Siete Restaurante — Restaurant in Lima Metropolitan Area

We made a reservation with high hopes and with two of our party having a great experience once before. The restaurant is beautiful, with a knowledgeable and attentive waitstaff, but the food was unremarkable.

We elected to have the chef’s choice menu when we made the reservation, which in my experience means the chef creates a progression of dishes for the diners. Instead, our waitstaff seemed to be choosing dishes off the menu as we went, essentially serving us a set of recommended plates rather than a combination curated by the chef. Ultimately, the cost of the food was not worth it.

The cocktails were good (one of them was excellent), and we started with a tapas-style focaccia topped with aioli and tomato salsa with silverfish and avocado in leche de tigre. The dish was balanced and good, but nothing that I’ll be thinking about next week. We also had a salad with figs, an interesting but overly simple-flavored tortilla in a red sauce, pasta with clams (not nearly enough sauce, so the dish came across dry). Then, two dishes for specific discussion:

1. tuna with a potato puree: the tuna is the reason I am giving 3 stars instead of 1. This dish was the most excellent tuna that I have had in a very long time. The texture was phenomenal, and there were many levels of flavor with the soy sauce and mirin. The potato puree was fine but unexceptional.

2. our final dish was fish (cooked well but unimpressive flavor) in a curry sauce accompanied by ají amarillo stuffed with a paste of banana. Never have I had such a strange combination of flavors, and it didn’t work for me. As well, the soft paste oozed out when cutting the tougher pepper. The curry and fish felt unrelated to this odd stuffed pepper, and nothing about it worked for me.

With the exception of our final dish, nothing was bad, and one dish was beyond excellent. However, I would expect to pay half the price or to have a quality of food that is...

A TRAVELING FOODIE’S DELIGHTFUL LUNCHEON 🤩🤩🤩 at a chic bistro in a hip neighborhood of the Barranco Borough of Lima.

*We’ve learned of their reputation as an upscale establishment that qualifies as a true fusion cuisine, combining traditional Peruvian with infusion of Nikkei, Mediterranean, Castilian and Chinese / IndoChinese.

• Indeed, the very short and sweet menu 😎😎😎 does state the unique fusions, sign of a very creative chef.

With such menu, it’s wonderfully easy to create one’s tasting and shareable dining 👏👏👏.

🤩 Fig Salad ::: a refreshing medley of crisp greens, pistachios and figs, married together by a purée of quince!

🤩 Crudo of Dover sole and Octopus::: a simple yet elegant take on the Peruvian ceviche. The inclusion of Altamado corn tempers the curing of citrus and onions… it is so very subdued in tartness… WOW

🤩 Tortilla Vaga::: a unique take on a fish empanada served on a sizzling skillet with a very mild Sichuan-style escabeche sauce…. WOW

🤩 Sweetbreads with Umeboshi::: a lovely hearty braise of veal sweetbreads, surprisingly balanced and brightened with Japanese plums…. our favorite of the day😊😊😊

🤩 Miso and Coconut Banana Bread::: the lowly banana bread uplifted by the flavors of Miso and coconut. The lightness of the quenelle of ice cream balances the denseness of the bread👍👍👍

🤩 Lucuma Alfajor:: Classic Castilian alfajor with a creamy unadulterated mousse of the exotic Peruvian Lucuma….. luscious with SURPRISING finesse of a Parisienne patisserie👏👏👏👏👏

😎 There’s a nice and similarly short Cocktails menu.

Service is outstanding👍👍👍👍👍.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED to the casual diner and...

This is going to be hard to write… The only reason that Siete is getting 2 stars instead of 1 star is because of the service which was just fine. At the recommendation of a local, I made a reservation at Siete for their tasting menu. I wish I hadn’t. Turns out, there is no tasting menu. It really is the chef choosing 6 menu dishes (forgot to take a picture of one) and serving it. I know because the bill was itemized. Unfortunately, because I was so mad about the meal, I didn’t take a picture of it to show what I ate. The scallop ceviche was good, the salad was fine. The next dish (no picture) was fish over a fritada with a red sauce served in cast iron pan was pretty bad or at best not good. The 4th dish which looks like poop was pork (I think) and tasted like poop; not literally, simply outright BAD. I had one bite, forced a second, and then was done. The 5th dish was fish with tamale in the pepper. It wasn’t good. I think the last dish was flan. Same, it wasn’t terrible, just not good. This was my second worst experience in Lima, but it was by far the worst value. The worst place cost me a third of this. If I had known they were charging me per dish I would have walked out after the poop dish. The local who recommended this restaurant is no...