Pan Sal Aire — Restaurant in Lima Metropolitan Area

It really pains me to write this review in the way I have. For a lovely restaurant with such tasty food, a rating of 2 is unfortunate but fair.

The reason I have given such a mediocre review is purely and simply down to the shocking service we received.

When we entered, the staff were eating on the large table to the right of the entrance. Instead of a friendly warm greeting, it seemed like we were a nuisance, or that we had disturbed them.

The frosty waitress (slight slim build with a pony tail) came over, without a smile, dropped our menus on the table and walked away. This is service 101. Greet your table, smile and at the minimum ask how they are. We received non of this.

When we asked if possibly there was a menu in English we were greeted with a firm ‘No!’. While I certainly don’t expect an English menu, I would expect the server to potentially deal with the situation in a more professional manner. Where did their staff train???

We were then ignored while she decided that the table who came in after us was more worthy of her attention.

Eventually we ordered. Turns out she actually spoke some English, it may have been nice to potentially walk us through the menu.

After eating a tasty shakshuka and sampling my partners goat cheese pasta (delicious although slightly small) I was left impressed by the chefs who clearly know what they are doing. Although, have been severely let down by a poor front of house team!

I then had to get my own menu because she cleared the plates and didn’t ask if we wished for anything else. After perusing the menu, I ordered the brownie. They didn’t have it! I then ordered the carrot cake, they didn’t have it! I decided a coffee would have to do.

The coffee was exceptional!!! Great tasting coffee with perfect milk, couldn’t fault it!

I debated whether to go for a 2 or 3 rating for a while, then realised the food was very good but not flawless and the service was the worst we’ve had in Peru so we had to air on a 2 as we really wouldn’t go back, even though the food was certainly something we would have liked to try again.

Maybe try this place on a busier day when they have more than one server, but I can think of a great number of restaurants we tried in Lima during our stay that I would put...

Service 3 Ambiance 4 Food 2 Drinks 3

Unfortunately this was not a win for me.

Service was friendly but slow. I want to note that it was not for a lack of hard work by the staff, because they were hustling. But possibly understaffed for Sunday brunch.

The Benedict was a huge disappointment. The edges of the toast were so hard (in some areas burnt) that if felt like sawing a log and I ended up cutting into large pieces and just eating with my hard because I was afraid I would impale myself trying to make more cuts. The egg was undercooked to the point that it seemed it was just yoke I was eating, because you couldn't pick up the whites with a fork (just liquid). Ultimately it was toast with ham and yoke for my brunch.

I worked in restaurants for year so really never would return food, but kind of wish I did because that was just not what I ordered.

Maybe a different food item and a less busy day would be a better experience,...

Best hot chocolate in Peru over 2 weeks of travel. The cappuccino was too milky though. For food we had the Shakshuka (tomato, eggs, Greek yogurt) and the roast beef sandwich (coming with mustard seeds, mayonnaise, salad parmesan and small cubes of tomato). The roast beef was quite good. The Shakshuka was actually too rich and powerful in spices so it became too heavy to taste and digest. The place is quite popular. The service was quite slow. We had to wait 10-15 minutes to have the 1st drink (hot chocolate); had to wait 30 minutes for the food and we had to remind them of the coffee 40 minutes after ordering. The place is beautiful and I love the access to the cooking book that we enjoyed reading while waiting...