Inca Social — Restaurant in Arlington

Have been wanting to check out Inca Social for a minute. When I saw their post about hosting an alpaca happy hour, I had to make plans to go. Every month during the summer, Inca Social brings in alpacas for a few hours to interact with patrons. Of course it’s a popular draw, so expect it to be crowded!

I purchased what I thought were tickets online because I read it “sells out” quickly. I was able to get two tickets for what were glasses of beer @ the bar. You can also make reservations to dine in. It was a little confusing when we arrived, about the tickets. The staff didn’t all seem to know or understand about them, but we just went with the flow.

Went on a Thursday night for happy hour, which is from 5:30p-7:30p and it was PACKED! Luckily, we managed to find seats at the bar after scanning the space!

It took a little while to order drinks and apps because it was so busy. Once we flagged down someone, we were able to place an order.

Not being beer drinkers, we paid our drinks forward to folks sitting next to us at the bar and ordered the Passion Pisco Sour in stead. It was delicious! Inca Social has a pretty extensive drinks menu that includes various versions of the Peruvian cocktail, Pisco Sour.

The menu is filled with classic Peruvian dishes like different types of ceviche or causas, among other things.

The atmosphere at Inca Social is vibrant. In addition to the bar and dining room, there’s a sushi bar in the back of the restaurant and an outdoor patio and bar area on the front of the restaurant.

Now, the fun part —The alpacas were on the patio with their owner, where patrons are able to interact with the alpacas by feeding and petting them. They are very calm and social and don’t seem to mind crowds or multiple people interacting with them at once.

Their owner has tote bags filled with hay for the alpacas to eat while people are interacting with them. The hay is on the ground for the alpacas to eat, so they will frequently lean down to eat the hay. People are also picking up hay to feed the alpacas.

You can take photos with them. There was a constant flow of people petting and taking photos and videos with the alpacas. They were very popular!! I feel for the people dining on the patio because it was so packed that they seem to barely have room to enjoy their meal. All and all, everyone seemed to be enjoying their experience interacting with the alpacas.

Now the food, we ordered chicken causas and chicken empanadas and both were good. We didn’t realize that the causas were served cold and the chicken was more like a chicken salad, so we ordered the empanadas for something warm to eat.

We would definitely go back even if the alpacas weren’t there.

We recommend checking out the Inca Social social media for the latest. They seem to always be hosting someone special at both or either location.

For the social media folks, Inca Social has a few IG moments pre-set for your photos including the floral backdrop with swings by the bar and a green wall on the...

Hip and cool place in Rosslyn. Located a short walk from the center and metro of Rosslyn.

Large food and drink menu. They have a happy hour with selected drinks, beer, snacks/starters and non-alcoholic drinks. They offer this in the bar area, but we got to sit at a table and take advantage of this offer.

Visited the place twice. Once for drinks only and once for a full package. Good service and quality of what we were served both times.

The first time we had beer from tap, Chica Rum, Latin Ice and inca cola. Inca cola was extremely sweet.

Food

Tumi Roll? Very good and exciting variant.

Latin Roll This one was a bit boring, was eaten, but wouldn't choose this one again.

Empanadas Had one with chicken and one steak. The chicken was perhaps the best, but nothing extraordinary about any of them. I'm not a fan of empanadas, as I often find that there is too much dough.

Chicken fritters My son chose this dish as they do not have a separate children's menu. This was, in my opinion, the worst of what we got. Greasy and French fries were pale and tasteless. I don't think my son really appreciated this dish either.

Inca Tacu Tacu ($23) Very tender meat and a surprisingly tasty dish even though there are visually few ingredients. For my part, could have been more spicy, could certainly have asked for something stronger. Recommended!

Arroz Con Mariscos ($21) This is like a Peruvian paella. Massive dish with lots of rice. Various seafood mixed in. I don't have any experience with calamari, but for me this is very much like a rubber band.

The premises are fresh and Instagram-friendly. The overall impression is very good. Everything from service, food and value for money.

Although some of the food was not 100% to the taste, others can probably appreciate these dishes.

A "new" employee who seemed a bit random just came to take the card for payment which we had not seen before. Seemed a little off for a little moment, so he should have introduced himself before just...

I did their ceviche sampler as my main dish after I had anticuchos and some fusion sushi.

Peruvian sushi is fusion, so don't expect a classic Japanese sushi experience. I found this sushi was "rice heavy", both in flavor and in content, but not bad. Just not as light or fresh as a good Japanese sushi dish.

Anticuchos were perfectly seasoned with the right amount of char (aka flavor, as my dad used to put it). Beef heart can be a bit tough, and it's been a while since I had anticuchos. These were tougher than I remembered them to be, but again, not bad. Bad anticuchos are like chewing on an old car tire, and this was NOT in that category. I appreciate that it was slightly pink inside, as I like my beef, pork, and fish dishes to be rare. So I highly recommend the anticuchos as they are well prepared and serves with very complementary side dishes/garnish.

The ceviche was very good. I had the sampler, and I found the 3rd one I tried was the best. I like a very spicy ceviche, and forgot to ask for "picante". It is worth it to get ceviche.

Also tried the "arroz con mariscos" (rice with seafood), which was absolutely spectacular. Best I've had Stateside. And it can totally pair with ceviche or leche de tigre if you wanna dive all in on seafood.

Finally, I had a pair of Chilcano cocktails, which are surprisingly light, but extraordinarily tasty and refreshing. I would say they are good summer drinks, but considering how good they are, i recommend getting this drink at any time of year, and pair with something light to eat. So so tasty. I also tried the pisco sour, and aside from the presentation with a picture of a llama drawn in the merengue with bitters, the drink itself is flawlessly prepared. Boozy enough to be fun, but mixed well enough to be safe for a fun night out.

Totally worth a visit. It's a little pricy, but I think it's probably reasonable especially considering the...