INCA Ponsonby — Restaurant in Waitematā

We were at hoppers garden bar at Ponsonby with friends and me and my husband decided to have a dinner at Inca Ponsonby! Disappointing really as we go overseas and we can compare the food! In fact we just came from San Francisco and Cancun just this December and January and we went to our favourite Japanese restaurant and our mind was blown away. We are fond of fine dining and we travel overseas twice a year . First the sashimi we ordered taste like frozen , tuna was very light pink and definitely frozen.. reminds of St. Pierre sushi in NZ! Then empanada is salty , fried rice that we do not want to order but we have to because no other option to go with our 2 black cod as our main- well , steamed rice is preferred as we already ordered a salad, but surprisingly you guys don’t have steam rice… fried rice was mashy, like a mashed potatoes and salty again. Just wandering why Inca food was not the same when you opened ? Maybe chef changes!Eye in every detail is very important! Quality assurance!

But at the end we don’t mind spending , in fact we spend close to 400 dollars last night, as me and my husband ordered a bit really! But overall food was very average, service is quite slow and restaurant was not even busy, more staff working than customer but service was slow! Tipping is being copied by NZ now , they’re trying too, but yes we can tip but the food and the service should be great.. As we said we loved fine dining and travelling overseas so we can definitely compare the food..

we are very disappointed as this restaurant used to be better so with MASU , we used to go there a lot but we stopped after COVID food was not even that great either .. sad because it’s used to be one of my favourite Japanese restaurant in NZ , but not...

Inca offers a great selection of Peruvian dishes. The guacamole, prepared at our table, was delicious as always, with the chips perfectly complementing it.

Followed up by the Grande sashimi platter, which was beautifully presented with a fresh variety of fish and ceviche. The fish itself was excellent, and the kumara crisps were a delightful addition. The ceviche, while enjoyable, didn’t meet our flavour expectations and was a bit bland.

On the positive side, the spicy tuna tostada, did not disappoint. It was fresh, flavourful, and packed its usual delightful punch.

We also tried the corn and sweet potato fritters – a great concept in terms of ingredients. However, for our taste, they also ended up being a bit bland, oily and lacked saltiness. It wasn’t a bad dish, but perhaps something we might choose to skip next time.

Our chosen drink for the evening was the Pisco Sour, a classic Peruvian/Chilean cocktail. Unfortunately, it was a bit of a letdown. It tasted watery and overly sour, lacking the expected sweetness.

For dessert, I couldn’t resist the “Sigh of Lima Lady” – a true testament to my love for dulce de leche! I thoroughly enjoyed it, but my partner, who leans towards less sweet options, not quite.

Overall, we had a pleasant evening with attentive service and good food. However, we couldn’t help but reminisce about the time when Inca first opened. Back then, the food seemed to burst with even more vibrant and authentic Peruvian flavours. While it was still enjoyable, it wasn’t quite as remarkable as our past...

We came for dinner on New Year’s Eve. That would have been our 4th time dining at Inca in the past year and unfortunately it was no where near as good as it had been in the past and we were quite disappointed.

Firstly the guacamole we had we found that the bowl which it was served in had weird blue fibers all over it. It looked like someone has cleaned it with a blue cleaning cloth and then the fibers had got stuck into the stone or rock that the bowl is made out of. We actually didn’t notice this immediately and only after we had eaten the guacamole as we were actually worried these fibers may have also made it in the guacamole we ate. We also noticed the table next to us had the same blue fibers on their guacamole bowl.

My partner has got the BBQ ribs every time we have been there and this time they were terrible. He said they were dry and tough with barely any sauce compared to previous times. Usually he has raved about how delicious they were.

We also got the potato’s for the first time which were found to be very unseasoned.

We were overall just very disappointed with the food and after being our favourite restaurant where we had enjoyed going for meals to celebrate special occasions at, I don’t think we could come back again after this experience.

I emailed this feedback to the restaurant a few weeks back following their email requesting feedback but they have not responded which I think is quite disappointing so thought I better share our review as unsure whether they even...