PURO PERU — Restaurant in Elizabeth

Everything that needs to be said about this restaurant began from the start. I ordered 5 dishes for pick-up at 7:15PM with an hour wait time. I arrived at 8:10PM only to leave at 9:08PM. This alone was a headache as standing for almost an hour with no room was very uncomfortable. Once I got to my job and handed out all of the food, there was no napkins, spoons, forks or knives. Another disappointment for an already long awaited order. The presentation at most was.. ehh. with the chaufa almost being too light of a color and eggs? Where? There was more green onion and peppers than eggs on the rice. 2 star chaufa. As for the green spagetti, the consistency was close but the taste was off after the first bite. More salt maybe? I’m Peruvian myself and green spaghetti is my favorite dish so this was a bummer. The steak was seasoned alright but it couldn’t save the spaghetti. 2.5 star green spaghetti. The fried chicken was the ugliest in presentation with a sprinkle of grease that seemed old by looking at the skin of the chicken. Since I had to wait an hour, the French fries were already stale. No point in eating the white rice at that point. 2 Star pollo broster. Finally, the anticuchos. It was surprisingly the best of all the dishes regardless of it being cold and cooked unevenly (I was never asked how I want the meat cooked). The portion was regular and the seasoning was decent along with the green sauce. Corn and potatoes were cooked thoroughly. The chicha morada was a little lemony BUT it was not half bad and I’ve definitely had worst in better places. Overall, it’s a Peruvian restaurant.. I guess. The space inside is VERY small so be warned on large parties to be seated. The service of the cashier was very friendly and thoughtful so I’ll give props where it’s due. The flavor is just not up there with better restaurants such as Carbonazo, El tiburon or even Hugo’s in linden. Maybe in the future things will change...

I went on a Thursday as I was taking my lunch from work with a coworker (who is not Peruvian), we passed by this restaurant and decided to grab a quick lunch (menu del dia). First of all we waited 45min for our to go order and we were unfortunately very disappointed since other people got there later and were served first (also menu del dia). There was someone sitting there eating, whom I'm not sure if he was one of the managers or owners and heard when I kept asking how long more it would take because we needed to get back to work and we noticed the poor waitress who was really nice and pleasant kept getting nervous, that other person never approached or said anything to at least let us know why our order was so delayed. After we got bock to work to eat out now "after our lunch time" lunch, the yuca tasted like it was left in the freezer outside of a bag and then fried, it was an unpleasant taste, the aguadito was very watery....not a good...

I called ahead to place a simple order (just an arroz chaufa) and was told it would be ready in 30 minutes. I arrived about 25 minutes later, only to be met with attitude from the woman at the front for being "too early." I didn’t complain or say anything, I just waited and understood they were bus, but the attitude felt unnecessary. I ended up waiting another 20 minutes. When I finally got my food, there were no utensils or sauce included, and surprisingly, no aji. I’ve never been to a Peruvian spot that doesn’t automatically include it. As for the arroz chaufa, it was just okay. Nothing memorable, it was plain. Between the service and the lack of basics, is safe to say I won’t be...