more

Took my mom for mother's day, being Peruvian it is hard to find a good restaurant that taste as good as being in Peru. This place is it! They were a little busy, our waitress was a little slow but the other girls where very nice and attentive to us. (I think they all cover every tble, not sure) the food was very well cooked and the flavor was authentic. The only thing is they include the tip in your bill/total. Definitely recommend it. I had the lomo saltado and my family members had the cau cau and bistec a lo porbe. All Very yummy! read more

I went to this place 2 yrs ago and it was good, this year I went back for mothers day and smh has gone down! My mom ordered some sea food which came with rice. The rice was hard and tasted undercooked kinda tasted like the box rice that's sold in the grocery store it was gross. I tried ordering bistek a la Limeña and the meat was red inside def not cooked. At this point I stopped eating because that was gross. I didnt want to make a big deal because I didnt want to ruin Mothers day even more....The rest of my fam had complaints like my son said his chicken tasted like it had been mixed with fish, my fathers soup contained rice and that was undercooked as well. Def wont be going back to this place I was disappointed and felt bad for my mom. Plus the check came out to almost 200 dollars because they tip themselves. My waitress barely remembered we were even there! Def would of not given her a almost 30 dollar tip for her service! Never going to this place again def has gone downhill since I last went 2 yrs ago. read more

I have never actually dined in here but if you want fast takeout Peruvian chicken, this is the place to go. The chicken is great and very reasonably priced. The staff and proprietor are always very friendly and tolerant of my misguided attempts to speak Spanish. They have a big donkey-type thing that kids will love to jump up and hang out on while you pay your tab. excellent food - excellent price. read more

Our family had dinner here after reading the reviews. We ordered the Ceviche Mixto and the Aji de Gallina, one of the specials of the day. The ceviche was very fresh. The chicken dish was not as good the one at El Chalan in DC, but still tasty. I was surprised to find that we were one of three or four parties the entire time we were there and we were there at 6 p.m. The waitress could not speak English very well. read more

The service went down hill. Will not come back! The order came wrong and seems like the kitchen was out of control.

Cebiche was salty and unpleasant, they said they have churrasco and gave me a really hard-greasy low quality t-bone my kids tried to chew as a bubble gum. We claim for the awful "churrasco" and (after a nonsense arguments from the manager) they accept to charge "only" 50% but, they surprise me charging the other half as a mandatory tip when we were a party of four. I felt assaulted and this bad service gpt its bottom line, it's not the first time and i never come back. Limeña, chalan, candela, carbon, sardis, inti are waaaay better than this nasty place read more

I've lived in the area for years and finally gave it a try. So glad we did! Our waiter, Marlon, was very patient and helpful and the food was very good. Three of us had rotisserie chicken since it was our first time there and the fourth in our party had a beef dish that I can't remember but she really enjoyed it. We'll be back! read more

My wife and I decided we needed a date night, just the two of us and being new to the area we were looking for someplace to go out of the ordinary.. Soooo, we used Yelp and found this place right around the corner from us. When walk into the place you can tell that it is family owned and friendly. It does not have the generic wall hangers and decorations, the decor is very organic. We were greeted promptly and taken care of by a sweet señora who was able to help us in English but threw in a little Espanol to make it a little fun.. The menu is not overwhelming and does a good job describing everything. I ordered the Gallena, chicken and potatoes with a pepper sauce. It was amazing! The plate was loaded with food and not all of the unnecessary garnish plate fillers.. Definitely prepared just as it would be at home. They didn't seem to care about making the plate look TV ready, they were interested in giving you excellent Latin home style cooking and enough of it to fill you up. Throughout the meal the waitress and some of the other people in the restaurant checked on us and had good conversation with us.. It was really great, a successful date night! PS as we left they were setting up the speakers and music on the stage for what appeared to be dancing and good Latin music. read more

This small out of the way restaurant with a Peruvian food offers very good food at reasonable prices. From Route 7 in Sterling take the Countryside exit and make either the first or second right turn. It's in a shopping center that is adjacent to a gas station, closer to the 2nd entrance to Pidgeon Hill Dr than the first. Peruvian food resembles Mexican food but potatoes play as large a role as beans. read more

This is a great place to eat. I've been for dinner twice and plan on one more visit before I leave the area. Let's talk about the meals though. I had a seafood stew on my first trip and that friends was to die for. My next trip I had the rotisserie chicken with fried yucca and fries. This too was good but not overly remarkable except for the sauces they brought with the meal which were awesome. The staff is friendly, the surroundings are nice and the place is clean. Best ethnic food restaurant that I've visited in this area. read more

Ate there around three weeks ago. It was really good. We got the rotiserre chicken, salad and rice. Very fresh food. The chicken is extremely flavorful. It has just the right amount of seaoning.This place is a winner. Good prices too. Can't wait to go back for more. read more

Good food. GREAT salsa verde. Service- not so much with nearly 15 min wait for a tamal after my friends were served their entrees.

Food was ok though one in our party who was from Peru sent back her dish because it was not prepared properly. Waitress seemed impatient was not very friendly. They charged for refills of ice tea and added the tip to a table of three. Will not go back there again. read more

I've been here 3 times and always get the same thing, the chicken and potatoes in the yellow sauce with rice. I LOVE it! It's always so good! However tonight I went with my boyfriend and he got the shrimp with potatoes and rice, for $11 he got maybe 5 pieces of shrimp and 2 small potatoes, I expected a little more for the price but I guess once he added the rice it helped. The sauce he had was more of an orange color and was very bland, it was spicy but had no flavor at all. However, a little salt fixed that. Dessert options aren't that good either. I think this place is great if you only stick to a few meals. read more

This past Saturday I went back to El Estribo after a long time. A few months ago, I went with a group of friends, and we order different dishes. One of my friends was never served, she asked for "aji de gallina" . Everybody finished eating and nobody came to let her know what happen with her order. This Saturday I asked for "arroz con pato" they did not have it than i asked for "arroz con pollo" they did not have it either, (unacceptable for a Peruvian Restaurant arroz con pollo is a daily meal!!!!). I ordered the rotisserie chicken and they serve me a chicken leg that it was so cold that if they didn't take out of the refrigerator it was taken from somebodies plate. This was at 3:00 on a Saturday. read more

My daughter wanted the JALEA, and we looked for a Peruvian restaurant in the area and this one popped up, it was a huge plate and it was supposed to have seafood and fish, but on the whole plate there was only three shrimps and like 8 pieces of Calamari, the rest was fish filet on the bottom and little pieces of fried fish, she left half of the plate because it was to much fish. read more

Well, I'm peruvian, David Amador Alva Alva, is any relation with the restaurant " El estribo" ubicated in av. Larco - Miraflores, Lima - Peru, please post me back my email is davidalva@yahoo.com read more

Food was not good and the waiter was rude. My bill was $20 and I gave him $ 4 tip and he brought back the tray with a few pennies as if to say my $4 tip or 20 percent was not good enough! I'll never go back here again. I love Peruvian food and have been to Lima.....El Estriba should fire this young waiter! read more

at these prices, the food should not come out cold twice! Also the margaritas great and it's a high-end Mexican place.

While I read a lot of yelp reviews and have previously worked as a server for four years, I've never been to a place bad enough to write a yelp review, this was a terrible experience. I love peruvian food so I was excited to finally try this place out. We walked in to a nearly empty restaurant and stood there waiting to be helped, after awhile a girl walked up and looked at us like we were crazy, we finally asked, "can we sit down?" and she pointed to a table and walked away. the TV was BLASTING, and on top of that it was blasting some reality show of a woman in the middle of giving birth moaning and screaming, not the most appetizing thing to hear or see in the back ground. I grew up overseas, so I really don't have an issue with being in an environment where english is not the first language or ordering food from someone who doesn't speak english- but I completely agree with the previous review about there being a huge communication barrier. if the menu is set up where you have to communicate with your server about things like sides (for example if you want yucca or french fries, or only salad and no potatoes), or how you want your chicken cooked, and your restaurant is in Sterling, VA than there needs to be at least one person in the joint who can speak enough english so that you can at the minimum get your order right. On the menu they only had beer and soda listed so I asked the server if they had wine, she kept shaking her head at me and looking at me like I was crazy, and finally got someone else to come over and talk to us, he said they were out of wine. My mom had ordered the rotisserie chicken (ordered it out loud AND pointed to it specifically on the menu) and got just a plain grilled chicken (the server hadn't understood her order, shocker) to give them credit they did take it back and bring the correct order and didn't put the original one on the bill- that was the highlight of the evening. I ordered the mixed grill which was made up of about 30% actual meat and 70% large trimmings of fat. We both specified we didn't want any french fries but ended up with french fries anyway, which were obviously bad frozen ones that were badly reheated. To sum it up, if you get the correct order and order the RIGHT thing on the menu (don't get the french fries) it's mediocre at best. The worst part was that we left feeling bad, like we had inconvenienced and annoyed them the whole time. Definitely not the place to spend your hard earned cash. read more

Food was always good whenever they decoded not to randomly close to the public. I have not been back to this restaurant in about a year, because I had it with getting my mind set on eating there and driving to the restaurant, only to find it closed during published operating hours. I do not exaggerate when ivsay that it happened about 4 out of the 5 times my boyfriend and I decided to go there. The hours on the door and google search are different, but we've always arrived at least 1/2 or more before theearliestlisted closing time. What's worse is there is usually someone there, and they just ignore you, even when you knock on the door for their attention. One of the times there seemed to be a private dinner party there. All the other times the place was empty, and I surmise they decided to close early because of that. Clearly they do not have the same business ethic expected in America nor respect for patron's time and gas $. I stopped giving them my business. It was not worth the frustration. read more

My friend and I stumbled on this place in the Safeway shopping center by accident. We were the only people in the place at 11.45am on a Monday and already the place smelled wonderful. I had never had Peruvian food and didn't know what to expect and couldn't tell by the menu what I would get. My friend was laughing at me as she had had Peruvian food before and she was very excited at what she was seeing on the menu. I got the "easiest" something I recognized: "Rotisserie chicken" and for $7.99 I could get 1/2 the chicken and 2 sides. The plate was ENORMOUS and the plantains were so sweet. I hadn't had plantain since my days in Nigeria! Since my friend made fun of me for not trying the Yucca, I ordered a side. It was OUTRAGEOUSLY DELICIOUS and I brought it home for my very picky 12-yr-old daughter to try. She LOVED it. Tonight I'm taking my whole family to El Estribo to try the delicious flavors my friend and I experienced. She and I are now going to become regulars. read more