Wandering down Como Parade the other day on the way to an Indian restaurant, I noticed this place... a friend who lives locally also commented it had opened to some acclaim, so I booked for a Sat. night dinner with friends we hadn't seen for a while. (I should add: I lived in Peru as a child, love the cuisine, cook a lot of Mexican, Argentine, Spanish and other Latin food, have a pantry loaded with chilies, sauces, etc...)
Perhaps it was a mistake.
First: Very busy and disorganised on a Saturday night. We entered... and waited. And waited. Other patrons entered and muscled past us intent on pinching our table, and I almost had my first fistfight in Melbourne letting them know we had been there first, were waiting for a table, and--YES!--we had a booking, just like them...
Our table still wasn't ready. When we were finally seated (after grumbling from the aforementioned others), four of us had two plates, two glasses and one set of cutlery. This didn't change for some time.
My bottle of wine remained unopened for half an hour. No wine glasses were offered and we had to ask. We also had to ask for extra water glasses. I had my own corkscrew (had brought a nice Spanish drop with a real cork and know corks are becoming a bit rare), so resorted to opening my own bottle once glasses arrived (for which effort I was charged $10 corkage - $2.50 per person - when we finally paid for our meal).
Menu interesting but no explanations. Still no cutlery. We ordered. Still no cutlery, napkins or extra plates.
Food arrived (in fairness, quite quickly). Ceviche was really nice--limey, fish still fresh and firm, sweet potato, corn and deep fried corn kernels accompanying all very nice.
We finally got another two plates. Had to ask for serving spoons.
Then, mains: Lamb and beans featured underdone lamb (meant to be a stew, felt like it had been cooked fast, so meat not tender). Very nicely spiced, however.
My "lomo" (beef fillet) tough, tho' tasty.
Chicken and chili... lacking chicken. We all hunted, but found only potato. It was also cold. We had to ask again for plates, and cutlery.
Confusion among the staff as to whether to give us fresh plates (the first lot now awash with lemon/lime ceviche marinade, not compatible with the mains). We finally got new dishes. I lost half my rice in the process. Not replaced.
Service, as you may have sensed, was very erratic. Fine when you asked (when you could get someone's attention), but not proactive at all. Yet there were at least four people wandering in and out of the busy dining room. Simply not watching patrons for those empty glasses, no attempts at eye contact, no attention paid to raised hands, water carafes begging to be refilled, etc...
Finally, for dessert we got the house specialty: Picarones--crisp sweet potato flour doughnuts with a yummy, hot molasses syrup - and other sweet goodies. Excellent. Just late, slow, and unaccompanied by coffee (we made noises, but they left before we could order). Intriguingly, the thing that should have come out quickest, the vanilla ice cream, took ages. Go figure.
Finally, we tried to pay. They'd lost our entrée and main orders. Much to-ing and fro-ing between front-of-house and kitchen. It finally showed. Fair price (other than corkage) but we left no tip...
Except these:
Mi Peru d'Carmen must rapidly get a better butcher. Get in more meats for big nights. Get better wait staff. Pre-cook slow-cooked meals for those big nights so the lamb falls off the bone and I don't lose teeth chewing my beef. Realise they're onto a winner (one of the staff told me things were going really well) but make some real efforts to fine tune their offering and make sure they STAY on a winner, rather than squandering a fantastic opportunity.
Will I go back? I'm in two minds. If they were to offer anticuchos (annatto, vinegar and chili-soaked ox heart skewers) I might give them ONE MORE CHANCE...! Espero que leen y entienden lo que he dicho. Les deseo lo mejor. Pero si no me escuchan... read more
