Yaku Restaurant — Restaurant in Distrito de Cusco

I’m honestly shocked at how high a rating this restaurant has. First, I do want to say that the service here was absolutely wonderful. Our server was enthusiastic, kind, and patient as we worked our way through the menu. He even asked if we’d like a picture in the restaurant. He was great. The cocktails were also lovely, but that was about it.

We ordered the alpaca skewers and they were incredibly dry—they wouldn’t come off the stick they were served on. I knew it would be problematic when my knife could hardly score through the meat as I tried to saw the nubbin of protein off of the wooden skewer. Swallowing it was almost painful, because it was so dry and hard that it ripped it’s way down my throat. I should say though, the flavor of the sauce/hot sauce they served alongside was good, and the saving grace of that. Still, I managed one bite because it was truly that difficult to get down. The appetizer also included corn, and to be frank I was absolutely shocked at how dry that was as well. I’ve never had corn so dry?? It tasted like mixtilized corn (like hominy you have in mexican pozole, but without any of the soup-infused moisture.) The potatoes were also bone dry and unfortunately unseasoned.

We also ordered the pachamanca, a dish we were excited to try as we had heard it was a local specialty. Unfortunately everything included in that dish was also beyond dry—it was practically dust. From the stewed beef to the chicken to the pork (that was also somehow ~85%fat cap. I was shocked that food I had never thought could be dry (boiled sweet potato?) sucked the moisture out of my mouth like I was in the final scene of The Last Crusade.

Also, as a side note that has nothing to do with the subpar food…be prepared for some local musicians to come in and, although not terrible at playing their music, they do try to sell you CDs—which can be somewhat uncomfortable when you have told them no thank you multiple times, yet they linger. I do understand why they’re there, but it’s hard because you literally cannot leave as...

I was very excited to try this place out as it had high reviews, and it looked like it offered elevated dishes with some nice music and good service. To my surprise, this restaurant was a complete disappointment. Maybe some of the tourists that don't know how great peruvian food really is, think this is good food, but let me tell you, it's not. At best, it's average, but that's not where the issue lays.

We came in, and they had some musicians playing, which I thought was a nice touch, they stayed for 2 songs after we sat down, meaning we didn't listen to them while we ate, but they came around asking for money after their performance and were quite pushy. We ordered 2 drinks, chicha, which is 18 soles (that's an absurd high price fyi), but was tasty, an organic lemonade around 16 soles, and 4 dishes. The food is expensive, and I say that bc it does not correlate with the quality. The only dish that was good was the causa acevichada. Good flavors, I've had better, but it was satisfying. The lomo saltado and the aji de galllina were just average, nothing worth the price. Now, the andean soup had absolutely no flavor and the smallest piece of lamb full of nerve and chewy. I let the server know about the lack of flavor and the meat being so small and inedible when he came to ask how our food was. He said he'd let the chef know. He came back later with the bill and said, "I told the chef, and he said the soup was fine." Well, that tells you all you need to know then. I left 80% of the soup, only drank some of the liquid as I was hungry.

Cuzco has so many amazing restaurants from hole in the walls to high end ones. Go anywhere else! This felt like a...

This restaurant was super close by our hotel so we decided to pop in for our first dinner in Cusco. First off, the presentation is absolutely beautiful!! Every plate looked like like an art piece! We got the tiradito, which was a sashimi style trout with some ago & sweet potato purée, and the roasted veggies as appetizers. The veggies were alright, not much to say about them but we enjoyed the tiradito so much! It sounded delicious on the menu and we were so surprised by the plating, it tasted so fresh and a perfect melange of flavours. For our main, we got the alpaca steak. It honestly tasted like beef except a bit more gamey and a lil tougher to chew but nevertheless very yummy, they put it on a plate of sweet potatoes! For dessert we got the chocolate cake and hot chocolate + mulled wine for drinks. The hot chocolate was more herbal than I expected but my boyfriend loved it! The service was also impeccable, so welcoming and accommodating. Prices were reasonable and everything was an absolute pleasure. It was a lil chilly in the evening so they put hot charcoal rocks in a pot next to us and I even saw them offer blankets to other guests! I would recommend this restaurant to anyone who’s...