Five Peruvian Mondays
I continue my challenge to checkout every Peruvian restaurant in the city. It's been ongoing for over twenty years, and we're getting there, even if we may never finish.
I initially started out the last few weeks thinking about places from back when I started writing about gastronomy in Buenos Aires. You may remember I did a post on some of the earliest parrillas, steakhouses, that I had gone to and seeing how they’ve stood the test of time - El Estrebe and Lalo. The issue, as I noted in the first of those posts, is that simply most of the restaurants that I really liked back then simply don’t exist anymore. But I was looking at January 2006, and Henry and I started going regularly to one particular Peruvian restaurant. Mostly on Sundays when they had live music at lunchtime. It’s still around, and for whatever reasons, we haven’t gone there in probably 6-7 years. Maybe more.
I made my way to Sabor Norteño, La Rioja 186, Once. It was a Monday, and Monday in northern style Peruvian restaurants means the daily soup is almost always shambar, which I’ve written about recently. It’s often coupled with a main course as the daily menú ejecutivo, the prix fixe lunch.
The place is a bit worn down in comparison to my memories of it - my sense is it hasn’t been spiffed up in years.
And, shambar was indeed on the menu. It’s an okay version of it. It’s definitely not as good as it used to be. Kind of watered down, like they’ve just stopped bothering to add the spices and herbs that they used to.
And the main course of arroz con pollo, while a good sized portion, wasn’t a lot better. The cilantro infused rice was dried out, the chicken as well. The only really good thing in the meal was the quite good papas a la huancaina - potatoes in a yellow chili and cheese sauce.
Maybe that’s why we stopped going… it just gradually went down in quality and we didn’t make a conscious decision, but started going to other places instead. One could say, hey, at 9000 pesos (about $6) for a menú ejecutivo, it’s a steal, but it’s basically the same price that all the Once area Peruvian restaurants charge, and there are several that are far better.
I was wandering around downtown and just stumbled across this next place. I’d never heard of it, Bar El Tartaro, Paraguay 779. Based on their social media feed, they opened up last May. At lunchtime I was the sole customer for most of the time, one person came in for some takeout food at one point.
It’s not your typical looking Peruvian restaurant. My sense is it’s more about the bar than the food, and I’m curious as to how much business they get in the evenings given its location. I guess there are quite a few low to midrange hotels nearby, and it’s only half a block from the plaza at the Bellini Tower where there are quite a few good restaurants.
While a Monday, again, they aren’t offering up northern style Peruvian cuisine, and the soup of the day was something uninteresting, so I went with a starter of papas a la huancaina. Really quite good, with a decent kick, and a generous portion.
And while the main course was heavy on starch, the rice was properly made, the mashed potatoes were surprisingly good and buttery, and the spiced pork chop was, while rather thin, also rather tasty. For that same 9000 pesos, I was far happier here. Just a weird ambiance.
There’s a strip of restaurants on a two block stretch of Sarmiento, behind the Once train station, and most of them are Peruvian. Most of them are pretty mediocre too. But, we keep trying them, if for nothing else but completeness in our quest. While this place doesn’t have a sign identifying it, Google says it’s called Los Agachaditos, Sarmiento 2848. The name, in classic Spanish, means “the nods”, like nodding hello, which just seems a weird name, until you do a little deeper dive and find out that in northern Peru it’s a colloquial term for “popular cooking” specifically as opposed to “trendy cuisine”.
Shambar was on the menu, but jeez this was a waste of a bowl. It has no real substance to it - it’s mostly just slightly thickened flavorless broth, with a few pieces of gristle floating about in it. There were a few wheatberries and split chickpeas settled on the bottom, but not enough to be interesting.
The fried fish fillet for the main course was actually pretty decent, with a crispy coating and juicy fish inside, but the lentils were notedly undercooked and flavorless, and the rice was bland. When the slivered onions on the plate are the most flavorful thing about the whole meal, you’re in trouble. I don’t know who thinks this cooking is popular, but I’m not one of them. Same 9000 pesos.
I’m happy to move on to a good review, given how mediocre the previous three were. Some of you have noted that I’ve been spending a lot of time in the barrio of Nuñez in the far north of the city. It’s become a hotspot of new openings and I’ve been quite happy with almost every new place I’ve been to. Sabores Perú, 11 de Septiembre de 1888 4648 (the first number is part of the street name) appears to have opened up mid-2020, at the height of the pandemic. I’m guessing someone saw an opportunity given the lack of Peruvian restaurants in that general part of the city, and the limitations on food deliveries that were in place at the time, to provide Peruvian food for folk who live there. But that’s just a guess.
Fantastic shambar. Easily the best version I’ve had here in town. Packed with wheatberries, chickpeas, split peas, white beans, meat, and pork rinds, and flavorful as could be, along with a decent hot sauce and lemon on the side.
And an equally good ají de gallina - shredded chicken and potatoes in a yellow chili and cheese sauce based on the huancaina above. Their rice was on point, well seasoned. Really, all around excellent. A bit more expensive than the more central Peruvian spots - their menú ejecutivo comes in at 12000 pesos, or about $8. Worth every extra centavo.
Definitely a place to go back to and try things off the menu. After Henry gets back from Peru.
And, I think I should do a kind of overview post of dining in Nuñez to gather it all in one spot. Coming soon.
About a year and a half ago I’d written up Lo de Yolita, Pichincha 272 in Once as one of our go-to hole-in-the-wall spots for Peruvian food. Mostly because of her connection with Henry’s dance classes, but also because she’s a really good cook. The menu is always very limited - often just one or two appetizers and one or two main courses for the day - whatever she feels like cooking.
On Mondays, she offers up her version of shambar, which is excellent. On this particular Monday, being a holiday, she wasn’t offering a menú ejecutivo, the ubiquitous two-course Peruvian lunch menu. Instead, she just made a huge pot of shambar and was offering it in huge, meal sized portions. Normally her menú is 9000 pesos.
Just in case anyone wants to go out and sample, my three top shambars are Sabores Perú above, then Perú Sabor from the original post, and then this one from Lo de Yolita. If you’re looking for a great soup on a Monday afternoon, these are the spots to go to.