Pastuso — Restaurant in Melbourne

ORDERED: Feast of the Andes ($95.00pp) 🐟  Muchame de Atun: Cured mooloolaba albacore tuna loin, aji panca and ginger oil, housemade vinegar, herbs 🐟 Ceviche Peruano: Ruby red snapper, aji amarillo tiger's milk with caramelised sweet potato, choclo and cancha 🌽  Pastel de Choclo: Sweet corn cake with black garlic whipped feta, pickled pumpkin, baby corn and garlic stems, smoked rocoto and shallots vinaigrette 🐓  Chicharron de Pollo: Free range crispy chicken thigh, marinated in dried peruvian chillies, ripe plantain puree, coriander mayo and salsa criolla

🐑  Picante de Cordero: Grilled gundagai lamb rump cap GLQ5, picante sauce 🥔  Yucas: Fried Cassava chips with shaved parmesan and ocopa sauce 🥬  Ensalada Verde: Seasonal greens, pickled fennel, brazil nuts, lucuma vinaigrette

🥭  Delicia de Mango: Mango Parfait, alfajor crumb

I paid $116.14 here.

REVIEW: Part of the San Telmo group, Pastuso is a great introduction into Peruvian food. If you get a private dining room, you will need to spend $130pp for dinner. You may want to get the mid-range set menu, and a couple of drinks each. We weren't aware of this compulsory charge, so we were left scrambling to buy an extra bottle of wine before we left. On top of all the drinks we already purchased. Very unpleasant ending service from the front of house! And a bitter end to an otherwise great night.

Really enjoyed the Muchame de Atun where the tuna loin was soft and flavourful with an abundance of spring onion. Really a strong starter. Pastuso also does my favourite corn bread. It's moist and sweet. The best corn bread I've ever had. Unsure if I liked it with all the decorations around it, compared to its modest presentations years ago but it was still delicious. Cassava chips took us by surprise. So often you'd have these floppy poor excuse for chips at other establishments, but Pastuso's variation was delicious. There's structure, there's flavour, and we kept going back for more. Highly recommend this.

Our ensalada was cabbage with white cream based sauce. It was unbalanced from the mains, and I was a little but upset because it was not as amazing as what the menu set it out to be with hits of 'brazil nuts', for instance. I wasn't told of this variation, so having it placed brazenly in front was a bit disappointing.

The service was great overall. In a private room, we were a party of 10 which meant we could be quite loud. Dim lights, efficient service and a kind waitress who ensured we were continuously topped up with water, and good food.

Overall, I wouldn't recommend Pastuso for a private room in a big group of 10. I've had much better experiences when it's been 2-4 people on...

Booked here for a quick no frills dinner pre-show at the theatre. Was blown away by the meal.

best pisco sour I’ve had in Australia, absolutely fantastic. A must order if you’re missing South America. I thought it was beautifully balanced. oysters were fab, would recommend. I like their selection of ceviches, some creative and fun flavours. The scallop ceviche was a standout to me. my friends hadn’t tried yuca fritas prior to this visit. They are now obsessed. skewer and the sauce that it came with, fabulous. Eye fillet: admittedly a very averageee eye fillet but I have absolutely no regrets, as holy hell the chilli sauce it came with was mind-blowing. I tried to ask the waiter for the recipe (haha). It lives rent free in my head. Considering what a good meal I was having up to that point, this sauce was truly some 100/10 top tier stuff to blow me away like that. Just wow. lastly, the desserts. We ordered desserts just for the sake of ordering desserts, but we were so glad that we did. We were raving about the desserts all the way to the doors of Wicked. Have had my fair share of tres leches cake in Chile but hoooo boy that was a great cake. Also the matcha dessert was really subtle and beautifully paired. Certainly had us wondering how good the other desserts on the menu are too!

Also the service was great. I liked the tramontina steak knives they had so much that I ordered a full set shortly after this visit. The prices were also so reasonable even with drinks in the mix, especially considering the excellent variety we had on the menu to pick from.

All in all, a Melbourne staple for us to return to now. Would happily reorder everything and can’t wait to try more on their menu. This is one of those places that you think “wow yes the chefs here DEFINITELY taste their food and they also most definitely have great taste buds”, I mean every sauce and condiment that paired with each dish was complex and umami 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻 To the team at Pastuso, thanks for the incredible meal. Please open a branch in Brisbane- it...

More of 3.5 stars. The ambience and food are great. 1.5 short stars cos of staff attitude. There was one staff near the back counter in front of back till with blonde hair not so slim wearing black tshirt who was not so friendly (not our assigned server). It was my birthday and we kindly ask her if she can refrigerate the cake for us because our server was somewhere else and she was nearby just standing at the till area and she made a face and was kind of rude to tell (more like a threat) there's fee of $4.50 PER PERSON last 2 words uttered with an attitude and a raised eyebrow and just left without even bothering to wait for my friend who was just asking to take the candles also with it. That staff was rude. This my second time to dine, first time, there was also one staff who was not nice when we asked to change our plates cos it was full of sauce already from 2 previous course meals (i availed the $115 per person set menu - yes pay is per person but they serve each meals for sharing as it is the peruvian custom to do share dining) and we find that we may not be able to fully savor the flavors of the next course if we keep on using the same plate cos they'd all gonna mix up. We asked if they can change our plates, the server (tall skiny lady) was hesitant and we felt that she was not so willing to do it. For me, to retain the credibility of each of the menu's flavors, the plates should be cleared after each course so the flavor from the previous dish would not alter the flavor of the next courses. It would have been just easy for the server to grant such simple request, we just asked for one change of plate for the whole 8 courses, why was there so much resistance? the other servers were cheerful...