Lima Criolla Peruvian Restaurant — Restaurant in Austin

This place needs lots of improvement. Let me start by saying that my husband is Peruvian and our family loves Peruvian food. The food here was delicious and tasted great. Nevertheless, the restaurant needs a lot of work to become better.

When we arrived, the sign said to wait to be seated. A staff person asked us from across the room how many. When we answered 3, still from across the room, told us to sit at the last table on the second row. That set the tone for the rest of the service we received. There were 4 staff members and what appeared to be a manager gathered around the cash register talking loudly. Enough that at least 15 feet away, we knew what they were talking about. Ironically, it was about customers and operations.

Peruvian food is reknown for great presentation. Ours was presented like how someone would serve food in their own home. When you go to a restaurant, the expectation is that some effort would be given to appearance of the food.

The lacking customer service continued. Our horderve of plantains was plopped on the table without a word. We were not given plates . There were 3 of us and plates were needed. I tried for several minutes to get the attention of staff to no avail- they were all still gathered around the cash register, talking to one another. I finally had to get up and go to the kitchen window to request plates for the horderves. The cook did not hand me the plates but rang the bell to get the attention of the wait staff. If she had just given them to us, we wouldn't have had to continue to wait while the plantains got cold. At least 3 minutes later, the waiter pulled himself away from the group conversation around the register and from a distance and facing the register, put the plates on the table without a word.

The plantains were delicious- carmelized to perfection on the outside and soft and sweet on the inside.

A few minutes later, a waitress puts two disposable and tiny containers (about 1 inch tall and wide) on the table, says "hot sauce" and walks away. Since most people in Texas don't know about Peruvian cuisine, I feel the staff should show some pride and talk about what they are serving. Particularly they should inform the customer about spicy things. The hot sauce is "ricotto", which according to the Scoville scale of hot peppers is 20 x hotter than the average jalapeno. Their ricotta was mediocre and lacked the cream that ricotto should have. It was simply ground ricotta and really did not do any credit to Peruvian cuisine.

The aji de gallina was good, but a little soupier than normal, lacking the creaminess that the aji should have. The flavor was excellent.

The tallarin saltado was also very good. Meat was flavorful and tender.

The cau cau was superb. The tripe was soft and had a good flavor.

I suggest that they offer fountain drinks for soda and leave cans and bottles to specialty drinks. While it is typical to serve a can of soda at the table in Peru (where American drinks are uncommon), in the US, restaurant customers expect soda fountain drinks with free refills. A $3.50 can of soda does not give a classy appearance.

The restroom did not have toilet paper. We visited before noon so the restaurant had not been open long enought that the double commercial rolls had run out due to useage. Instead, it was an indication of poor management who did not check the restaurant for readiness for the day.

Peruvian food is exquisite and has won many international awards. This Peruvian restaurant has an excellent opportunity to familiarize Texans with the exquisiteness of Peruvian cuisine.

The restaurant does not represent the excellence of Peru very well. The dishes are good. But instead of remembering that the food was excellent, the customers leave there remembering the lack of attention. Their customers are unlikely to return. They are unlikely to recommend their restaurant to others. We were visiting our daughter and she took us there and actually felt bad that she did because of the...

My dear companion and I first laid eyes on this place after a seeing a documentary at the Austin Film Society, a cinema we’d recommend along with this restaurant, perhaps equal parts of a nice evening out. However, we happened to happen upon this place on Peruvian Independence Day of all days, so they were booked solid and cordially invited us to return the next day for dinner and a little live Andean music. Unfortunately we didn’t make it back that Sunday. We did make our way back that Monday, though, and very gratefully so after almost shipwrecking and getting marooned at Sam’s Boat. My dear companion and I ordered the Quinoa Salad, el Ceviche Limeño, and the “Peruvian Paella” for our meal, all to share as we are wont to do. Each of these dishes was delicious and they all went well together. The Quinoa Salad was of a good size and perfectly refreshing, especialmente con el ceviche. El ceviche was certainly the spiciest ceviche I’ve ever had—in a very good way that had my nose-holes and my skin-holes watering as much as my mouth-hole. This was also the first ceviche we’ve seen that didn’t come with chips. (Our sweet, adorable waitress offered a side of chips, but they turned out to be a handful of the cheapest taco chips money can buy, for which they charged us $2—¡ridículo!) I guess los peruanos don’t do it that way. Instead el ceviche came with tiny sides of crunchy corn, hominy, and a little mashed sweet potato, all of which were very good and cevichelarily complimentary. Eduardo approved inmediatamente and, only having erstwhile known ceviches mexicanos, was delighted to discover esta diferencia de costumbres entre los ceviches regionales, ¿the culinary equivalent of a dialect distinction? On that note, los peruanos also apparently do an excellent paella equivalent (Arroz con Mariscos [i.e. pescado, pulpo, cucarachas del mar {aka camarones}]). Again, the flavor and spice here is just lovely. Combine that with the heat and humidity of Austin in the summertime (we opted to sit on the patio beneath the Peruvian flag) and you’ve got yourself some serious sweatballs on your hands (her words, not mine). For this reason I especially appreciated that the waitress brought a nice big bottle of water for our table so that we could hydrate to our hearts’ contentment without having to wait or be waited on. (The bottle itself was very much to our liking. It reminded my dear companion of something she'd see overseas. It looks a lot like one we have at home... see WATERPIC.) This approach speaks to the service overall, which was just how I like it: attentive without being intrusive. Let me eat in peace with my dear companion whom I love so dearly and with whom I so dearly love to eat! She and I have shared many a marvelous meal, and this was surely...

Returning from Miami where I binge on Peruvian Ceviche to take my girlfriend here for Valentine's day probably doesn't shed light on a favorable comparison for Austin Peruvian food... but here I go.

Do not get the Ceviche. The Ceviche was the worst in my life, so much so, that I have now made my own Ceviche twice in the past 2 days, as I've realized to have Ceviche in Austin, I'm left with this. (El Alma has the best Mexican style Ceviche in Austin). I ordered two seafood dishes, and was very disappointed with both. You don't put ground up mussels in ceviche mixto... it ruins the flavor, and leaves lingering seafood/mussel taste in your mouth...

This being said, why 3 stars? The service was ok... it was busy, but I liked the family style, and I liked all my servers, as if they were all helping each other on a busy night as a family. Everything else, non seafood, was amazing! I looked at other people's dishes with envy! My appetizers were great, and all the beef and steak dishes looked perfect.

2 words: Pisco Sour. $5. I WILL go back to this place, time and time again. I hope that they read this, and fix the Ceviche. Also, I will never buy Ceviche made with Tilapia again. Personally, my batches are being tried with Orange Roughy and Mahi Mahi currently.

The music was great! The atmosphere was romantic, and fun, very lively! I highly recommend going here, I just highly recommend not going for seafood!

The prices are very good. For $10 each person can eat well. $5 Pisco Sours! They were actually the best Pisco Sours I've had, like all of the attention that I would have liked given to my Ceviche in cutting the fish smaller was poured into my Pisco Sour, made with love!

Again, highly recommend going here! (Just don't order seafood!)

PS. Looking at the menu to remember what I ordered to recommend: Anticuchos Appetizer was amazing: Beef Heart kabob, Huancaina cheese sauce and potatoes on the side- amazing! Papa a la Huancaina appetizer (potatoes with traditional cheese sauce) is great, you can't go wrong.

Bistec a la Pobre - I wish I had ordered this. Everyone around me got that, or Lomo Saltado. They were all happy as I...