Restaurant Huaca Pucllana — Restaurant in Lima Metropolitan Area

The hostess was friendly and efficient, choosing for us a table that ensured the best view of the ruins. Thank you ma'am.

The waiter mumbled some unintelligible nonsense about frufru pisco sours with freaky fruits, shaken not stirred by some mixologists blah, blah.blah.... NO, mi wifey just wants the pisco sour traditional she asked for. I asked for Agua con gas, and I got still water sin gas. They got the cava right though. Big success and celebration?

The salmon carpaccio was ok, Superbly sliced, well presented, with arugula, fried tasteless capers, excess lime - which overpowered any salmon flavour, and the acid killed the fatty richness of the salmon. The dish was very pretty to look at though.

The Chicharrones de Pollo was boring, dry, overcooked, with no flavour, cheaper thigh meat was used instead of breast meat cut into uniform cubes. The thigh meat did not appear to be cut, but was perhaps ripped apart by rabid dogs, giving uneven stretched out stringy bits-o-pollo. They made a big deal about the pisco in the marinade, but there was  no pisco flavour. There were charred bits of skin dangling here and there.... Thigh meat with skin can be very flavourful, but not here. The sauce at least should have had pisco in it, but no, no hint of pisco flavour anywhere. Another FAIL.

A waiter had silently dropped off a dish... no explanation, no nothing, turns out it was the chicharrones we ordered. We had to ask the maitre d' who was lurking around, who curtly stated "Chicharrones de pollo" as if even a moron could figure that out. Now I understood why the Chicharrones were hidden under mountains of julienned onions... to hide their shame, camouflage the errors, and give the waiters a means of identifying the charred abominations below.

The ricotta relleno was ok, mildly spicy, stuffed with the most basic unspiced ground beef, topped with plain melted gringo white cheese. My son could have prepared this when he was 12 years old, except his dish would have had flavour.

Without doubt this is the worst meal we have had in both Chile and Peru! Sometimes there is bad service but the food is awesome, and sometimes vice versa. But at Huaca Pucllana the service was terrible and the food was just as bad. No saving grace anywhere. How sad, in the last 24 hours we have had excellent meals at La Trattoria de Mambrino (awesome carpaccio de res) and Punto Azul (the best pulpo we have ever had) and then there's Huaca Pucllana.

I had wanted a beer, but I shelved that thought. Paulina had wanted postre and coffee, but she dumped that thought. We left looking for a way to flush our mouths and minds of the tastes and memories from among the ruins. As luck would have it, a mere feet from the ruins exit was the entrance to an Italian Cafe. We ordered coffee, and joy of joys, they had lucuma ice cream. Paulina almost jumped for joy when the waitress said the ice cream was made with lucuma pulp. And they had lucuma icream with Stevia! So I had some. For my wife, lucuma cures all ills, even the multitude of transgressions at Huaca Pucllana, so we headed to the hotel with lucuma bellies and...

We lived in Lima from 2017 to 2021 and have gone here many times. Different work lunches and visiting friends' dinners. We went on Saturday, March 12, 2022. We made reservations and requested a nice table on the outer part of the location. We arrived 20 minutes past our time and the hostess said I had a nice table for you. but I gave it away. You can either wait here or in the restaurant area for the next table. She pointed toward the area that used to have the bar. There used to be a bar area in the corner of the location. I thought she wanted us to wait there. We went to that location, but the bar area is now gone, and it has been replaced with more tables. A waiter told us to have a seat on a couch and to wait there. Another waiter brought us menus and placed them on the coffee table. We told him that we were not eating at the coffee table, and he walked away. Another waiter came up and pointed to a table and said that once they cleaned it was ours. A few minutes later another family sat at that table. Finally, they gave us a table. Dinner was fine, just too many waiters handling your orders. A messed-up drink order and missing drinks that were placed on the bill. They were removed once we pointed it out to them. The place closes at 1030pm, and they start to scoot you to the door. If you want to take a picture with the lit pyramid behind, you do it before you eat. They turn off the lights on it before 1030pm to make sure you don't linger. The food is good, just expensive because of the location. They know it and are a little snobby toward the guest. I have never had a confusing experience like this past visit before, but service is different in this pandemic world we live in today. If you are visiting give it a shot, the view is beautiful especially at night with the lights! I won't be back but...

On a Peru trip with my daughter through Exotica Travel, we were offered a dinner at Huaca Pucllana for $100 each. One of the top restaurants in Miraflores.

The restaurant was fantastic. We were dropped off near the entrance and escorted in by our guide, who took us a waiting table in main dining area. The restaurant is right beside the Huaca Pucllana Archeological Site built in 200-100 AD. You can see the site from dining room and there is a walkway below dining room for a closer look.

Our guide explained that we could choose between two appetizers, two entrees and two desserts, plus water and a drink. This was disappointing since our choices were limited. I would rather have had a $100 limit then pay for anything over. Especially since this dinner was a “Taste of Peru.”

Our server was excellent, guiding our choices, but we already decided we would each choose a different item so we could share. I really didn’t bring dress clothes for this, backpacking it all, but I bring pressed pants and a nice T-shirt.

To start, the inevitable Pisco Sour. I think that is the Peru version of Spanish wine at every meal. We had Ceviche and little Potato Balls. Ceviche was great, Balls only fair.

For our mains we had Lomo Saltado and Chilean Sea Bass. The Saltado was excellent, the Sea Bass a bit fishy. I would have loved to try the Stuffed Crayfish, must have been a much larger version than the U.S.

For dessert we had a Meringue shell stuffed with pudding and a Chocolate Torte & Crumbles. Both were excellent and the Torte also came with an unknown yellow berry that was sweet and tart.

In looking over the menu prices. Each of our meals were less than s/180 plus an s/40 tip suggestion or about $70. I wander if the extra...